Port Huron: President Donald Trump intensified his anti-Muslim rhetoric against Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El Sayed on Sunday, portraying him as a threat to national security and questioning his loyalty to the United States in remarks that drew a sharp rebuke from a former top Arab American ally.
Trump called El Sayed, a former Detroit health official, a “jihadist” who was “on the side of the terrorists” and would “have to go through a metal detector before he’s allowed to go into the Senate.” He also repeatedly invoked the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, drawing a comparison between stopping El Sayed from entering the Senate chamber and the passengers who fought back against the hijackers aboard United Flight 93.
El Sayed, who would become the nation’s first Muslim senator if elected, has called attacks on his loyalty to the country “shameful” and repeatedly denied any ties to extremist groups. The Republican president’s remarks were condemned by Bishara Bahbah, a founder of Arab Americans for Trump, the group that helped lead the president’s outreach to Arab American voters in 2024.
“The president’s statements are out of line,” he said in a phone interview. “They are crossing a red line. They are racist.”
‘Existential threats’
With Republicans on the defensive over inflation, soaring fuel prices and the Iran war, the president has been trying to generate turnout by claiming that El Sayed and other Democrats are existential threats to America, instead of electoral rivals. Michigan’s Senate race between El-Sayed and Republican Mike Rogers is among a handful of contests that could determine control of the chamber.
Trump made his remarks in Port Huron, a Canadian border city about an hour north of Detroit and near communities where he made significant gains among Arab American voters in 2024. He became the first Republican presidential candidate since 2000 to win Dearborn, a city with one of the nation’s largest concentrations of Arab Americans.
Trump, who imposed a travel ban targeting several predominantly Muslim countries during his first term, has increasingly leaned into anti-Muslim rhetoric as Election Day approaches. He also attacked Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota at Sunday’s rally, where he declared that he had come to Michigan “to keep a jihadist Muslim Brotherhood member from becoming a United States senator.”
Responding to Trump, who also regularly mocks his name, El Sayed told supporters at a rally in Grand Rapids later Sunday that he doesn’t care how Trump pronounces or misrepresents it.
“I don’t even care that he remembers my whole name because he can just go on and call me ‘senator’ after November,” El Sayed said, drawing cheers. “I will be Senator Muhammad to you, bro.”
Campaign flashpoints
Central to Republicans’ strategy against El Sayed in the final weeks of the campaign has been an effort to link him to the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamic movement with branches that the US government has designated as terrorist organisations.
There is no evidence that El Sayed has any affiliation with the Muslim Brotherhood. His half-sister, Eman Abdelhadi, wrote on social media in 2012 that “my family has long been MB” and described a conversation with her mother about her involvement in the Muslim Brotherhood in the early 1970s.
El Sayed was born in the United States to Egyptian immigrant parents who divorced when he was young. He was raised by his father, not his biological mother.
Trump on Sunday also targeted El Sayed’s ties to popular streamer Hasan Piker, who appeared alongside the Democrat multiple times during the primary campaign, including at his election night event.
Piker in the past has said that “Hamas is a thousand times better” than Israel, describing some Orthodox Jews as “inbred” and that “America deserved 9/11.”
El Sayed has faced criticism for his own rhetoric. He has repeatedly refused to answer questions about whether Iran or Israel poses a bigger threat to the country. Earlier this year, he said “hurt people hurt people” after an attack on a synagogue in the Detroit area. The attacker had lost four relatives in an Israeli airstrike on Lebanon the week earlier. El Sayed later apologised, saying he was not trying to justify what happened.
“To anyone who feels like my comments might have been hurtful, I’m really sorry,” he said. “That was not my intention.”
Founder of Arab Americans for Trump calls president ‘racist’
Bahbah, whose organisation has since changed its name to Arab Americans for Peace, said Trump’s remarks were unacceptable to Arab and Muslim communities, including Christian Arabs.
“The remarks are out of line and crazy. I mean, no sane individual would say these things,” Bahbah said.
Dearborn helped Trump win Michigan in 2024 after many voters in the city were outraged by the Biden administration’s handling of the war in Gaza.
“The president of the United States saying that about a person because of his religion, that is just not acceptable,” said Bahbah. “And people are going to remember that on Nov. 3.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders, speaking at the Grand Rapids rally, said Trump and his allies were using Islamophobia because they have “nothing to say” about the issues most important to working people, such as health care, housing and income inequality.
“All they can do is foment hatred and divisiveness,” Sanders said.
Contentious campaign
Rogers and El Sayed have been locked in a bitter race to fill the seat of retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters.
During their second and final general election campaign debate, Rogers questioned El Sayed’s loyalty to the United States.
“Are you for America, or are you for these terrorist groups overseas?” Rogers asked.
El Sayed said that questioning was “shameful.”
“I’m proud of our Constitution that guarantees all of us the right to pray as we choose to pray,” he said.
Speaking before Trump’s appearance Sunday, Rogers repeated his allegations linking El Sayed to the Muslim Brotherhood.
“The Muslim Brotherhood celebrated exactly one victory in the United States in the primary this year,” Rogers said on stage. “Abdul El Sayed’s.”
Rally gets boost from Minaj
Trump has routinely announced new investments in factories at his campaign rallies, but he did not do so as part of his speech in Michigan, a state defined by the auto industry.
The president instead repeated investments already being made by domestic automakers. Those automakers could see their finances slump if the president expands his trade war with Canada, which has been an essential partner for the US automotive sector.
While it lacked a fresh promise for Michigan’s economy, Trump’s rally did deliver a bit of star power.
Rapper Nicki Minaj appeared on stage and urged people to get out and vote for the state’s Republican ticket. Her appearance followed an awkward moment from Trump, who has increasingly been fixated on commenting about other people’s body parts.
After praising the body of Ohio Sen. Jon Husted, a Republican in a close election contest, Trump turned his eye toward Minaj and commented on her posterior.
The president then signaled for Minaj to stand for the crowd and she did, after which Trump said, “I hope Nicki wasn’t insulted, but we love Nicki. She’s been with us for a long time.”