Tom Williams/Getty Images
Ahmed Elmi, the once-private figure at the center of decades of political controversy involving U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar, has suddenly re-entered the spotlight as his unexpected reappearance has coincided with a fresh wave of political attacks and misinformation about his past with the Minnesota congresswoman.
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Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, Omar's second husband, legally married her in 2009, and divorced in 2017. Over the years, that union has been cited repeatedly as fraudulent. In recent weeks, President Donald Trump and other conservative voices revived claims that Omar had married Elmi to help him enter the United States or that he was her biological brother, along with attacks on her birth country of Somalia.
Elmi has surfaced in South Africa, where he has been sharing fashion and travel content from Johannesburg. Once a refugee himself, Elmi studied at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom and pursued academic work. His Instagram account is now private, but many outlets have highlighted the fact that his bio reads, "A dirty dandy."
@ahmednelmi/Instagram
The relationship between Elmi and Omar has been weaponized in U.S. political discourse for years, especially by Trump and conservative commentators seeking to question Omar's citizenship, motives, and ties to her constituency. The most persistent claim, that Omar married Elmi to help him obtain U.S. residency or that he was her biological brother, has been repeatedly debunked by fact-checking outlets and public records.
At a rally in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, began discussing Omar, stating, "I love this Ilhan Omar, whatever the hell her name is. With her little turban. I love her. She comes in, does nothing but bitch... She comes from her country, where, I mean, it's considered about the worst country in the world... We oughtta get her the hell out. She married her brother in order to get in."
Omar responded on social media that "Trump's obsession with me is beyond weird. He needs serious help. Since he has no economic policies to tout, he's resorting to regurgitating bigoted lies instead," adding that he "continues to be a national embarrassment.
Trump’s obsession with me is beyond weird. He needs serious help. Since he has no economic policies to tout, he’s resorting to regurgitating bigoted lies instead.He continues to be a national embarrassment. https://t.co/sFsGpxOf7o
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) December 10, 2025
Trump's comments and Elmi's reappearance coincide with the President's recent harsh rhetoric towards Somali immigrants, Somali Americans, and by extension, figures like Omar who represent those communities. During a Cabinet meeting earlier this month, Trump repeatedly referred to Somali immigrants in the United States as "garbage," saying, "we don't want 'em in our country."
He linked the Somali people collectively to societal decline and implied they contributed nothing of value, and accused the large Somali community in Minnesota of scamming the state into letting them in. In subsequent speeches and rallies, Trump doubled down on these sentiments, describing Somalia as "filthy, dirty, disgusting, ridden with crime" and suggesting Somali Americans should "go back to where they came from and fix it."
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Tags: Ilhan omar, Trump, Somalia, Minnesota, South Africa, United Kingdom