Mogadishu (Somalia Today) — Somalia’s Al-Qaeda-linked group Al-Shabaab has rejected fresh claims from U.S. President Donald Trump that Somali residents of Minnesota funnel money to the insurgents, accusing Washington of scapegoating a vulnerable diaspora community to drive a broader immigration crackdown.
In an English-language statement dated November 27, the group says it “categorically rejects” what it calls “baseless accusations” that Somali Minnesotans finance its fighters. It argues that Trump’s rhetoric aims to portray the entire community “as a threat”.
The rebuttal came hours after Trump used a new social media broadside to argue that migrants from Somalia and other “Third World countries” fuel “social dysfunction” in the United States. He again called for what he describes as “reverse migration”.
Trump’s Minnesota claims
Trump has already said he will end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Somalis in Minnesota, a humanitarian shield the Biden administration had extended through March 2026.
In a late-night post on Truth Social, he branded the state a “hub of fraudulent money laundering activity” and ordered TPS to end “effective immediately.”
In the same post, Trump claims that “billions of dollars are missing” and blames “Somali gangs”, without presenting detailed evidence.
Al-Shabaab, which the United States lists as a foreign terrorist organisation, says U.S. officials are “fueling hostility, discrimination and hate-filled rhetoric” against Somalis in Minnesota and across the country.
It accuses Trump of leaning on unproven fraud allegations and “sensational” media coverage to “whip up hatred” against Somali-Americans instead of tackling policy failures at home.
The statement says migrants and refugees “have become convenient scapegoats for every ill that afflicts America”. It calls claims that ordinary families in Minnesota bankroll the insurgency “inflammatory and unfounded”.
Immigration crackdown widens
Trump’s Minnesota broadside is part of a broader offensive against both irregular and legal migration. It comes after Wednesday’s National Guard shooting near the White House by an Afghan national, which left one soldier dead.
In a separate post, Trump said he wants to “permanently pause migration” from poorer nations. He vowed to seek the expulsion of millions of migrants by revoking their legal status, again presenting “reverse migration” as his goal.
Since then, officials have halted most Afghan immigration applications and begun re-examining green cards issued to nationals of 19 “countries of concern”. They have also signalled that other forms of humanitarian protection could face new limits.
Rights groups and legal scholars, however, say the measures risk tearing apart mixed-status families and undermining due process.
Meanwhile, security experts warn that sweeping reviews of long-settled cases could swamp an immigration system already struggling with large backlogs.
Fraud probes and fear
Trump’s language on Minnesota lands as federal prosecutors and state officials probe large welfare-fraud schemes, including the Feeding Our Future scandal, which saw hundreds of millions of dollars stolen from child nutrition programmes.
A conservative City Journal article and follow-on pieces in pro-Israel and right-leaning outlets claim that some stolen funds from Minnesota fraud cases moved through hawala networks to Somalia, where Al-Shabaab allegedly captured a cut through extortion and informal taxes.
A separate TV report citing federal investigators said Minnesota faces one of the largest welfare-fraud waves in U.S. history.
It suggested that “some of the stolen money may have ended up in the hands of Al-Shabaab”, while stressing that inquiries are ongoing and evidence remains limited.
However, a Minnesota Reformer commentary by a Somali-American fraud investigator called that coverage “sensational”.
It warned that loose claims risk fuelling collective blame against Somali Minnesotans instead of helping prosecutors build solid cases.
Al-Shabaab has seized on those tensions. It says Trump has “weaponised unverified and politicised media reports” to justify punishing Somalis with legal status in Minnesota.
The group argues that Washington is “exporting its own governance failures” by pointing to fraud cases while, in its view, ignoring “the role of U.S. policies in Somalia’s continued instability”.
Diaspora and regional stakes
Minnesota hosts the largest Somali community in the United States. Tens of thousands of Somali-Americans live in the Twin Cities and surrounding areas, running shops, transport firms, halal groceries, and media outlets while sending money back home.
Those remittances are a lifeline for families in Somalia and a pillar of the country’s fragile economy.
Community leaders fear that talk of “terror funding” will scare U.S. banks, disrupt legitimate transfers, and push more money into informal channels that are harder to monitor.
At the same time, mosque officials and local politicians report a spike in harassment since Trump’s posts.
They warn that branding Minnesota’s Somali community as a terror-financing hub could fuel hate crimes and deepen mistrust of law enforcement.
On the other hand, Somalia’s government, which depends on U.S. funding and military support to fight Al-Shabaab, has not publicly commented on Trump’s remarks or the group’s rebuttal.
Officials in Mogadishu privately worry that the Minnesota controversy could complicate security cooperation and choke the remittance flows that many families rely on.
For now, Al-Shabaab’s statement appears aimed as much at its own base as at Washington.
By casting Trump’s accusations as an attack on Somalis everywhere, the group is trying to present itself as defender of a global diaspora under siege — even as it continues an insurgency that has killed thousands of Somali civilians.
