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'The promised land': Somali Americans flip Trump’s attack into a global meme

After Trump calls Somalis 'garbage', social media has been flooded with memes joking that Minnesota is their ancestral homeland
An AI-generated image of Somalis as the pilgrims arriving in the US on the Mayflower in 1620, created by a Somali-American social media user (Screenshot/X/@SonOfSomali)
By Maysa Mustafa
Published date: 4 December 2025 19:46 GMT | Last update: 4 days 2 hours ago

After US President Donald Trump called Somali Americans “garbage” and told them to “go back”, they flipped the script online by turning his rant into a viral joke about Minnesota being their true homeland.

Earlier this week, Trump launched into a harsh tirade against Somali immigrants in Minnesota. He called them - and specifically congressional representative Ilhan Omar - “garbage”, declared that he didn’t want them in the country, and insisted that Somali immigrants “contribute nothing”, their homeland “stinks”, and urged them to return to where they came from. 

“They contribute nothing. I don’t want them in our country, I’ll be honest with you,” he said. “We’re going to go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country.”

“These are people who do nothing but complain,” he continued. “They complain, and from where they came from, they got nothing … When they come from hell, and they complain and do nothing but bitch, we don’t want them in our country. Let them go back to where they came from and fix it.”

Somali Americans and the broader diaspora have embraced a viral joke that the state was “promised” to them millennia ago, and they are indigenous to Minnesota - a playful nod to the rhetoric used to justify Israel’s claim to Palestine.

All social media platforms have been flooded with AI images of Somalis as American figures - from Abraham Lincoln to Christopher Columbus - or recreated historical events.

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“In 1620, 102 Somalis left home in search of the promised land,” a Somali social media user posted on X. “They didn’t land on Plymouth Rock but the rock landed on them. Thanks to local Indigenous people, we survived our first winter. Somalis are the fabric of this nation."

Many posts jokingly claimed that Lincoln’s grandfather was Somali. 

“The Somali grandfather of Abraham Lincoln, a noble warrior-prince from the ancient Horn of Africa," one social media user posted on X. Alongside Benjamin Franklin & Thomas Jefferson, signed the important documents declaring independence from British Rule and the promised lands of Minnesota to the people of Somalia." 

Others said that the founding fathers of the US were Somali themselves.

"In 1776, 56 Somali Americans met in Philadelphia’s Independence Hall to make a first of its kind Declaration of Independence," a social media user posted alongside an AI image of Somalis signing the document. "We declared all men equal, with life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all. Somali Americans are the fabric of this nation.

Social media users have also joked about Somalis being the Native Americans. 

'Minnesota was promised 3,000 years ago'

The jokes are beyond US history, with Somali Americans riffing on the same ancestral-claim rhetoric that is often used to defend Israel’s occupation of Palestine. 

The line, "Minnesota was promised 3,000 years ago", has been used in many of the sarcastic posts and videos taking over social media platforms over the last week. 

"The only people who have the right to self-determination in Minnesota are Somalis," a Somali American said in a viral TikTok video. "Somalis have a cultural tie to the land. It was promised to us 3,000 years ago. We have the right to go back to our homeland." 

Another post reads: "Minnesota is the only state with Somalis and it’s surrounded by 47 others states who hate them. We are calling on Germany to give us 10 billion dollars and some nukes." 

One person joked about a Somali version of the pro-Israel lobbying group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee or Aipac, as it is commonly known, teasing that there is a "SAPAC" - the Somali American Public Affairs Committee.  

The humour has even reached the wider Somali diaspora, who now joke about flying to Minnesota for their “birthright” trip, much like the Jewish diaspora’s organised visits to Israel.

"Looking for flights from Germany to Minnesota after finding out that Minnesota is the land to us Somalis 3,000 years ago," a young Somali woman posted in a TikTok video, showing that she was booking a flight. 

Others posted fabricated verses from religious texts, mimicking far-right conservatives who cite the Bible as proof of Israel’s claim to occupied Palestine.


"Minnesota was promised to Somalis  3,000 years ago. Bible Matthew 17:21 Tora Leviticus 18:5," a post on X reads. 

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