Washington DC - President Donald Trump raged Tuesday against Somali immigrants, saying they should be unwelcome in the US as he highlighted the long woes of the African country.

Trump's heated remarks come as a scandal unfolds in the state of Minnesota, where prosecutors say more than $1 billion went to non-existent social services, largely through false billing by Somali Americans.

In Somalia, "they have no anything, they just run around killing each other," Trump claimed in a cabinet meeting.

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"Their country's no good for a reason. Their country stinks, and we don't want them in our country," he said.

Trump has a long history of deriding minorities and rose to political prominence by spreading racist, false conspiracy theories that former president Barack Obama was born in Kenya rather than the US.

Trump has often played up fears of the white majority losing political and cultural power.

"We're at a tipping point," Trump told the cabinet meeting. "We could go one way or the other, and we're going to go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country."

Trump said that Somali Americans "contribute nothing" and berated Ilhan Omar, an outspoken Democratic congresswoman from Minnesota who is originally from Somalia.

"Ilhan Omar is garbage. Her friends are garbage," Trump said. "Let them go back to where they came from and fix it."

Trump last week ended protections against deportations of Somalis in place in the US since 1991, when Somalia descended into anarchy.

Prosecutors are investigating several plots to steal taxpayer money in Minnesota, including by groups that falsely claimed to be feeding children during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Minnesota, a historically Democratic-leaning state with a history of welcoming refugees, is home to a major Somali American community.

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The scandal takes an added political dimension as Minnesota's governor is Tim Walz, a Democrat who was the party's unsuccessful candidate for vice president in last year's election.

Last week, Trump separately ordered a halt to all visa issuance to Afghans after a deadly shooting in Washington by an Afghan who worked for US intelligence during the war and was granted asylum after the Taliban returned to power.