Ilhan Omar accuses Trump of having dementia and says president is ‘obsessed’ with her

Ilhan Omar has suggested Donald Trump has dementia and is "obsessed" with her, after the president’s latest verbal attacks.

Trump took repeated shots at the Minnesota congresswoman in a speech Tuesday, and hours later she was sprayed with a ‘foul smelling liquid’ at a townhall meeting at which she railed against ICE's actions in Minneapolis.

“The man that attacked me was specifically upset that Trump's order to deport Somalis was not yielding enough deportations of Somalis,” Omar told reporters Wednesday.

“So he wanted to come and get the person he thought was protecting the Somalis. Well, we are protected by the Constitution.”

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Omar went on to suggest the abuse and threats she receives have been fuelled by Trump's repeated public vilification of her.

“I wouldn't be where I am at today, having to pay for security, having the government think about providing me security, if Donald Trump wasn't in office and if he wasn't so obsessed with me,” she said.

“It is ironic that just last night he was on stage moments before I was attacked, talking about me. And then when asked about my attack he said, 'I don't think about her'.

“Does he not remember? Is he suffering from dementia? How do you spend 20, 30 minutes on stage, obsessing over me, by name, multiple times, and then moments later say, 'Ilhan Omar, I don't think about her'.”

Omar said the number of threats she received "plummeted" under the Biden presidency but she now receives "the most death threats of any member of Congress."

“Every time the president of the United States has chosen to use hateful rhetoric to talk about me and the community that I represent, my death threats skyrocket,” she added.

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Trump has repeatedly hit out at Somali immigrants, who make up a significant minority of Minneapolis’s population. He has labeled them “garbage” and demanded that Omar – who was born in Somalia – be deported or face imprisonment.

Just hours before the attack, Trump had singled out the Minnesota congresswoman during a rally in Iowa on Tuesday, saying: “We need people to come in legally, but they have to show that they can love our country, not hate our country.

“They have to show that they can love our country. They have to be proud. Not like Ilhan Omar ... she comes from a country that’s a disaster. It’s not even a country.”

Following the attack on Omar, Trump suggested without evidence that the congresswoman had organised the incident herself, and that he wouldn't watch the video showing what happened.

When asked by an ABC reporter on Tuesday if he had seen the video, the president said: “No. I don’t think about her. I think she’s a fraud. I really don’t think about that. She probably had herself sprayed, knowing her.”

When asked again if he had seen the video, he said: “I haven’t seen it. No, no. I hope I don't have to bother.”