Trump revives debunked claim against Ilhan Omar
U.S. President Donald Trump has revived an allegation about Rep. Ilhan Omar that has been debunked for nearly a decade
WASHINGTON (MNTV) – U.S. President Donald Trump has revived an allegation about Rep. Ilhan Omar that has been debunked for nearly a decade, accusing the Minnesota Democrat of marrying her brother to commit immigration fraud.
Trump reposted the rumor on X and Truth Social, using it to attack her background, political stance, and Muslim identity in a language critics say is designed to inflame bigotry rather than engage in fact.
The allegation dates back to 2016, when Omar first ran for the Minnesota state legislature.
It originated on an online Somali community forum called SomaliSpot before being amplified by the conservative blog Powerline.
Bloggers claimed that Omar’s 2009 civil marriage to a British citizen, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, was actually a fraudulent union with a biological sibling. No birth records, immigration files, family documents, or credible testimony have ever supported that accusation.
Snopes, a fact-checking site, investigated the claim extensively in 2016 and again in 2019.
The organization found no evidence that Elmi was related to Omar, and noted that Elmi was already a legal U.K. resident who returned to Britain immediately after the marriage ended.
That directly undermines the theory that he needed a U.S. marriage to obtain immigration benefits. Snopes also contacted Powerline blogger Scott Johnson in 2019, but he was unable to provide any documentation to substantiate his original claims.
Omar has repeatedly denied the rumor, calling it “absurd and offensive.” She has explained her marital history in detail. Her marriage to Elmi had ended in divorce in 2011. Omar later married Ahmed Hirsi, with whom she shares three children, before the couple divorced in 2019. In 2020, she married Tim Mynett, a political consultant and entrepreneur.
Trump’s latest comments recycle a rumor consistently rejected by fact-checkers, immigration law experts, and journalists. Omar’s refugee documents from 1995, shown to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, listed her as the youngest of seven children, with no one named Ahmed Nur Said Elmi appearing anywhere in the family record.
U.S. immigration rules also undercut the central allegation: siblings of U.S. citizens do not gain citizenship through marriage, and Elmi did not attempt to stay in the country long-term.
Despite years of evidence contradicting the rumor, Omar has remained a recurring target of misinformation campaigns, especially attacks focused on her faith, immigrant roots, and progressive politics.
Her rise from a Kenyan refugee camp to Congress continues to fuel politically motivated falsehoods amplified by high-profile figures, including, once again, the sitting president.
Yet Trump continues to recycle the falsehood, using it to smear a lawmaker he has long targeted with misinformation.
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