The Memo: El-Sayed allies argue Trump’s anti-Muslim attacks will backfire
✓Skip to content
President Trump is intensifying his anti-Muslim attacks on Abdul El-Sayed in the final stretch of campaigning before Election Day.
At a Sunday rally in Michigan, Trump unleashed a volley of Islamophobic comments against El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee who is seeking to become the first Muslim senator in history.
Trump said El-Sayed is “on the side of the terrorists” and alleged that if he and the Democrats prevail in the election “they will open the floodgates and invite hordes of jihadis to our shores, creating a nightmare of violence and terror.”
The president also insinuated that El-Sayed’s worldview was similar to the 9/11 hijackers and said that he should “have to go through a metal detector before he’s allowed to go into the Senate.”
The appeal to anti-Muslim prejudice is a world away even from the emotionally fraught days right after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Then-President George W. Bush visited the Islamic Center of Washington, D.C., six days after those attacks, emphasizing the positive contributions of Muslim Americans to U.S. life and saying, “The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam. That’s not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace.”
A quarter-century later, it would be impossible to imagine Trump expressing such sentiments.
He has referred numerous times to El-Sayed as a “jihadist” and has also invoked the candidate’s middle name, Mohamed, in a mocking way akin to his references to former President Obama’s full name, Barack Hussein Obama.
Trump has dismissed criticism of such tactics, saying last week, “I’m the president. I can call him whatever the hell I want.”
El-Sayed has largely sought to shrug off the attacks.
“I’ll be Senator Mohamed to you, bro,” he said Sunday during a rally on the other side of Michigan.
Obama, campaigning alongside El-Sayed and other Democratic candidates, also drew the parallel to his rhetorical battles with Trump in the past.
“We have seen this movie before,” Obama said Saturday in Detroit. “I starred in it. I have a long form birth certificate to prove it.”
Voices supportive of El-Sayed contend that the viciousness of the Trump attacks is likely to backfire, even if it appeals to some fervent members of the president’s base.
“It’s just a sign of desperation on Trump’s part and the part of the GOP,” said Matt Duss, executive vice president at the Center for International Policy. “We have seen them leaning into those kinds of remarks about Abdul — or attacks on others about ‘communism’ — because they have no achievements to run on. It’s trying to scare their base to the polls.”
It’s plausible that Islamophobic attacks from Trump will drive turnout up to even higher levels than might have been expected in Michigan’s Muslim communities.
Michigan has the highest concentration of Arab Americans in the nation — estimated at between 300,000 and 400,000 people. In the run-up to the 2024 presidential election, this dynamic powered some heated debates about the Biden-Harris administration’s policies on Israel and Gaza, likely helping Trump eke out a narrow victory in the state.
Abdelhalim Abdelrahman, the communications director of American Muslims for Palestine and a native of Michigan, called Trump’s most recent attacks on El-Sayed “horrible, disgusting and incendiary.”
But he added:
“For the longest time, Arab and Muslim Americans have been waiting for a moment like this, where someone with their name and background is ascending to some of the highest levels of the American system. Whenever we endure these kinds of hateful attacks, I think it hardens the resolve of the community.”
El-Sayed’s Republican opponent, former Rep. Mike Rogers, has stopped several notches short of Trump’s rhetoric.
Appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Rogers told NBC moderator Kristen Welker, “I’ve never called him a terrorist.”
Rogers did, however, say that El-Sayed had a “relationship with the thinking of the Muslim Brotherhood.”
Rogers made reference to an open letter El-Sayed signed in 2012 in support of then-newly elected Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, who was indeed affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood. The previous year, El-Sayed penned a HuffPost column urging the U.S. to support Egyptian street protests against Morsi’s autocratic, American-backed predecessor, Hosni Mubarak.
However, Morsi was democratically elected. El-Sayed’s HuffPost column was in effect arguing the Brotherhood was more moderate than it is often portrayed.
During the “Meet the Press” interview, Welker also resurfaced a quote from 2012 in which Rogers himself said that there were “moderate Muslim Brotherhood individuals” to whom the U.S. should reach out, though “we are going to have to watch it carefully.”
Rogers contended that Welker was “trying to twist this thing.”
For the moment, El-Sayed seems to have a slight advantage in a close race. The Hill’s data and polling partner Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ) gave the Democrat a 67 percent chance of prevailing as of Monday. DDHQ’s polling average shows El-Sayed leading by a little under 2 points.
