Far-left Squad member Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) is apoplectic over President Donald Trump freezing all foreign funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Speaking at a press conference outside USAID’s headquarters in Washington, she said that the U.S. international aid agency’s “essential” programming kept her family fed and safe when they lived in a Dabaab refugee camp for four years at the outbreak of the Somali civil war. (From there, the U.S. granted Omar refugee status and ultimately naturalized citizenship, a process which involved Omar taking an oath renouncing all allegiances.)
Omar, the first Somali American congresswoman, has a record of advancing a Somalia First agenda while in office, seeming to view her job in Congress as representing the interests of her home country. “While I am in Congress, no one will take Somalia’s sea,” Omar once declared in Somali, according to an English translation. “The lady you sent to Congress is on this, and she is as cognizant of this interest as you are.” Omar, who was addressing her Somali American constituents in response to a dispute over Somalia’s waters, reportedly said, “The U.S. government will do what we ask it to do. We should have this confidence in ourselves as Somalis.”
So it’s no wonder why she went ballistic about USAID’s funding freezing. Through USAID, the United States is the single largest donor of humanitarian aid in Somalia. Since fiscal year 2022, USAID has sent Somalia massive sums of taxpayer money, nearly $2.3 billion to date, including direct cash transfers to Somali families in need, who receive monthly payments and vouchers for a period of time.
As recently as December, USAID dispensed another $29 million to help feed 7 million Somalis facing food insecurity. The latest USAID funding came as part of two five-year programs aimed at assisting 880,000 households in south central Somalia.