During a Cabinet meeting last week, President Trump talked about Somali immigrants in Minnesota after some were indicted on fraud charges related to social services. He called them “garbage” and said he didn’t want them in the U.S. He also criticized Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Somali American who represents Minnesota. Our analysts rated media coverage about Trump’s comments and the reaction to them in our Topic of the Week.

Reporting from ABC News was found by our team to be “simple fact reporting” with a “balanced” bias. The article on the ABC News website details Trump’s comments during the televised Cabinet meeting and previous remarks about Somali immigrant he has made. It gives statistics about Somali immigrants in the U.S. and gives updates on the investigation into the alleged fraud in Minnesota.

An article from Reuters compares Trump’s recent comments about Somalis to those he made during his first term as president, when he complained about America accepting immigrants from “shithole countries” like Haiti and from Africa. The article notes that his previous comments received much criticism and outrage, but his remarks last week resulted in cheers or silence from his fellow Republicans, concluding that “Trump’s racial views are no longer seen as out of bounds among some of his allies and supporters.” The article looks at the history of “racist rhetoric” in politics. Analysts found the reporting to be a “mix of fact reporting and analysis” with a “skews left” bias.

The two videos analyzed by our team both received similar reliability scores, in the category of “opinion,” and converse bias scores. In a video from the NewsNation show “Batya!” the host, Batya Ungar-Sargon, interviews Republican strategist Melik Abdul, who says that Trump should not be calling Somalis “garbage.” The host accuses the media of “conflation intentionally” when they take comments by Trump and turn them “into a conversation about race.” Abdul agrees, and he also blames the Democrats for playing “racial politics.”  “… any criticism for any reason is labeled as racism or xenophobia or things like this,” he says. Analysts gave the video a bias rating of “strong right.”

A video from the MS NOW (formerly MSNBC) show “Ana Cabrera Reports” was found by our team to have a “strong left” bias. In it, Cabrera interviews Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), whom Trump also called “garbage.” Omar calls Trump’s “obsession” with her and the Somali community “creepy” and says he’s trying to “deflect from his failures that he’s had as president.” Omar calls Trump “a racist, a bigot, a xenophobic and Islamophobic. … And so it is not surprising that he is going after black immigrants in this country. And it’s certainly not surprising that he’s choosing a black immigrant community that is also Muslim.” Omar says she is not surprised that other Republicans have kept quiet about Trump’s comments about Somalis, saying that they’ve “bent the knee to this president. They’ve welcomed his disgusting and deranged and dangerous rhetoric.”

An article from The New Republic was also rated as “opinion” but with a “hyper-partisan left” bias. The reporting focuses on Trump’s criticism of Omar, and the subhead sets the tone: “Donald Trump went on a particularly racist tirade about the Democratic representative. And his entire Cabinet enjoyed it.” The article criticizes Trump’s “rant”: “As an outspoken Black, progressive, Muslim, African, refugee, and woman in office, Omar is someone whom the president—and the rest of the GOP—can cast their slanderous bigotry toward, much to the delight of the MAGA base.” Analysts noted that the article insults all of Trump’s base: “Trump entered some sort of racist flow state here. He hit all the points that make his base—from the Groypers to the neocons—foam at the mouths…”

An article from Western Journal expresses surprise that Trump, who, it says, usually has “a certain level of control” over his temper, went off “on a fiery rant in a very public forum.” The article, which is labeled as “commentary,” says it’s unusual for Trump to go after an entire group of people: “Trump has seldom had issues viciously attacking a person or idea … but an entire people? The president was clearly fired up.” Still, the author agrees with Trump’s sentiment. “Immigrants have unequivocally taken advantage of America’s generosity. Despite the left wanting to canonize immigrants, they are all human at the end of the day. And that means immigrants are susceptible to greed, avarice, selfishness, and, oh yes, evil.” Analysts noted the article’s support for Trump and the inclusion of a statement (without evidence) that Somalis are “funding terrorist groups back home with American welfare dollars” when rating it as “unfair persuasion” with a “strong right” bias.

New Topics of the Week are posted on the website each Monday. Read the articles and watch the videos yourself, then come back on Wednesday to compare your scores with those of our analysts. Learn more here.