Richard Czuba, founder of the Michigan-based Glengariff Group, a nonpartisan research firm, said that Trump’s attacks on El-Sayed could consolidate Democratic support beyond El-Sayed — for reasons beyond the Muslim issue itself.
He drew a parallel with how Trump’s jabs at Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) several years ago strengthened her hand for her 2022 reelection bid.
“We are seeing exactly the same thing about El-Sayed,” Czuba said. “Every time Trump opens his mouth and attacks him, Democrats — who came out of that polarized primary — put aside their concerns and rally to his side.”
El-Sayed defeated Rep. Haley Stevens (D) in a contentious August primary in which views of Israel loomed large.
David Dulio, a professor of political science at Michigan’s Oakland University, noted that, for all the media attention sparked by Trump’s attacks, economic issues still dominate. He said the campaign was “driven by the economy,” including rising gas prices.
“That’s not to say there aren’t folks out there who are being mobilized by those Trump attacks,” Dulio added. “I just think part of the strategy has been to make Abdul El-Sayed unacceptable as a U.S. senator. They have tried multiple tactics, and this is one of those areas of attack.”
Above all, Dulio also sounded a note of caution on predictions of the outcome.
“The state of the race is: It’s close,” he said.
The Memo is a reported column by Niall Stanage.
Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Read the full story at Al Jazeera ↗ · The Hill ↗
President Trump is intensifying his anti-Muslim attacks on Abdul El-Sayed in the final stretch of campaigning before Election Day. At a Sunday rally in Michigan, Trump unleashed a…
This lens runs the verified story through Cinnamon's AI — wired in the next step.
Skip to content
President Trump is intensifying his anti-Muslim attacks on Abdul El-Sayed in the final stretch of campaigning before Election Day.
At a Sunday rally in Michigan, Trump unleashed a volley of Islamophobic comments against El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee who is seeking to become the first Muslim senator in history.
Trump said El-Sayed is “on the side of the terrorists” and alleged that if he and the Democrats prevail in the election “they will open the floodgates and invite hordes of jihadis to our shores, creating a nightmare of violence and terror.”
The president also insinuated that El-Sayed’s worldview was similar to the 9/11 hijackers and said that he should “have to go through a metal detector before he’s allowed to go into the Senate.”
The appeal to anti-Muslim prejudice is a world away even from the emotionally fraught days right after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Then-President George W. Bush visited the Islamic Center of Washington, D.C., six days after those attacks, emphasizing the positive contributions of Muslim Americans to U.S. life and saying, “The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam. That’s not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace.”
A quarter-century later, it would be impossible to imagine Trump expressing such sentiments.
He has referred numerous times to El-Sayed as a “jihadist” and has also invoked the candidate’s middle name, Mohamed, in a mocking way akin to his references to former President Obama’s full name, Barack Hussein Obama.
Trump has dismissed criticism of such tactics, saying last week, “I’m the president. I can call him whatever the hell I want.”
El-Sayed has largely sought to shrug off the attacks.
“I’ll be Senator Mohamed to you, bro,” he said Sunday during a rally on the other side of Michigan.
Obama, campaigning alongside El-Sayed and other Democratic candidates, also drew the parallel to his rhetorical battles with Trump in the past.
“We have seen this movie before,” Obama said Saturday in Detroit. “I starred in it. I have a long form birth certificate to prove it.”
Voices supportive of El-Sayed contend that the viciousness of the Trump attacks is likely to backfire, even if it appeals to some fervent members of the president’s base.
“It’s just a sign of desperation on Trump’s part and the part of the GOP,” said Matt Duss, executive vice president at the Center for International Policy. “We have seen them leaning into those kinds of remarks about Abdul — or attacks on others about ‘communism’ — because they have no achievements to run on. It’s trying to scare their base to the polls.”
It’s plausible that Islamophobic attacks from Trump will drive turnout up to even higher levels than might have been expected in Michigan’s Muslim communities.
Michigan has the highest concentration of Arab Americans in the nation — estimated at between 300,000 and 400,000 people. In the run-up to the 2024 presidential election, this dynamic powered some heated debates about the Biden-Harris administration’s policies on Israel and Gaza, likely helping Trump eke out a narrow victory in the state.
Abdelhalim Abdelrahman, the communications director of American Muslims for Palestine and a native of Michigan, called Trump’s most recent attacks on El-Sayed “horrible, disgusting and incendiary.”
