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U.S. President Donald Trump declared Representative Ilhan Omar’s seat “conceded” by Democrats over federal court filings referring to her as Ilhan Nur Said Elmi, a name Omar has denied is hers.
Prosecutors referred to the Democrat running for reelection in Minnesota as “Ilhan Nur Said Elmi, a/k/a Ilhan Abdullahi Omar” in a federal court filing submitted Wednesday that was obtained by Newsweek. Omar pushed back the next day, saying in a post on X: “Whenever the news turns bad, this creep reaches for one name: mine. So let’s make it crystal clear. My name has always been Ilhan Omar.”
On Friday, during a speech in Fort Myers, Florida, Trump said Omar’s seat was conceded because she allegedly used a fraudulent name to take her congressional oath. “The Dumocrat Party has just conceded the seat of the former Ilhan Omar from the lovely country of Somalia,” he said.
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There has been no formal announcement from Democrats conceding Omar’s seat – she remains a sitting member of Congress.
Trump’s latest comments came after he had already demanded Omar resign in a post on Truth Social which repeated claims she previously married her brother, which Omar has vehemently denied.
He also said at a rally in Iowa: “She used a fake name to be sworn in. I assume she must immediately have to resign from Congress.” He later declared: “The Republicans have just picked up a seat in the House.”
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Saturday slammed Trump in a statement for what he called “unhinged personal attacks and baseless accusations.”
“We aggressively oppose the weaponization of the federal government against Congresswoman Omar, who continues to work hard on behalf of her constituents in Minnesota with strength and dignity,” Jeffries said.
Newsweek has contacted Omar’s office and the White House, via email outside of normal office hours, for comment.
What Trump Has Said About Omar Leaving Congress
During the Florida rally, Trump told gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds and Senator Ashley Moody to inform House Speaker Mike Johnson that Democrats had surrendered Omar's seat.
The day before, when he posted about the court filing on Thursday, Trump said: "It was just revealed that Ilhan Omar’s name is not Ilhan Omar, the one she used to get elected and sworn into Congress, but rather, it’s an entirely different name, Ilhan Nur Said Elmi, and that her last name is, incredibly, also the exact name of her brother, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, the person they said she married and had children with.”
In Iowa, Trump told supporters Omar has “been a scammer for a long time. I’m pretty good at watching that stuff, and she comes from a non-country, basically. Somalia has no government, has no nothing. ... All they do is run around shooting each other. Then she comes over here. The Constitution gives me absolute right to freedom of speech.”
Ilhan Omar Responds
Omar’s office has denied Trump’s claims, with a spokesperson telling Fox News Digital: "This is completely false. Ilhan Omar is her real name."
After the Department of Justice (DOJ)’s filing on Wednesday, Omar said in a post on X: "The pedophile protection party’s president is laundering right-wing conspiracy theories through the most corrupt DOJ in American history.”
She insisted that her name is Ilhan Omar, adding “maybe you should focus on what your VP’s real name is,” referring to Vice President JD Vance changing his name several times throughout his life. His legal name is James David Vance, but he was born James Donald Bowman before changing it to James David Hamel, keeping the initials "J.D." after his mother remarried and he was adopted by his stepfather, Robert Hamel.
Before graduating from Yale Law School in 2013, Vance legally changed his surname to Vance in honor of his grandmother, Bonnie Vance, who helped raise him and whom he credited as a major influence in his life.
Omar also addressed the marriage allegation during an interview with MS NOW's Chris Hayes on Wednesday. The congresswoman traced the rumor to a Somali blog post later embraced by right-wing conspiracy theorists citing "random people" who claimed she had introduced them to Elmi.
"They just kind of went and found random people who were like, 'She introduced us. She introduced him to us and said he was her brother,' which is, you know, insane," Omar said. "I mean, I don't know those people that they talk about." Asked directly whether she was related to Elmi, Omar replied: "Not to my knowledge."
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Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, a British citizen who was married to Omar from 2009 through 2017, is currently listed as a doctoral researcher at the University of Bristol's School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies. He also previously served as a visiting scholar at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa and as an affiliate researcher at the British Institute in Eastern Africa in Kenya. Newsweek has broken down everything we know about him here.
Federal Raid Reignites Scrutiny of Ilhan Omar
There have long been tensions between Trump and Omar, the first and only Somali-born lawmaker to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives, with Trump targeting her Somali heritage since her first term in office.
But earlier this month, just a few weeks before the midterm contests that will determine control of the House and the Senate, Homeland Security officers carried out a raid at Omar’s Washington, D.C. residence.
The Department of Homeland Security said at the time that agents had executed a judicially authorized search warrant in the Washington, D.C., area related to an ongoing federal criminal investigation but provided no other details.
Trump said he had “nothing to do” with the search but Omar and other Democratic allies have argued the investigation is politically motivated. Omar said she believes President Donald Trump has "everything to do with it," pointing to his longstanding attacks on her and his ongoing calls for her to be deported.
In Jeffries' most recent statement, he said: “After lawlessly sending his violent DHS machine to Congresswoman Omar’s home earlier this month, the President is once again peddling sick propaganda against her at a moment when political violence is surging.”
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Matthew Robinson and Trevor Davies.
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