'It feels good to be home!' Ilhan Omar slams Trump and says a Somalian refugee in Congress is his worst 'nightmare' as she lands in Minneapolis one day after rally crowd chanted 'send her back'

• Rep. Ilhan Omar was greeted by supporters at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on Thursday
• 'Welcome home Ilhan' they chanted as she returned for town hall in her home district
• Comes a day after Trump supporters changed 'send her back' about Omar at a rally in North Carolina
• Trump disavowed the chant but has harshly criticized the Somali-born immigrant
• Omar responds by labeling Trump a 'fascist' and vows to be a 'nightmare' for the president

Rep. Ilhan Omar has blasted President Donald Trump in her home district, one day after his supporters chanted 'send her back' of the congresswoman.

A crowd of supporters holding signs that read 'Stand with Ilhan' and 'Stop racism now' met her Thursday at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport as she arrived from Washington DC. 

'Welcome home Ilhan!' the crowd chanted as Omar arrived in the airport terminal. 

'It feels good to be home,' Omar said into a bullhorn at the airport, telling the crowd that Trump's policies are 'fascist' and vowing to be a 'nightmare' for him. 

'His nightmare is seeing a Somali immigrant refugee rise to Congress,' she said. 'His nightmare is seeing the beautiful mosaic fabric of our country welcome someone like me as their member of Congress home to Minnesota.' 

'He's threatened because we are inspiring people to dream about a country that recognizes their dignity and humanity,' Omar said of Trump. 

'We are going to continue to be a nightmare to this president, because his policies are a nightmare to us,' she said.  

'It feels good to be home,' Omar said into a bullhorn at the airport, telling the crowd that Trump's policies are 'fascist' and vowing to be a 'nightmare' for him 

U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar speaks to supporters as she arrives at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport on Thursday

'Welcome home Ilhan!' the crowd chanted as Omar arrived in the airport terminal on day after the Trump rally

Omar later held a town hall about 'Medicare for all' on Thursday night in her Minneapolis district. 

She received a standing ovation at the town hall, but declined to mention Trump by name during the 90-minute event focused on healthcare.

'I know there are a lot of people that are trying to distract us now, but I want you all to know that we are not going to let them,' Omar told the crowd at the town hall. 'I'm going to continue to do the work on behalf of the 5th (District), because you all send me to Washington to do the important work of progressing our country.' 

Trump on Thursday chided his supporters who chanted 'send her back' when he questioned the loyalty of the Somali-born congresswoman, claiming he had tried to stop the chant at a campaign event Wednesday night in North Carolina. 

However, the crowd's 'send her back' shouts resounded for 13 seconds as Trump made no attempt to interrupt them. He paused in his speech and surveyed the scene, taking in the uproar.

'I started speaking really quickly,' he told reporters Thursday. 'I was not happy with it. I disagree with it' and 'would certainly try' to stop any similar chant at a future rally.

Omar was pressed for a response on Thursday.

'This is what this president and his supporters have turned our country' into, she said as she walked outside the U.S. Capitol. 'This is not about me. This is about fighting about what this country truly should be and what it deserves to be.'

'I believe he is fascist,' she said.

The freshman congresswoman, a hijab-wearing Muslim, has fast become a leading face of the 'resistance' to Trump and his politics, winning fans at home and far beyond. 

Trump started the week's tumult by tweeting Sunday that Omar and three other freshmen congresswomen could 'go back' to their native countries if they were unhappy here. 

His other targets - all Trump detractors - were Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts.

All are American citizens, and all but Omar was born in the U.S. She fled to America as a child with her family from violence-wracked Somalia.

Omar received a hero's welcome as she arrived in her home district for a town hall scheduled for Thursday night

The president did not back down from his criticism of Omar on Thursday.

They have 'a big obligation and the obligation is to love your country,' he said. 'There's such hatred. They have such hatred.'

Citing Trump's rhetoric, House Democrats said they were discussing arranging security for Omar and the three other congresswomen. 

The Democratic-led House voted Tuesday to condemn Trump's tweets as racist. On Wednesday, it rejected a resolution by one Democrat to impeach Trump that was opposed by party leaders as premature.

The chants at the Trump rally brought scathing criticism from GOP lawmakers as well as from Democrats, though the Republicans did not fault Trump himself.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California declared that the chant has 'no place in our party and no place in this country.'

Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois tweeted that it was 'ugly, wrong, & would send chills down the spines of our Founding Fathers. This ugliness must end, or we risk our great union.'

Trump launched into criticism of Omar during his rally on Wednesday when his supporters chanted 'send her back'

People in the audience cheer as President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at Williams Arena in Greenville, N.C.

Even by Trump's standards, the campaign rally offered an extraordinary tableau for American politics: a president drinking in a crowd's cries to expel a congresswoman from the country who's his critic and a woman of color.

It was also the latest demonstration of how Trump's verbal cannonades are capable of dominating the news. Democrats had hoped the spotlight on Thursday would be on House passage of legislation to boost the minimum wage for the first time in a decade.

To many GOP ears, this time the attention wasn't all positive.

Rep. Mark Walker of North Carolina, a conservative who attended Trump's rally, told reporters at the Capitol that the chant 'does not need to be our campaign call like we did 'Lock her up' last time.'

That was a reference to a 2016 campaign mantra that Trump continues to encourage aimed at that year's Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton.

Walker, who called the chant 'offensive,' was among about 10 House GOP leaders who had breakfast Thursday with Vice President Mike Pence at Pence's residence in Washington. Walker said he cautioned Pence that attention to the chant could distract voters next year from the economy and other themes Republicans want to emphasize.

'We don't need to take it that far where we change the narrative of the story,' he said he told Pence.

Trump has harshly criticized the 'squad' of freshman Congresswomen (left to right): Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley, Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

The lawmakers attending agreed that the chant was inappropriate and could prove a harmful distraction, and Pence concurred and said he'd discuss it with Trump, said another participant who described the conversation on condition of anonymity.

In North Carolina, Trump berated each of the four congresswomen and said: 'They never have anything good to say. That's why I say, 'Hey if you don't like it, let 'em leave, let 'em leave.'' He added, 'I think in some cases they hate our country.'

His criticism of Omar included an accusation that she has voiced pride in al-Qaida, a reference to a video clip of her complaining that people use a sinister tone when referring to the terror group that they do not use when mentioning the U.S. military.

Among the Democrats criticizing Trump and his rally, 2020 presidential contender Joe Biden said Trump was exploiting race relations to excite his base and should have quieted the crowd.

'Let me hear you say 'I condemn them,'' the former vice president said of Trump following a campaign event in Los Angeles.

Underscoring the rocky period, House chaplain Pat Conroy's opening prayer Thursday began, 'This has been a difficult and contentious week in which darker spirits seem to have been at play in the people's house. In your most holy name, I now cast out the spirit of darkness from this chamber.'