But he added:
“For the longest time, Arab and Muslim Americans have been waiting for a moment like this, where someone with their name and background is ascending to some of the highest levels of the American system. Whenever we endure these kinds of hateful attacks, I think it hardens the resolve of the community.”
El-Sayed’s Republican opponent, former Rep. Mike Rogers, has stopped several notches short of Trump’s rhetoric.
Appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Rogers told NBC moderator Kristen Welker, “I’ve never called him a terrorist.”
Rogers did, however, say that El-Sayed had a “relationship with the thinking of the Muslim Brotherhood.”
Rogers made reference to an open letter El-Sayed signed in 2012 in support of then-newly elected Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, who was indeed affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood. The previous year, El-Sayed penned a HuffPost column urging the U.S. to support Egyptian street protests against Morsi’s autocratic, American-backed predecessor, Hosni Mubarak.
However, Morsi was democratically elected. El-Sayed’s HuffPost column was in effect arguing the Brotherhood was more moderate than it is often portrayed.
During the “Meet the Press” interview, Welker also resurfaced a quote from 2012 in which Rogers himself said that there were “moderate Muslim Brotherhood individuals” to whom the U.S. should reach out, though “we are going to have to watch it carefully.”
Rogers contended that Welker was “trying to twist this thing.”
For the moment, El-Sayed seems to have a slight advantage in a close race. The Hill’s data and polling partner Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ) gave the Democrat a 67 percent chance of prevailing as of Monday. DDHQ’s polling average shows El-Sayed leading by a little under 2 points.
Richard Czuba, founder of the Michigan-based Glengariff Group, a nonpartisan research firm, said that Trump’s attacks on El-Sayed could consolidate Democratic support beyond El-Sayed — for reasons beyond the Muslim issue itself.
He drew a parallel with how Trump’s jabs at Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) several years ago strengthened her hand for her 2022 reelection bid.
“We are seeing exactly the same thing about El-Sayed,” Czuba said. “Every time Trump opens his mouth and attacks him, Democrats — who came out of that polarized primary — put aside their concerns and rally to his side.”
El-Sayed defeated Rep. Haley Stevens (D) in a contentious August primary in which views of Israel loomed large.
David Dulio, a professor of political science at Michigan’s Oakland University, noted that, for all the media attention sparked by Trump’s attacks, economic issues still dominate. He said the campaign was “driven by the economy,” including rising gas prices.
“That’s not to say there aren’t folks out there who are being mobilized by those Trump attacks,” Dulio added. “I just think part of the strategy has been to make Abdul El-Sayed unacceptable as a U.S. senator. They have tried multiple tactics, and this is one of those areas of attack.”
Above all, Dulio also sounded a note of caution on predictions of the outcome.
“The state of the race is: It’s close,” he said.
The Memo is a reported column by Niall Stanage.
Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Read the full story at Al Jazeera ↗ · The Hill ↗
Skip to content
President Trump is intensifying his anti-Muslim attacks on Abdul El-Sayed in the final stretch of campaigning before Election Day.
At a Sunday rally in Michigan, Trump unleashed a volley of Islamophobic comments against El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee who is seeking to become the first Muslim senator in history.
Trump said El-Sayed is “on the side of the terrorists” and alleged that if he and the Democrats prevail in the election “they will open the floodgates and invite hordes of jihadis to our shores, creating a nightmare of violence and terror.”
The president also insinuated that El-Sayed’s worldview was similar to the 9/11 hijackers and said that he should “have to go through a metal detector before he’s allowed to go into the Senate.”
The appeal to anti-Muslim prejudice is a world away even from the emotionally fraught days right after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Then-President George W. Bush visited the Islamic Center of Washington, D.C., six days after those attacks, emphasizing the positive contributions of Muslim Americans to U.S. life and saying, “The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam. That’s not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace.”
A quarter-century later, it would be impossible to imagine Trump expressing such sentiments.
He has referred numerous times to El-Sayed as a “jihadist” and has also invoked the candidate’s middle name, Mohamed, in a mocking way akin to his references to former President Obama’s full name, Barack Hussein Obama.
Trump has dismissed criticism of such tactics, saying last week, “I’m the president. I can call him whatever the hell I want.”
El-Sayed has largely sought to shrug off the attacks.
“I’ll be Senator Mohamed to you, bro,” he said Sunday during a rally on the other side of Michigan.
