Trump Calls Michigan Senate Nominee El-Sayed a 'Jihadist' as Arab American Ally Cries Racism
At a rally in Port Huron, the president said Abdul El-Sayed was 'on the side of the terrorists.' A founder of Arab Americans for Trump called the remarks a 'red line.'
PORT HURON, Mich. — President Donald Trump sharply escalated his attacks on Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed on Sunday, calling him a "jihadist" who was "on the side of the terrorists" and questioning his loyalty to the United States. The remarks drew a rebuke from a former top Arab American ally of the president.
Speaking at a rally in Port Huron, a Canadian border city about an hour north of Detroit, Trump said El-Sayed, a former Detroit health official, would "have to go through a metal detector before he's allowed to go into the Senate." He repeatedly invoked the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, comparing the effort to keep El-Sayed out of the Senate chamber with the passengers who fought back against the hijackers aboard United Flight 93. Trump said he had come to Michigan "to keep a jihadist Muslim Brotherhood member from becoming a United States senator." He also attacked Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.
Bishara Bahbah, a founder of Arab Americans for Trump, the group that helped lead the president's outreach to Arab American voters in 2024, said Trump had gone too far. "The president's statements are out of line," Bahbah said in a phone interview. "They are crossing a red line. They are racist." His organization has since renamed itself Arab Americans for Peace. "The president of the United States saying that about a person because of his religion, that is just not acceptable," Bahbah said. "And people are going to remember that on Nov. 3."
El-Sayed, who would become the nation's first Muslim senator if elected, has called attacks on his loyalty "shameful" and has repeatedly denied any ties to extremist groups. At a rally in Grand Rapids later Sunday, he said he does not care how Trump pronounces or misrepresents his name. "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 told supporters. "I will be Senator Muhammad to you, bro." Sen. Bernie Sanders, who spoke at the same rally, said Trump and his allies were using Islamophobia because they have "nothing to say" about health care, housing and income inequality.
Republicans have spent the closing weeks of the campaign trying to link El-Sayed to the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamic movement with branches the U.S. government has designated as terrorist organizations. NPR reported there is no evidence that El-Sayed has any affiliation with the group. His half-sister, Eman Abdelhadi, wrote on social media in 2012 that "my family has long been MB" and described her mother's involvement in the organization in the early 1970s. El-Sayed was born in the United States to Egyptian immigrant parents who divorced when he was young, and his father raised him.
Trump also went after El-Sayed's ties to the popular streamer Hasan Piker, who appeared alongside the Democrat several times during the primary, including at his election night event. Piker has said in the past that "Hamas is a thousand times better" than Israel and that "America deserved 9/11." El-Sayed has faced criticism of his own. He has repeatedly declined to say whether Iran or Israel poses the greater threat to the country, and earlier this year he said "hurt people hurt people" after an attack on a synagogue in the Detroit area. He later apologized, saying, "To anyone who feels like my comments might have been hurtful, I'm really sorry."
The race between El-Sayed and Republican Mike Rogers, to fill the seat of retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters, is among a handful that could decide control of the Senate. In the candidates' second and final debate, Rogers asked El-Sayed, "Are you for America, or are you for these terrorist groups overseas?" El-Sayed called the question shameful and said he was proud of a Constitution "that guarantees all of us the right to pray as we choose to pray."
With Republicans on the defensive over inflation, soaring fuel prices and the Iran war, Trump has leaned on portraying Democrats as existential threats rather than electoral rivals, in part to drive turnout. Port Huron sits near communities where he made significant gains among Arab American voters in 2024, when he became the first Republican presidential candidate since 2000 to win Dearborn. This time, he offered no new factory announcement, a staple of his earlier rallies. Rapper Nicki Minaj appeared on stage to urge Michigan voters to back the Republican ticket.
