‘This is My Country’: Somalis in Maine are Angered, Insulted by Trump’s Scorn

By Brian MacQuarrie Globe Staff

December 7, 2025

People participated in afternoon prayers at the Lewiston/Auburn Islamic Center on Saturday. The Somali community is concerned by recent statements by President Trump. Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff

LEWISTON, Maine — Saleh Mahamud, an imam in this mid-Maine city, finished his noontime prayers and pointed to a rear window and door in a mosque that serves the religious needs of Lewiston’s large Somali population.

Gunshots pierced both the window and door in 2017, he said. And now, eight years after that frightening incident during President Trump’s first term, the estimated 6,000 Somalis who seek a better life in Lewiston are reeling once again.

This time, instead of bullets defiling their sacred space, they are recoiling from Trump’s xenophobic rhetoric last week that Somali immigrants are “garbage” who should return to their war-shredded country.

“People who hate Muslims, they now might feel they can do something because they have support from him,” said Mahamud, who has lived in Lewiston for more than 20 years.

“We expect the president to be better than that. He is dividing the people instead of uniting them,” Mahamud continued. “This is my country. My children were born here. And we are not going anywhere else.”

In busy shops and on snow-covered sidewalks, Somali immigrants who have lived in Lewiston for decades, graduated from its public schools, and built bustling businesses here said repeatedly that they have been stunned by Trump’s remarks.

The president’s tirade has left them angry, anxious, and in disbelief that Somalis everywhere in the United States — new arrivals and longtime citizens, the hard-working and the less fortunate — are being disparaged as a whole.

“I was deeply offended and shocked that he would target an entire group of American citizens,” said Safiya Khalid, 29, a former Lewiston city councilor who was the first Somali resident to serve on the board.

“For him to dehumanize American citizens is unheard of and un-American,” said Khalid, who immigrated to the United States as a refugee at age 6. “There are people out there who are filled with hate and would take his message, unfortunately, and may act on it.

During a televised Cabinet meeting last Tuesday, Trump denigrated Somalis generally as he spoke about pandemic-related fraud in Minnesota, which allegedly implicated some Somali immigrants and bilked the state of tens of millions of dollars.

“When they come from hell and they complain and do nothing but bitch, we don’t want them in our country,” Trump said.

Vice President J.D. Vance pounded the table in agreement, and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt praised the remarks as an “epic moment.”

Previously, Trump had said he wants to end temporary protected status for Somali refugees, who are allowed to remain in the United States under the program until they can return home safely. The country remains in the grip of a long civil war.

“They’re trying to use a few bad apples, which every group has, and demonize an entire group of people,” Khalid said.

A rally has been scheduled for Saturday to support the city’s Somalis. Its organizers said in an announcement that the community is ”hurting after the racist and dehumanizing attacks against Somali Americans.”

“This moment demands courage, solidarity, and love. We refuse to be silent,” they added.

The vast majority of Somali immigrants in Lewiston, a city of about 39,000 people, either are citizens or have green cards, Khalid said. Their presence, she added, has buoyed the economy of what had been a faltering former mill city when they began arriving in the late 1990s.

However, as their numbers grew, so did racial and cultural tensions in what historically had been a largely Franco-American community.

In 2002, Mayor Laurier Raymond urged Somali leaders in an open letter to discourage further migration to Lewiston because of a projected strain on social services. In 2003, a white supremacist group staged a rally here, although the protest attracted only a few dozen people compared with a counterdemonstration of about 4,000.

And in 2006, a frozen pig’s head was tossed into the Lewiston/Auburn Islamic Center, where Mahamud serves as imam.

Since that time, many Somalis said, the city has been a welcoming and tolerant place to plant roots, raise a family, and live in peace.

But now, they said, Trump’s rhetoric has rekindled a sense of anxiety.

“Some people will run with this,” said Ifraax Saciid-Ciise, 41, the founder of a nonprofit organization that aids immigrants. “They’ll say, ‘Look at our president. He has the same thinking as us.’ They’ll feel more empowered.”

Somali community leader Ifraax Saciid-Ciise at her parents store in Lewiston. She said of the president's remarks: “Some people will run with this."

Somali community leader Ifraax Saciid-Ciise at her parents store in Lewiston. She said of the president's remarks: “Some people will run with this."Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff

“It’s just wild to me that he doesn’t consider us as someone he’s representing. He looks at us as not American,” said Saciid-Ciise, who came to Lewiston as a child and graduated from Lewiston High School and the University of Maine.

Lewiston Mayor Carl Sheline has assailed Trump’s remarks, calling them “shameful and inaccurate” in a written statement he released last week,

“Here, Somali entrepreneurs are business owners and hard workers, creating jobs and strengthening our local economy,” Sheline said. “Their active role within our city has been instrumental in Lewiston’s revitalization, making such rhetoric not only cruel but clearly false.”

For a city still recovering from a mass shooting in 2023 that killed 18 people and injured 13 others, the president’s attack opened new, emotional wounds. But despite their anger, several Somalis said, they continue to believe in the promise of America.

“I don’t think Trump’s comments reflect the majority of Americans,” said Abas Shidad, 21, after leading a dozen boys, ages 6 to 10, in prayer and religious instruction at the mosque.

But he is concerned that the rhetoric could endanger Somalis living in rural areas of the country, where Trump is more popular. “He’s going out of his way to incite violence,” Shidad said.

Many Somali American citizens in Lewiston, fearful of being stopped by federal immigration agents, now make sure they carry their passports in public, Saciid-Ciise said.

Her 63-year-old mother, Shukri Abasheikh, sat in the popular store she opened in 2006 and scoffed at Trump’s assertion that Somali immigrants do not work hard.

“I work 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., seven days a week,” said the mother of eight children. “My first job here? I was a janitor at Lewiston High School.”

Customers called her “Mama” as they walked in to buy Somali food, chat about local events, and reconnect in a store awash with fresh foods such as tomatoes, peppers, and onions. Colorful hijabs, or women’s head coverings, adorned the faces of smiling mannequins.

Abdirizak Mahamoud, a scarf around his neck, stepped inside from sub-freezing weather on Lisbon Street. Mahamoud said he arrived in Lewiston in 2002, graduated from the University of Southern Maine, and has always regarded the United States as a beacon of human rights.

Trump’s tirade, he said, is the antithesis of that worldview.

“Send Somalis back? Why? That’s not the American ethic,” Mahamoud said. “Racists are not supposed to lead in this country. Where are the good Americans? We want them to stand up and say. ‘No, we don’t accept that.’ ”

Nearby, self-employed Mumina Isse echoed her community’s anger and bewilderment.

“He called us trash, but I’m working day and night and sleeping maybe five to six hours,” said Isse, a US citizen who emigrated here 30 years ago.

“But I am an American,” she added. “Nobody can change that.”

Brian MacQuarrie can be reached at brian.macquarrie@globe.com.