U.S. President Donald Trump points a finger as he departs for Canada to attend the G7 Leaders' Summit, from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, U.S., June 15, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
President Donald Trump's first year in office has included statements attacking female reporters and comments about people of color.
The Guardian's Melissa Hellmann documented several of Trump's controversial statements from 2025. Some drew criticism from various groups, while Republican Party leaders disputed hearing the remarks.
In Trump's first ten days in office, he criticized federal government efforts in past administrations to promote women and people of color, stating they lacked necessary qualifications for their positions.
"Then it's a group within the FAA – another story – determined that the workforce was too white, that they had concerted efforts to get the administration to change that and to change it immediately," Trump said about a military helicopter that crashed into an American Airlines plane. "This was in the Obama administration, just prior to my getting there. And we took care of African Americans, Hispanic Americans. We took care of everybody at levels that nobody has ever seen before. It's one of the reasons I won. But they actually came out with a directive: too white. And we want the people that are competent."
Trump made comments about Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and her country of birth.
"They have no — they have no anything. They just run around killing each other," Trump said about Somalia, which has a lower murder rate than the U.S. according to data from the World Health Organization. "There's no structure … Somebody would say, 'Oh that's not politically correct.' I don't care. I don't want them in our country. Their country is no good for a reason. Their country stinks and we don't want them in our country … We're going to go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country. Ilhan Omar is garbage. She's garbage. Her friends are garbage. These aren't people that work. These aren't people that say, 'Let's go, come on, let's make this place great.' These are people that do nothing but complain."
"And Schumer is a Palestinian as far as I'm concerned. You know, he's become a Palestinian. He used to be Jewish. He's not Jewish anymore. He's a Palestinian," Trump told the Irish prime minister in March about Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who is Jewish.
During a July rally in Iowa, Trump used the antisemitic slur "shylocks" to describe "bad" bankers.
Trump made similar remarks about immigration in a December rally in Pennsylvania.
"Why is it we only take people from s---hole countries, right? Why can't we have some people from Norway, Sweden, just a few? … From Denmark," Trump asked at a December rally in Pennsylvania. "Do you mind sending us a few people? Send us some nice people. Do you mind? But we always take people from Somalia, places that are a disaster, right? Filthy, dirty, disgusting, ridden with crime. The only thing they're good at is going after ships."
Residents in countries like Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland rank among the happiest countries on Earth, according to the annual report from the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford. The U.S. does not rank in the top ten.
Wealthy donors who heard similar comments from Trump in 2024 responded with laughter, according to the New York Times.
Trump also made critical remarks directed at female reporters. In November 2025, Trump told Bloomberg White House correspondent Catherine Lucey: "Quiet. Quiet, piggy."
"She brought her church into politics in a very ungracious way," Trump said regarding Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde and her January 2025 inaugural sermon. "She was nasty in tone, and not compelling or smart … Apart from her inappropriate statements, the service was very boring and uninspiring. She is not very good at her job!"