President Trump has taken a shot at the government of Somalia as part of his criticism of Somali migrants in the US, despite the fact that he has provided the Mogadishu-based Federal Government of Somalia with more air support than any other US president in history.
“The people from different countries that are not friendly to us, and countries that are out of control themselves. Countries like Somalia that have virtually no government, no military — all they do is go around killing each other. Then they come into our country and tell us how to run our country. We don’t want them,” the president told reporters aboard Air Force One over the weekend.
Trump’s comments came after US Africa Command announced its 101st airstrike in Somalia, an unprecedented number. The number represents a tenfold increase in US airstrikes in Somalia since 2024, when 10 were launched, and is nearly double the 51 strikes launched throughout President Biden’s four years in office.
“To date, we’ve completed 101 airstrikes in Somalia – 59 of which have specifically targeted ISIS-Somalia. In coordination with the Federal Government of Somalia,” an AFRICOM spokesperson told Antiwar.com in an email on November 26.
President Trump also launched an unprecedented number of airstrikes in Somalia during his first term, when he set the previous record for annual US bombings in the country at 63. For context, President Obama launched 48 airstrikes in Somalia during his eight years in office.
The US bombing campaign has targeted both the ISIS affiliate in Somalia’s northeastern Puntland region, where the US backs local forces since the territory is not under the control of the Federal Government, and al-Shabaab in southern and central Somalia.
The current Federal Government was formally established in 2012, replacing a transitional government installed by foreign powers after a 2006 Ethiopian invasion backed by the US. The invasion ousted the Islamic Courts Union, which briefly took power in Mogadishu from CIA-backed warlords.
Al-Shabaab was the radical offshoot of the Islamic Courts Union and claimed its first attack in 2007, which targeted Ethiopian troops occupying Mogadishu. In 2012, al-Shabaab declared loyalty to al-Qaeda, after years of fighting the US and its proxies.
While the current Federal Government has gained some territory against al-Shabaab in recent months, it has lost ground in other areas, and counterterrorism experts don’t believe there’s a path to a military victory against the group.
Back in April, The New York Times reported that the Trump administration was divided on how to handle the al-Shabaab offensive. At the time, State Department officials recommended evacuating the US embassy in Mogadishu as a precaution, suggesting the US believes the city could fall to al-Shabaab.
Other US officials, including Sebastian Gorka, the senior director for counterterrorism on the National Security Council, pushed for the US to escalate its airstrikes and continue propping up the Federal Government, which would almost certainly collapse without foreign support.
