The strange saga of Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar’s past has found new life halfway across the world — in Johannesburg, South Africa — where her second husband, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, has reemerged with a colorful social media presence and a title that’s raising eyebrows: “dirty dandy.”
At 40, Elmi seems to be enjoying himself in South Africa’s urban heartbeat, according to a report by the New York Post, flaunting his carefree lifestyle with photos from upscale spots and university visits.
One post shows him wearing a visitor’s badge at the University of the Witwatersrand, while others document a lifestyle that seems far removed from the storm of political intrigue that once surrounded his name in the United States.
But Elmi’s sudden reappearance hasn’t gone unnoticed — especially as it coincides with President Donald Trump once again reviving a controversial allegation that has followed Omar since she rose to national prominence: that she married Elmi, her own brother, to fraudulently gain immigration benefits.
At a rally in Pennsylvania, Trump didn’t hold back. “She married her brother in order to get in, right?” he told supporters. “Can you imagine if Donald Trump married his sister?” He pressed the claim further in an interview with Politico, saying, “All she does is complain… and yet her country’s a mess.”
The accusations remain unproven, and Omar has repeatedly denied them. Nonetheless, the timing of Elmi’s return to the spotlight has reopened a chapter that many thought had closed.
Omar’s marital history is undeniably complex. A Somali-born immigrant who became a U.S. citizen in 2000, she entered a religious marriage in 2002 with Ahmed Abdisalan Hirsi, with whom she had children. Yet, in 2009, she legally married Elmi — a British citizen — while continuing to live with Hirsi.
Omar and Elmi separated in 2011, but didn’t divorce legally until 2017. She then legally married Hirsi, only to divorce him two years later and marry political aide Tim Mynett in 2020.
As for Elmi, his recent academic work focuses on gender studies, queer theory, and decolonization — a far cry from the swirling political rumors that have shadowed his past connection to Omar. Still, his social media return has added fuel to a story that refuses to disappear entirely, especially as critics and political opponents keep the spotlight fixed firmly on Omar’s history.
