Trump Rallies in Corinth for Hyde-Smith, Says Omar Must Resign From Congress

President Donald Trump brought his final week campaign tour to Corinth, Mississippi, on Monday night, urging a Crossroads Arena crowd to back Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith and to pretend that he was on the ballot himself. In the same speech, Trump said Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat, should not be allowed to serve in Congress and must resign, repeating a claim about the name she used when she was sworn in that Omar has called baseless.

A Senate race that has tightened

Trump won Mississippi by about 23 percentage points in 2024, and the state has not elected a Democrat to the US Senate since 1982. The race has still tightened. Hyde-Smith faces Scott Colom, a district attorney in northern Mississippi who would be the state's first Black US senator since Reconstruction, and independent Ty Pinkins. The Cook Political Report moved the race last week from Solid Republican to Likely Republican. A Poliwave simulator using polls through October 22 put Hyde-Smith ahead by 3 points, down from 8 points in mid August. VoteHub put her chance of winning at 92.6 percent.

About 2,000 people were in the arena by 4:30 p.m., before the program began. Hyde-Smith called Colom the most radical Senate candidate Mississippi has ever seen and said he was soft on crime. "He will never outwork me," she said. Trump opened with attacks on Colom, saying he does the bidding of the radical left, had slashed sentences for offenders and was funded by George Soros. "Pretend that I'm on the ballot," Trump told the crowd.

The Omar demand

Later in the speech, Trump turned to Omar. He said documents from a federal investigation showed she previously had another name, "Ilhan Nur Said Elmi," and suggested she married her own brother to commit immigration fraud. Omar has repeatedly called that claim baseless. She has not admitted fraud or offered to resign. "Therefore, because she used a fake name to be sworn in, I assume that we must immediately resign her from Congress. Let's get her the hell out," Trump said.

Fox News reported that a federal filing lists her name as "Ilhan Nur Said Elmi, a/k/a Ilhan Abdullahi Omar." The Justice Department is investigating Omar for potential immigration fraud, and agents who searched her Washington home on October 12 removed 17 items, including phones, notebooks, a camera and a Somali phrase book for her children. When a Fox reporter asked Omar her name, she replied, "Ilhan Abdullahi Omar. You know it." The Clerk of the House lists her solely as Ilhan Omar on 15 disclosure reports dating back to 2018.

Why removal would be hard

Removing Omar is not the president's decision. Article I, Section 5 of the Constitution gives each chamber of Congress final authority over its own membership. Expulsion takes a two thirds vote in the House, which has expelled only six members in its history, most recently former Rep. George Santos in 2023. Omar has not been convicted of a crime. Rep. Morgan Griffith, a Virginia Republican, said the House can seat or remove members, but added, "There ought to be good sound reasons for it," and called such a step extraordinary.

Eight days left

The Corinth stop came eight days before the November 3 midterms. Mississippi does not hold early voting, but absentee ballots can be cast at circuit clerk offices through Saturday, October 31. A Reuters and Ipsos poll from October 16 to 19 put Trump's approval at 31 percent. Republicans say the trip is about turnout. Colom says the visit shows Hyde-Smith is scared.