Squad member Ilhan Omar compares Trump campaign speeches to ‘Klan rallies’

Democrat congresswoman was singled out for attacks by Donald Trump in several of his rallies during the campaign

Democrat representative Ilhan Omar slammed what she called the “bullying” by President Donald Trump during his campaign trail and compared his events to “Ku Klux Klan gatherings”.

Speaking about the statements made by Mr Trump on the campaign trail in the past couple of months, Ms Omar told the Washington Post: “On a personal level, I have gotten accustomed to standing up to bullies in my life. And so, on a personal level, it hasn't really impacted me besides having my children be exposed to it, and for the last two months of this election cycle, waking up every single morning to text messages from my siblings asking if I was safe.

“He chose to speak about me at every single rally, it didn’t really matter where he was—sometimes multiple times in a day, as he had held his Klan rallies throughout the country,” she added.

The Ku Klux Klan, also known as the KKK or simply the Klan, is a white supremacist group formed after the abolition of slavery at the end of the Civil War in the 1860s. It primarily targets African Americans, although its members are largely opposed to immigrants, Jews, Muslims, Catholics, LGBTQ individuals and leftists as well. 

On several occasions, controversial flags and signboards have been waived in Donald Trump’s rallies which received strong criticism. In a recent MAGA (Make America Great Again) rally in Washington, a signboard saying “coming for blacks, Indians" was called out during live coverage by Fox News. 

Mr Trump himself has been attacking Ms Omar and other representatives of colour routinely. In his Minnesota rally on 30 September, sharing a xenophobic comment about Ms Omar, he said: "Then she tells us how to run our country, can you believe it? How the hell did Minnesota elect her?

“What the hell is wrong with you people—right? What the hell happened?”

The crowd, in response to Mr Trump’s provocation, chanted: “Lock her up!”

Democrats in the House of Representatives, joined by four Republicans, formally condemned Mr Trump In 2019 after he shared a series of racist tweets telling the four representatives known as The Squad – all young women of colour, including Ms Omar and Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez – that they should "go back" to where they came from.