Omar Received Donations From R

As federal agents traced millions in missing child‑nutrition dollars, one Minneapolis restaurant kept reappearing in the files.

Politicians had campaigned there. Children were supposed to be fed there.

Instead, prosecutors say, it became a hub in a sprawling fraud.

The fraud case around Safari Restaurant and related nonprofits exposed how a pandemic lifeline program could be twisted into a personal cash machine.

Prosecutors say more than $16 million flowed through Safari alone, part of an alleged $250 million scheme built on fake invoices, “ghost” meal sites, and children who never received the food taxpayers paid for.

The Department of Justice has never accused Rep. Ilhan Omar of involvement, but her past campaign stops at the restaurant and a few thousand dollars in donations now fuel partisan attacks and suspicion by association.

Into that anger stepped Donald Trump, who seized on the scandal to revive his push to end Temporary Protected Status for Somalis and to denounce an entire community as “garbage.”

Omar’s response—calling him “creepy” and “obsessed”—captures the collision of two narratives: one about real fraud that harmed vulnerable kids, and another about using that crime to justify collective blame and harsher immigration crackdowns.