US: Donald Trump escalates attacks on Abdul El-Sayed, a Muslim candidate for the Senate
If Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed wins, he would become the first Muslim US senator. President Donald Trump called him a "jihadist"; the candidate dismissed the remarks as a "distraction."
If Abdul El-Sayed, the Michigan Democratic candidate for the US Senate, wins the November 3 midterm vote, he would become the first Muslim senator in US history. In the closing weeks of the campaign, President Donald Trump escalated attacks targeting the candidate's faith.
What Trump said
At a rally in Port Huron, Michigan on October 25, 2026, Donald Trump called Abdul El-Sayed a "jihadist" and a supporter of terrorists. Portraying him as a national-security threat, the president said El-Sayed would have to pass through a "metal detector" before entering the Senate. Trump also claimed El-Sayed wants to impose "Sharia law" and "should be the first one tried," and warned that if Democrats win, "hordes of jihadists" would come and Americans could not even celebrate Christmas.
El-Sayed's response
At a news conference in Detroit on October 26, Abdul El-Sayed dismissed the remarks as a "distraction." "My name and my faith are not the reason you can't afford your gas," he said, accusing Trump of diverting attention from real issues such as gas prices and the war with Iran.
Who is the candidate?
Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed, 41, is an epidemiologist and physician born to Egyptian immigrant parents, with a medical degree from Columbia and a doctorate in public health from Oxford. He led the Detroit Health Department from 2015 to 2017, ran for Michigan governor in 2018 (losing to Gretchen Whitmer), and later directed the Wayne County health department. In the August 5, 2026 primary he defeated Haley Stevens 48.4% to 47.6%, despite nearly $65 million in outside spending against him.
Michigan and the Arab community
Michigan is home to one of the largest Arab and Muslim communities in the US: roughly 400,000 Arab Americans and about 250,000 Muslims. Dearborn, near Detroit, is known as the "capital of Arab America." In the general election, El-Sayed is running nearly even with Republican former congressman Mike Rogers.
The rebuke
Trump's words were condemned even by his own allies. Bishara Bahbah, a founder of the "Arab Americans for Trump" group that helped the president's 2024 outreach to Arab American voters, called the remarks racist: "The remarks are out of line and crazy. No sane individual would say these things," he said. The group later changed its name to "Arab Americans for Peace."
