Democratic Reps. Ilhan Omar (MN) and Rashida Tlaib (MI) began screaming during President Trump's State of the Union address on Tuesday, only to have their outbursts swallowed whole by Republican lawmakers chanting "U-S-A, U-S-A" across the House Chamber. Texas Democrat Al Green was ejected after brandishing a placard reading "Black people aren't apes." The joint session of Congress, meant to showcase a president's agenda, instead became the latest stage for Democratic theatrics.
The disruptions started early and escalated fast. As Trump spoke about domestic accomplishments from his first year in office, cameras caught Omar appearing distraught, almost overcome with emotion, before she and Tlaib began yelling. The pair shouted "You have killed Americans" and called the president a liar, their voices competing with, and ultimately losing to, the rolling "U-S-A" chants from the Republican side of the chamber.
Trump did not flinch. He branded the two members of Congress a "disgrace" and told them plainly from the podium:
"You should be ashamed."
The moment that appeared to trigger the outburst was Trump's direct remarks about fraud in Minnesota, the state Omar represents, according to the Daily Mail. The president did not mince words:
"When it comes to the corruption that is plundering America, there has been no more stunning example than Minnesota, where members of the Somali community have pillaged an estimated $19 billion from the American taxpayer."
He went further, arguing that the pattern of corruption in Minnesota illustrates a broader problem with immigration policy:
"Importing these cultures through unrestricted immigration and open borders brings those problems right here to the USA."
Omar, who represents Minneapolis and is herself Somali, took the remarks personally. That much was obvious from the cameras. But taking remarks personally and refuting them are two different things. The $19 billion figure Trump cited has been a subject of ongoing scrutiny in Minnesota, and screaming from the House floor is not the rebuttal that a serious legislator would offer if the numbers were wrong.
If Omar had data showing the president was mistaken, a press conference would have been the appropriate venue. A written rebuttal. A hearing request. Instead, she chose a primal scream on national television, which tells you everything about whether the goal was to inform or to perform.
Before the address even got underway, the evening had already been beset by protests. Al Green brought a sign into the chamber reading "Black people aren't apes," a reference to a recent Trump social media post featuring an AI video depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as primates.
GOP Senators Markwayne Mullin and Roger Marshall moved swiftly to stand in front of Green, blocking his sign from view. Trump kept walking. Green was subsequently ejected from the chamber.
Whatever one thinks of the social media post in question, the State of the Union is not a protest rally. There are rules governing decorum in the House Chamber, and Green knew them. The placard was designed for a camera, not for a conversation. He got his clip. He also got escorted out.
There was a time when the so-called Squad commanded enormous media attention simply by existing. Omar, Tlaib, and their allies were treated as the ideological vanguard of the Democratic Party, their every tweet amplified, their every accusation treated as moral authority. That era is visibly ending.
What played out on Tuesday was not powerful dissent. It was impotence dressed up as courage. The heckling accomplished nothing legislatively. It changed no votes. It persuaded no one who wasn't already persuaded. And it was physically overwhelmed by the opposing chant, a metaphor so on-the-nose it barely needs articulation.
Consider what voters actually saw:
The optics were brutal for Democrats. Not because conservative media will frame them that way, but because the footage speaks for itself. One side looked like it was governing. The other looked like it was melting down.
What's notable is not just what Omar and Tlaib said, but what the broader Democratic caucus did not say. No Democratic leader appears to have condemned the disruptions or called for decorum. No one from the party stepped to a microphone to distance themselves from the spectacle.
This is the trap that progressive theatrics set for the larger party. When your most vocal members turn a joint session of Congress into a shouting match, and your leadership says nothing, voters draw a reasonable conclusion: this is who you all are.
Trump told them they should be ashamed. The chants drowned out the screaming. And somewhere in that chamber, the Democratic Party's moderates, if any remain, watched their brand shrink a little further.
