US President Donald Trump 's sharing of an anti-Muslim post featuring a picture of Muslim schoolchildren endangers the children and "validates hate speech", the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said on Monday.
CAIR's statement came after Trump shared a post on Truth Social which attempted to mock a kindergarten graduation ceremony from a school in Minnesota.
"Public school in St. Paul, Minnesota. Every girl is in a hijab ... in kindergarten," read the original post created by right-wing account End Wokeness.
The accompanying photograph was taken at Minnesota's Gateway STEM Academy and showed smiling children celebrating the end of the school year, with several girls wearing hijabs alongside graduation caps and gowns.
CAIR's Minnesota chapter said the president was using his platform to target Muslim children.
"By using his global platform to amplify anti-Muslim bigotry and target Muslim children at this elementary school, President Trump is putting lives at risk," the group said in a statement.
The organisation pointed to recent anti-Muslim violence in California, including an attack on a mosque and Islamic school in San Diego that left three members of the Muslim community dead.
"Just two months ago, two white supremacists attacked a mosque and private school full of children in San Diego. Children deserve to feel safe in their schools and communities. When a political leader validates hate speech, it gives bigots a green light to target minority children. We call on all people of conscience, regardless of political affiliation, to reject this dangerous escalation of religious hatred," the statement added.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz also criticised Trump, writing on X: "The President of the United States is attacking a group of kindergarteners because of the clothes they wore to school."
Minnesota's Somali community has been the frequent target of right-wing public officials, who have also drawn the community into their attacks on Somali-American Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar .
Trump has previously described Somalis as "garbage" who should be "sent back where they came from". The president has also deployed thousands of federal agents and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to the state , citing high-profile fraud scandals involving federal funds.
In June, CAIR urged US lawmakers to condemn US House Majority Whip Tom Emmer's remarks on Somali-Americans.
Speaking at an event, Emmer claimed that Somalis "do not assimilate", adding that those who don't assimilate "should go the hell back to where they came from". The congressman also said he was "done being careful" about being accused of racism or Islamophobia. CAIR, which records and reports incidents of Islamophobia in the US, recorded its highest-ever number of anti-Muslim bias complaints since it began publishing civil rights reports in 1996. The group's most recent report documented 8,683 complaints of anti-Muslim bias for 2025.