President Donald Trump suggested that leftist Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) might have staged the incident in which a man sprayed her with an unknown substance during a town hall in Minnesota on Tuesday night.
In an interview with ABC News, Trump called Omar a “fraud” and said “she probably had herself sprayed, knowing her,” while acknowledging he had not watched the video.
“I hope I don’t have to bother,” Trump continued.
Trump dismissed the attack on Omar just days after saying the Justice Department and Congress are looking into her finances over concerns that she could be connected to the massive fraud scandal recently uncovered in Minnesota. The investigation into Omar’s finances and campaign spending was opened by the Justice Department under the Biden administration, The New York Times reported earlier this week.
A man, identified by authorities as 55-year-old Anthony J. Kazmierczak, allegedly held a syringe and rushed toward the Somali-born congresswoman shortly after she called for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to be defunded and demanded the resignation of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Video of the incident shows the suspect, who had been sitting in the front row, spraying Omar’s shirt with an unknown substance before a security guard intervened and threw him to the ground. After she was sprayed, Omar stepped toward the suspect aggressively.
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) assaulted during town hall meeting: “Here’s the reality that people like this ugly man don’t understand; we are Minnesota strong and we will stay resilient in the face of whatever they might throw at us.” pic.twitter.com/Ud5l3yP4lQ
— CSPAN (@cspan) January 28, 2026
People around Omar urged her to seek medical evaluation, but she insisted on continuing, saying, “We will continue. These f*cking a**holes are not going to get away with it.”
“Whatever it is, it smells so bad. She needs to go get checked,” one woman is heard saying. The New York Times reported that the liquid sprayed at Omar “smelled strongly of vinegar.”
Photo by Octavio JONES / AFP via Getty Images
After the event, Omar described herself as a “survivor” and told reporters, “You know, I’ve survived more, and I’m definitely going to survive intimidation and whatever these people think that they can throw at me because I’m built that way.”
Kazmierczak was arrested on a charge of third-degree assault and booked into the Hennepin County Jail. His neighbor, Brian Kelley, told The New York Post that a few days before the incident, Kazmierczak suggested he “might get arrested” at Omar’s town hall and asked him to watch his dog while he attended the event.
“He said, ‘I’m going to this Omar thing.’ I’m like, Omar what? He said, ‘This town hall thing.’ And he said, ‘I might get arrested,’” Kelley told the Post.
Kelly said the day after Kazmierczak hinted he might be arrested, he told him the dog-sitting was no longer necessary. “I figured he blew that off,” Kelley added.
Kelley said that Kazmierczak had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, was heavily medicated, and suffered from spine issues after he was in a car crash years ago. He added that he wasn’t “overly surprised” to hear that Kazmierczak was arrested for allegedly assaulting Omar.
“I figured when he said he was going to go to the town hall, he’d stand up and say something stupid,” Kelley said. “I can’t imagine him assaulting or spraying somebody.”
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