President Donald Trump intensified his attacks on Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed at a rally in Port Huron on Sunday, portraying the Democrat as a threat to national security and questioning his loyalty to the United States, the Associated Press reported. Trump called El-Sayed, a former Detroit health official born in Michigan, a jihadist who was on the side of the terrorists, and said he would be the only senator that will have to go through a metal detector before he is allowed to go into the Senate. He said he was there to keep a jihadist Muslim Brotherhood member from becoming a United States senator, presenting no evidence for the characterisation.
Trump repeatedly invoked the September 11, 2001 attacks, drawing a comparison between stopping El-Sayed from entering the Senate and the passengers who fought the hijackers aboard United Flight 93. David Beamer, whose son Todd died on Flight 93, spoke at the rally and said a birth certificate does not make you American. Both Senate candidates in this race were born in Michigan. Twenty five years later, Michigan needs to stand up and fight just like Todd did to stop a jihadist from walking into the Capitol, Trump said.
The reaction cut across the president’s own coalition. Bishara Bahbah, a founder of Arab Americans for Trump, the group that led the president’s outreach to Arab American voters in 2024, said the statements are out of line, are crossing a red line, and are racist. Republican candidate Mike Rogers, who appeared at the rally, distanced himself on NBC’s Meet the Press the same day, saying the race is about me versus Abdul and that he has never called El-Sayed a terrorist. El-Sayed, who would be the first Muslim elected to the US Senate, has called attacks on his loyalty shameful and has repeatedly denied any ties to extremist groups. Former president Barack Obama campaigned for El-Sayed in Michigan this weekend, in the endorsement covered in yesterday’s roundup on this site.
The race for Michigan’s open seat is among a handful that could determine control of the Senate. With Republicans defending their majority while inflation, fuel prices and the Iran war weigh on their candidates, the president has spent the closing weekend framing Democratic candidates as existential threats rather than electoral rivals, the AP reported. Port Huron sits in an area that gave Trump 66 percent of its vote in 2024. Michigan votes on November 3.