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Trump ‘not at all’ concerned that his tweet triggered death threats against Ilhan Omar

The president's recent attacks on the Minnesota congresswoman have prompted a rise in violent threats against her life.

CREDIT: Adam Bettcher/Getty Images
CREDIT: Adam Bettcher/Getty Images

President Donald Trump made clear Monday that he was unconcerned about whether his recent actions and rhetoric against Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-MN) were dangerous and posed a threat to her wellbeing.

Speaking to a local news reporter in Omar’s home state of Minnesota, Trump shrugged off the congresswoman’s statement Sunday, in which she said that a video the president had posted to Twitter last week had caused an uptick in violent threats against her life.

Trump had tweeted an Islamophobic video that took Omar’s comments, made during a recent speech at the Council on American-Islamic Relations, out of context to make it sound as though she was indifferent to the 9/11 attacks. The video was interspersed with graphic footage of the planes hitting the World Trade Center. “We will never forget!” he tweeted alongside the video.

Tom Hauser of KSTP-TV asked Trump Monday if he had any second thoughts about the tweet given the death threats Omar received as a result.

“No, not at all,” Trump responded.

He then proceeded to attack Omar once again.

“Look, she’s been very disrespectful to this country,” Trump said. “She’s been very disrespectful, frankly, to Israel. She is somebody that doesn’t really understand, I think, life — real life, what it’s all about.”

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“It’s unfortunate,” he continued. “She’s got a way about her that’s very, very bad — I think — for our country. I think she’s extremely unpatriotic and extremely disrespectful to our country.”

Trump is no stranger to Islamophobic rhetoric. During his presidential campaign, then-candidate Trump suggested that Muslims should be put on a registry and argued after the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando that he was better for the LGBTQ community because he was more Islamophobic than Hillary Clinton. He has also pushed for the closure of all mosques and said he believes “Islam hates us.” As president, he has implemented multiple iterations of a Muslim travel ban.

Earlier this month, a New York man was arrested for threatening to kill Omar. According to the FBI, he said he loved Trump and “hates radical Muslims in our government.”