Minnesota Muslim leaders condemn Trump post targeting hijab-wearing kindergarten girls

Community leaders gathered at Karmel Mall in Minneapolis on July 8 to condemn a Trump social media post that pushed a St. Paul kindergarten graduation video into a national fight and left Somali and Muslim families worrying about safety. The 14-second clip came from a livestream of a ceremony at Gateway STEM Academy, a public charter K-8 school in St. Paul, and appeared on Trump’s Truth Social account without an original caption.

The repost carried text from the End Wokeness account that said, “Public school in St. Paul, Minnesota. Every girl is in a hijab… in kindergarten.” The video itself showed children singing in caps and gowns, but the attention quickly shifted to the fact that many of the girls wore hijabs. Advocates said the public sharing of children’s images on a major platform raised immediate concerns for students, staff and families connected to the school.

Jaylani Hussein, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations Minnesota, said the post fit a pattern of demonization and targeting of Somali Americans. Imam Yusuf Abdulle of the Islamic Association of North America said the community’s message was to reject this kind of behavior and defend children’s belonging in Minnesota and the United States. Their remarks reflected a broader fear inside one of the state’s largest Muslim and Somali communities, where a school event was suddenly turned into a political flashpoint.

Malika Dahir of Reviving Sisterhood said children should not be used as political symbols and added, “Children should be our red line.” She said the group had already been responding to other hostility, including threatening voicemails and a school-bus fire in May that followed a federal raid on day care and autism resource centers suspected of fraud. For leaders at the press event, the post was not just offensive. It landed in a community already on edge.

They also linked the uproar to a wider climate of hostility toward Muslims and Somalis in Minnesota, including recent remarks by Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher about Somali youth gang violence and homicides in the metro. Community members said those comments risked further stigmatizing Somali families at a moment when visibility itself can bring fear. In St. Paul, the children in the graduation video were celebrating a school milestone; by the end of the day, their image had become part of a much larger argument about belonging, public speech and the safety of Muslim children.