Rep. Ilhan Omar drew a wave of online criticism this week after a clip from a January 2025 press conference started circulating again. In the video, she mistakenly refers to World War II as “World War Eleven” while speaking about the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.
The moment came as Omar stood alongside several other House Democrats, calling for the repeal of the centuries-old law. The act had recently been invoked by President Donald Trump as part of an effort to speed up the deportation of suspected Venezuelan gang members living in the U.S. without legal status. As Omar read from prepared remarks, she referenced the last time the law had been used, during the internment and deportation of people of German, Japanese, and Italian descent.
Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar claims the U.S. has been through 11 World Wars:
“The last time the Alien Enemies Act was invoked. It was used to detain and deport German, Japanese, Italian immigrants during World War 11” pic.twitter.com/wYXs7ASRwy
— Michael Hennessey (@Snowflake_News) April 27, 2026
“The last time the Alien Enemies Act was invoked, it was used to detain and deport German, Japanese, Italian immigrants during World War Eleven,” she said, before quickly catching herself. “Oh… two… sorry,” she added with a brief laugh.
The correction came almost immediately, but the clip took on a life of its own once it spread across social media. Critics, particularly on the right, seized on the mistake as evidence of carelessness or a lack of knowledge, while others treated it more as an awkward but minor verbal stumble.
Some responses were blunt. A post from the Libs of TikTok account called her a “dummy,” while others made sarcastic references to her education.
Conservative columnist Ed Morrissey questioned whether the clip was even real at first, writing that he thought it might have been AI-generated. Another user joked about an imaginary newspaper headline blaming Trump for starting “World War Eleven.”
The resurfaced moment also reignited familiar lines of attack. Trump has previously taken aim at Omar’s intelligence, once referring to her as “Low IQ Ilhan Omar” on social media. Similar language showed up again in reactions to the clip, along with broader complaints about the quality of current political leadership.
At the same time, verbal slip-ups are hardly rare in politics. Public figures regularly misspeak, especially in live settings or while reading prepared statements under pressure. In this case, Omar corrected herself within seconds, and the broader point she was making about the historical use of the Alien Enemies Act remained clear.
Still, the incident highlights how quickly even a small mistake can spread and take on outsized attention, particularly in a polarized online environment where moments like these are often amplified, clipped, and reshared far beyond their original context.
