Donald Trump sharpened his anti-Muslim attacks on Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed on Sunday, casting him as a national security threat and questioning his loyalty to the country at a rally in Port Huron, NPR and The Guardian reported.
Trump called El-Sayed, a former Detroit health official, a jihadist who sided with terrorists, and said he would need to pass through a metal detector to enter the Senate. He repeatedly invoked the Sept. 11 attacks, likening efforts to keep El-Sayed out of the Senate chamber to the passengers who fought the hijackers on United Flight 93. He also said he had come to Michigan to stop what he called a Muslim Brotherhood member from becoming a senator.
A rebuke from a former ally
The remarks drew a sharp response from Bishara Bahbah, who co-founded Arab Americans for Trump. That group was central to the president's 2024 courtship of Arab American voters and now goes by Arab Americans for Peace. "They are crossing a red line. They are racist," Bahbah said in a phone interview, according to NPR. He warned that voters would remember on Nov. 3.
The rally location mattered. Port Huron sits about an hour north of Detroit, near communities where Trump made major gains with Arab American voters in 2024, when he carried Dearborn, home to one of the country's biggest Arab American communities. No Republican presidential nominee had won the city since 2000.
El-Sayed, who would be the nation's first Muslim senator if elected, has called attacks on his loyalty shameful and repeatedly denied any ties to extremist groups. NPR reported there is no evidence he has any affiliation with the Muslim Brotherhood. NPR noted that his half-sister wrote in a 2012 social media post about her family's involvement with the movement; El-Sayed was raised by his father, not his biological mother. At his own rally in Grand Rapids, El-Sayed brushed off Trump's habit of mocking his name, telling supporters Trump could simply call him senator after November.
The stakes
El-Sayed is facing Rogers for the seat being vacated by retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters, one of a handful of races that could decide control of the Senate. Rogers has also questioned El-Sayed's loyalty, including during their final debate, and repeated the Muslim Brotherhood allegations on Sunday before Trump spoke. El-Sayed has faced criticism for some of his own remarks, including a comment after an attack on a Detroit-area synagogue for which he later apologized, and for his association with streamer Hasan Piker.
NPR reported that with Republicans on the defensive over inflation, soaring fuel prices and the Iran war, Trump has been trying to drive turnout by portraying El-Sayed and other Democrats as existential threats rather than political opponents. Sen. Bernie Sanders, speaking at El-Sayed's rally, said Trump and his allies were leaning on Islamophobia because they have nothing to offer working people on health care, housing and inequality.
Trump, who imposed a travel ban on several predominantly Muslim countries in his first term, also attacked Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota at the rally, which featured an appearance by Nicki Minaj urging the crowd to vote Republican.
Reporting sources: US politics | The Guardian, “Trump intensifies anti-Muslim rhetoric against Abdul El-Sayed at Michigan rally – US politics live” · NPR Topics: Politics, “Trump escalates anti-Muslim attacks against El-Sayed in Michigan”.