Trump tweets arrests of Somali ISIS sympathizers in Arizona: 'Get smart people!'
President Trump on Tuesday used the megaphone that is his Twitter feed to draw attention to the arrest of two Somali refugees in Arizona who authorities say were planning to travel from Tucson to Egypt to join the Islamic State.
Ahmed Mahad Mohamed, 21, and Abdi Yemani Hussein, 20, were charged with providing support to a terror group. They were arrested Friday at Tucson International Airport.
According to federal authorities, Mohamed had told an undercover FBI agent during social media exchanges that he was “thirsty” for the blood of disbelievers and that “the best wake up call is [for the] Islamic State to get victory or another 911.”
“Somali refugees arresed in Tucson on way to Egypt,” Trump tweeted. “They were in touch with an agent posing as a terrorist. One of them stated, ‘The best wake up call is Islamic State to get victory or another 9/11.’ Get smart people! #MAGA #KAG”
“#KAG” refers to Trump’s reelection slogan, “Keep America Great.”
The president also tagged “Fox & Friends,” typically an indication that the tweet was responding to a segment on his favorite cable news morning show.
The indictment did not indicate that the two men had committed any acts of violence in the United States.
A day earlier, a California teenager who had been linked by his Instagram posts to white supremacist literature opened fire at the Gilroy Garlic Festival, killing three attendees. Trump addressed the killings in remarks Monday, expressing sympathy for the victims of the “wicked murderer.”
He hasn’t commented on the political motivations of the attacker.
The missive comes on the heels of Trump’s attacks against four Democratic congresswomen of color, who he suggested should “go back” to their home countries. One of the four, Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., is a Somali-born Muslim; the other three were born in the United States.
Earlier this week, one of Trump’s leading supporters, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., made a sardonic offer to buy Omar a plane ticket to visit her home country to learn to be more grateful for living in the United States.
“I’m willing to contribute to buy her a ticket to go visit Somalia,” Paul told Breitbart News. “I think she can look and maybe learn a little bit about the disaster that is Somalia.”
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