governor of minnesota Tim WaltzDemocrats criticized President Donald Trump on Thursday for describing the state’s Somali community as “trash.”

Walz said Trump’s disparaging remarks about the state’s Somali community were “unprecedented for an American president.”

“We have little kids going to school today and their president calls them trash,” the blue-state governor said.

Minnesota has the largest Somali population in the country, with approximately 84,000 people of Somali descent in the Minneapolis and St. Paul areas. Nearly 60% of the state’s Somalis were born in the United States, and 87% of foreign-born Somalis are naturalized U.S. citizens.

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Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz criticized President Donald Trump for describing the state’s Somali community as “trash.” (Getty Images)

Trump’s comments about Somalis in the state intensified after conservative news outlet City Journal claimed last month that taxpayer funds from defrauded government programs had been sent to the Somali militant group al-Shabab, an affiliate of al-Qaida.

The alleged ringleader of the fraud scheme is white, but dozens of people from the Somali community are reportedly involved.

On Thanksgiving Day, Trump calls Minnesota a ‘hub of scam money’ money laundering“And he’s terminating temporary protection status For Somalis in the state.

The president told a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday that he did not want Somali immigrants to remain in the United States

“We can go either way, but if we continue to bring trash into our country, we’re going to go down the wrong path,” he said.

During the meeting, he also made a call to a Somali-born member of the House of Representatives. Ilhan OmarMinnesota Democrats say “trash” and say Somalia “stinks.”

Gov. Tim Walz said President Donald Trump’s comments disparaging the state’s Somali community are “unprecedented for a president of the United States.” (Christopher Mark June/Anadolu, Getty Images)

On Wednesday, Trump said Minnesota had become a “hell” because of the Somali community.

“Somali people should leave here,” he told reporters. “They destroyed our country.”

The Trump administration has launched an immigration enforcement campaign targeting immigrants living in Minnesota’s Somali community.

“I hope we never see something like this where an entire group of people are demonized because of their race and ethnicity and they contribute to the economic, cultural vitality of this state,” Walz told reporters during a briefing on the state’s budget. “This is on top of all the other vicious comments.”

Republican legislative leaders have been reluctant to condemn Trump’s comments, although some do think he went too far. They also believe the dispute would not have occurred if Walz had been more effective in preventing fraud in social services programs.

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Republican legislative leaders have been reluctant to condemn President Donald Trump’s comments. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

“I in no way believe that any community is bad. Just like I don’t believe that any community is good. What we need to do is hold fraudsters in any community accountable for their actions and stop this behavior in Minnesota,” Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth, a Republican who is running for governor and hopes to gain Trump’s endorsement, told reporters.

Republican state Sen. Eric Platt, who is running for the congressional seat being vacated by Democratic Rep. Angie Craig, also would not defend the president’s comments.

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“That’s not the way I’m supposed to say it,” Platt said. “But I will say that I share the president’s frustration with the amount of fraud and corruption that’s going on in the state. I mean, it’s really bringing shame on the state and we’re in the national news for all the wrong reasons.”

Trump and Walz have exchanged insults multiple times in the past, including the president calling the Minnesota Democrat “gross incompetence“, “a mess” and “re”, governor calls Trump “wannabe dictator“, a “cruel person” and a “bad guy,” while ICE under government jurisdiction is a “modern Gestapo. “