In a week marked by political acrimony and personal attacks, former President Donald Trump reignited controversy by targeting Representative Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) with a barrage of criticism and the resurrection of a long-debunked conspiracy theory about her personal life. The renewed hostilities came on the heels of a razor-thin House vote that narrowly blocked a Republican-led resolution to censure Omar over her remarks about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. The episode has once again thrust Omar, one of Congress’s most high-profile progressive voices, into the national spotlight, highlighting the escalating tensions and deepening divides within American politics.
On September 18, 2025, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 214 to 213 to reject a censure resolution against Omar. The motion, spearheaded by Republican Representative Nancy Mace of South Carolina, sought to formally reprimand Omar and strip her of her committee assignments. Mace accused Omar of “smearing Charlie Kirk and implying he was to blame for his own murder,” referencing Omar’s comments and a video she reposted on social media after Kirk’s assassination at a Utah campus event on September 10. The resolution, however, failed after four Republicans broke ranks and joined all Democrats in opposition, a move that drew swift condemnation from right-wing commentators and members of their own party.
The day after the vote, Trump took to his Truth Social platform and to reporters aboard Air Force One to escalate the rhetoric. He called for Omar’s impeachment, despite the fact that members of Congress cannot technically be impeached but can be expelled. “I think she’s terrible. I think she should be impeached,” Trump told reporters, according to multiple outlets including Reuters and TNND. Drawing a parallel to his own two impeachments, Trump added, “If she got censored, that’s great. If she got impeached, that’s even better. They impeached me twice for nothing… She should be impeached and it should happen fast.”
But Trump’s attacks did not stop at calls for congressional discipline. He criticized Omar’s country of birth, Somalia, painting a bleak picture of its governance and living conditions. “Ilhan Omar’s Country of Somalia is plagued by a lack of central Government control, persistent Poverty, Hunger, Resurgent Terrorism, Piracy, decades of Civil War, Corruption, and pervasive Violence. 70% of the population lives in extreme Poverty, and widespread Food Insecurity,” Trump posted. He went on to question, “Do they have a president? Do they have a council? Do they have anything? Do they have police?... They come from a place with nothing, nothing, no, anything, and then they tell us how to run our country.”
Perhaps most incendiary was Trump’s decision to revive a conspiracy theory that has dogged Omar for years: the allegation that she married her brother to gain U.S. citizenship. “Wasn’t she the one that married her brother in order to gain Citizenship??? What SCUM we have in our Country,” Trump wrote, as reported by Reuters and other outlets. This claim, first circulated online during Omar’s tenure in the Minnesota state legislature, has been thoroughly investigated by major news organizations and independent fact-checkers, none of whom have found credible evidence to support it. Omar herself has consistently denied the rumor, calling it “absolutely false and ridiculous” and providing a detailed account of her marital history to refute it.
The censure effort and Trump’s subsequent remarks have exposed rifts not only between Democrats and Republicans but also within the GOP itself. The four Republicans who voted with Democrats to table the censure resolution—Reps. Mike Flood (Neb.), Jeff Hurd (Colo.), Tom McClintock (Calif.), and Cory Mills (Fla.)—faced a torrent of criticism from right-wing commentators and from Rep. Mace, who accused Mills of sending her a threatening message, a charge he denied. Mills, for his part, argued that while Omar’s comments were “vile, abhorrent, [and] evil,” he believed in “open dialogue” and cautioned against making Omar a “free speech martyr.” He later called for Omar to be investigated for immigration fraud, referencing the same unsubstantiated allegations Trump had amplified.
Rep. Mike Flood, meanwhile, referred Omar for further investigation by the House Ethics Committee, listing a series of statements and incidents that he claimed reflected poorly on the House. In a statement, Rep. Tom McClintock stressed the importance of free speech, arguing that “hateful speech is still protected speech” and warning that the House had “already gone too far down this road” with formal censures. Rep. Hurd, who characterized Omar’s statements as “ghoulish and evil,” defended his vote as the right decision, saying, “Censure should be reserved for the most serious offenses. And I think exercising one’s first amendment rights, however wrong-headedly, is not deserving of censure.”
Omar, for her part, responded by thanking her colleagues for defending free speech rather than personal loyalty. “Four Republicans didn’t join Democrats to protect me, they joined to defend the first amendment and sanity,” she wrote on X (formerly Twitter). In another post, she declared, “This country stands for freedom and right now what people are doing is totally unacceptable.”
The fallout from the failed censure vote was immediate and intense. Rep. Mace and a chorus of right-wing influencers accused the four dissenting Republicans of siding with Democrats to “protect Ilhan Omar,” calling them “cowards” and “RINOs” and demanding primary challenges. The episode also prompted renewed scrutiny of House disciplinary procedures, with some, like Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), suggesting that Democrats had set the precedent for removing members from committees and that Republicans were merely responding in kind.
The controversy surrounding Omar is hardly new. As reported by HOL and other outlets, Trump has repeatedly singled out the Minnesota congresswoman since her election in 2019, often using charged language that critics say is xenophobic or racist. In 2019, he told Omar and three other congresswomen of color to “go back” to the countries they came from, a remark widely condemned across the political spectrum. His supporters echoed the attack with chants of “send her back” at campaign rallies. The following year, Trump suggested Omar should be investigated for immigration fraud, and he has continued to question her loyalty to the United States while disparaging Somalia.
The latest episode underscores the intensely personal and often vitriolic nature of contemporary political conflict. Rather than focusing on policy differences, the debate has shifted to personal attacks, conspiracy theories, and efforts to delegitimize political opponents. As the 2026 midterm elections loom, the battle over speech, loyalty, and the boundaries of political discourse shows no sign of abating.
For now, Omar remains in Congress, bolstered by a narrow majority and the support of colleagues who, whatever their views on her rhetoric, defended her right to speak freely. Whether the storm will subside or intensify in the coming months remains an open question, but the events of this week have left little doubt about the stakes—and the passions—involved.
