The day after the State of the Union address, Trump posted on Truth Social about Representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, saying they “had the bulging, bloodshot eyes of crazy people, LUNATICS, mentally deranged and sick who, frankly, look like they should be institutionalized.” He then wrote: “When people can behave like that, and knowing that they are Crooked and Corrupt Politicians, so bad for our Country, we should send them back from where they came — as fast as possible.”
Both women are U.S. citizens. Omar fled Somalia and came to the United States as a child refugee; Tlaib was born and raised in Detroit, the daughter of Palestinian immigrant parents. House Democratic Caucus chair Pete Aguilar answered: “Where they come from is their districts.”
Omar and Tlaib had shouted “You have killed Americans!” during the speech, a reference to the deaths of Minnesota residents Renee Good and Alex Pretti, who were killed by federal immigration agents in January. Trump's response did not address that charge. Instead he attacked both women's appearance and mental health and invoked the “go back to where you came from” trope. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called the post “xenophobic” and “disgraceful,” and the Council on American-Islamic Relations called it racist.
The “send them back” rhetoric echoed Trump's 2019 posts saying Omar, Tlaib and other progressive congresswomen should “go back” and fix the places “from which they came.”
Correction (October 14, 2026): This entry previously dated the post to February 26, 2026; it was published on February 25, the day after the address, and the date has been corrected. It also described Omar as a naturalized citizen, said Tlaib had never lived outside the United States, said Omar's shout referred to constituents who “died during the administration,” and said the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission classifies “go back to where you came from” as racial harassment. The sources confirm that both are U.S. citizens, that Omar arrived as a child refugee and Tlaib was born in Detroit, and that the shout referred to the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents; the other details were not supported by the cited sources and have been removed.