President Donald Trump on Tuesday launched a blistering attack on Somali immigrants, saying they should be unwelcome in the United States as he pointed to Somalia’s long-standing instability.

His remarks came as a major fraud scandal in Minnesota has put the state’s Somali American community under heightened scrutiny.

Prosecutors say more than $1 billion in taxpayer funds was stolen through false billing for social services that did not exist, much of it linked to individuals within the state’s Somali American population.

The allegations have shaken Minnesota, home to one of the largest Somali communities in the country.

Speaking at a cabinet meeting, Trump described Somalia in stark terms, saying the country “stinks” and asserting, without evidence, that Somali immigrants pose a threat to the United States. “Their country’s no good for a reason,” he said. “We don’t want them in our country.”

Trump, who built his political rise in part by spreading false conspiracies about former President Barack Obama’s birthplace, has long deployed rhetoric aimed at minority groups and warned of the nation’s demographic changes. “We’re at a tipping point,” he told his cabinet. “We’re going to go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country.”

He claimed Somali Americans “contribute nothing” and singled out Rep. Ilhan Omar, the Minnesota Democrat who immigrated from Somalia as a child. “Ilhan Omar is garbage. Her friends are garbage,” Trump said. “Let them go back to where they came from and fix it.”

Omar responded on X, calling Trump’s comments obsessive and saying she hoped he “gets the help he desperately needs.”

Last week, Trump ended deportation protections for Somali nationals that had been in place since 1991, when Somalia collapsed into civil conflict. The move is expected to affect thousands who have been living in the United States under special humanitarian rules.

Minnesota’s fraud investigation centers on schemes that involved claims of feeding children during the COVID-19 pandemic. Authorities say some organizations fabricated entire meal programs to siphon off federal funds.

The scandal has added political weight as Minnesota’s governor, Tim Walz, a Democrat, continues to face criticism from Republicans who say the state failed to catch the fraud sooner. Walz was also the Democratic nominee for vice president in last year’s election.

Trump separately ordered a halt to all visa issuance to Afghans last week after a deadly shooting in Washington involving an Afghan man who once worked with U.S. intelligence and later received asylum when the Taliban seized power.