Obama, campaigning alongside El-Sayed and other Democratic candidates, also drew the parallel to his rhetorical battles with Trump in the past.
“We have seen this movie before,” Obama said Saturday in Detroit. “I starred in it. I have a long form birth certificate to prove it.”
Voices supportive of El-Sayed contend that the viciousness of the Trump attacks is likely to backfire, even if it appeals to some fervent members of the president’s base.
“It’s just a sign of desperation on Trump’s part and the part of the GOP,” said Matt Duss, executive vice president at the Center for International Policy. “We have seen them leaning into those kinds of remarks about Abdul — or attacks on others about ‘communism’ — because they have no achievements to run on. It’s trying to scare their base to the polls.”
It’s plausible that Islamophobic attacks from Trump will drive turnout up to even higher levels than might have been expected in Michigan’s Muslim communities.
Michigan has the highest concentration of Arab Americans in the nation — estimated at between 300,000 and 400,000 people. In the run-up to the 2024 presidential election, this dynamic powered some heated debates about the Biden-Harris administration’s policies on Israel and Gaza, likely helping Trump eke out a narrow victory in the state.
Abdelhalim Abdelrahman, the communications director of American Muslims for Palestine and a native of Michigan, called Trump’s most recent attacks on El-Sayed “horrible, disgusting and incendiary.”
But he added:
“For the longest time, Arab and Muslim Americans have been waiting for a moment like this, where someone with their name and background is ascending to some of the highest levels of the American system. Whenever we endure these kinds of hateful attacks, I think it hardens the resolve of the community.”
El-Sayed’s Republican opponent, former Rep. Mike Rogers, has stopped several notches short of Trump’s rhetoric.
Appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Rogers told NBC moderator Kristen Welker, “I’ve never called him a terrorist.”
Rogers did, however, say that El-Sayed had a “relationship with the thinking of the Muslim Brotherhood.”
Rogers made reference to an open letter El-Sayed signed in 2012 in support of then-newly elected Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, who was indeed affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood. The previous year, El-Sayed penned a HuffPost column urging the U.S. to support Egyptian street protests against Morsi’s autocratic, American-backed predecessor, Hosni Mubarak.
However, Morsi was democratically elected. El-Sayed’s HuffPost column was in effect arguing the Brotherhood was more moderate than it is often portrayed.
During the “Meet the Press” interview, Welker also resurfaced a quote from 2012 in which Rogers himself said that there were “moderate Muslim Brotherhood individuals” to whom the U.S. should reach out, though “we are going to have to watch it carefully.”
Rogers contended that Welker was “trying to twist this thing.”
For the moment, El-Sayed seems to have a slight advantage in a close race. The Hill’s data and polling partner Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ) gave the Democrat a 67 percent chance of prevailing as of Monday. DDHQ’s polling average shows El-Sayed leading by a little under 2 points.
Richard Czuba, founder of the Michigan-based Glengariff Group, a nonpartisan research firm, said that Trump’s attacks on El-Sayed could consolidate Democratic support beyond El-Sayed — for reasons beyond the Muslim issue itself.
He drew a parallel with how Trump’s jabs at Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) several years ago strengthened her hand for her 2022 reelection bid.
“We are seeing exactly the same thing about El-Sayed,” Czuba said. “Every time Trump opens his mouth and attacks him, Democrats — who came out of that polarized primary — put aside their concerns and rally to his side.”
El-Sayed defeated Rep. Haley Stevens (D) in a contentious August primary in which views of Israel loomed large.
David Dulio, a professor of political science at Michigan’s Oakland University, noted that, for all the media attention sparked by Trump’s attacks, economic issues still dominate. He said the campaign was “driven by the economy,” including rising gas prices.
“That’s not to say there aren’t folks out there who are being mobilized by those Trump attacks,” Dulio added. “I just think part of the strategy has been to make Abdul El-Sayed unacceptable as a U.S. senator. They have tried multiple tactics, and this is one of those areas of attack.”
Above all, Dulio also sounded a note of caution on predictions of the outcome.
“The state of the race is: It’s close,” he said.
The Memo is a reported column by Niall Stanage.
Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Read the full story at Al Jazeera ↗ · The Hill ↗
This lens runs the verified story through Cinnamon's AI — wired in the next step.
- President Trump is intensifying his anti-Muslim attacks on Abdul El-Sayed in the final stretch of campaigning before Election Day.
- At a Sunday rally in Michigan, Trump unleashed a…