17/
The Somali refugees including Rep Ilhan Omar that Trump wants to deport fled:

• The genocidal dictator Reagan/Bush armed
• The civil war and power vacuum Clinton enabled
• The chaos Bush/Obama/Trump/Biden/Trump perpetuated

END 🧵

16/ Trump gave commanders authority to strike without White House approval, relaxed civilian protections. Al-Shabaab responded by seizing towns & setting up checkpoints into Mogadishu.

15/ TRUMP 2025 (2nd term): Campaigned on ending "forever wars." In Somalia? Over 100 airstrikes by August. 10x more than Biden's 10 strikes in all of 2024. His first military action as president (Feb 1, just 10 days in)? Somalia strikes.

14/
Biden (2021-2024): Reversed a Trump era troop withdrawal, redeployed soldiers, continued drone strikes.

13/
Trump (2017-21): 200+ airstrikes, more than Bush, Obama & Biden's first term combined. Gave commanders strike authority without White House approval. Stopped reporting civilian casualties.

12/
Obama designated all Al-Shabaab members targetable & counted "all military-age males in strike zones as combatants unless proven innocent posthumously."

11/
Obama (2009-17): Massively expanded drone warfare. 563 strikes vs Bush's 57. Between 384-807 civilians killed. In Somalia, 204 people killed in strikes in 2016 alone. 10x higher than any previous year.

10/
2006: As part of the US War on Terror George W Bush backed Ethiopian invasion to overthrow the Islamic Courts Union (the acting government at the time), this effectively helped embolden the terror group Al-Shabaab.

9/
1995: At age 12, Ilhan Omar + family had spent 4 years living in a refugee camp in Kenya and arrive in the United States as refugees. 2003-2006: CIA funds warlords hunting al-Qaeda in Somalia. Backfires; Islamic Courts Union defeats warlords, takes over Somalia.

8/
Oct 3, 1993: Battle of Mogadishu and "Black Hawk Down" incident. Clinton's mission to capture warlord Aidid went wrong. 18 US soldiers killed. 1,000+ Somali civilians killed. Clinton pulled out March 1994, leaving chaos and warlords in control.

7/
When the Cold War ended in 1989, the U.S. abandoned Barre leaving Somalia destroyed and in a state of civil war. In 1991 Rep Ilhan Omar and her family fled the country. Bush Sr sent troops for "humanitarian mission" in Dec 1992. Clinton inherited it, then shifted to hunting warlords.

6/
1989: As genocide raged, Republican operative Paul Manafort (later Trump's campaign chair) took $1M to "clean up Barre's reputation." His quote: "We all know Barre is a bad guy. We just have to make sure he is our bad guy."

5/
Ultimately, Barre played both sides of Cold War colonialism for money & power. Soviets gave him $930M (1969-77). He then switched to the US & got $650M+ (1978-91). He used superpower weapons to commit genocide. Total death toll: 200,000-250,000 civilians killed with American weapons (1980-91).

4/
1987-89: Barre's US-armed forces massacred 200,000 Isaaq civilians. A UN report called it genocide. In May 1988 (Reagan's last year), US jets leveled Hargeisa. 90% destroyed. Over 40,000 killed.

3/
The UN called Barre's regime "one of the worst human rights records in Africa." Reagan admin knew this. They kept funding anyway.

2/
Rep Ilhan Omar was born in Mogadishu, Somalia in 1982. Around that time, Reagan gave brutal Somali dictator Siad Barre hundreds of millions in military aid. By 1986, Somalia was one of the largest US aid recipients in Africa.