Trump dials up Islamophobia against Abdul El-Sayed at Michigan Senate rally
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Port Huron, Michigan – United States President Donald Trump has sharpened his anti-Muslim attacks against Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, going so far as to suggest that Christmas would be cancelled if the progressive doctor won.
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Trump visited Michigan on Sunday to shore up support for Republican candidates in the Midwestern state ahead of the midterm elections on November 3.
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But from his podium, he levelled unfounded allegations against El-Sayed, including calling him a “jihadist”.
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“He would be the only senator that will have to go through a metal detector before he’s allowed to go into the Senate,” Trump said of El-Sayed.
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The president, whose popularity has been slipping in part due to the US-Israel war on Iran, spoke for nearly two hours to hundreds of supporters.
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His remarks largely focused on Michigan’s Senate election, which is one of only about seven toss-up races for the upper chamber of Congress.
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El-Sayed faces Republican candidate Mike Rogers for the state’s open Senate seat, and the race is considered crucial for Republicans to retain control of the 100-member Senate.
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If Rogers wins, he would flip a seat currently held by retiring Democratic Senator Gary Peters, leaving Democrats with the difficult task of flipping five other seats to regain control of the chamber.
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Currently, Republicans have a 53-seat majority in the Senate. Only 35 Senate positions are up for election in 2026.
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Here are five key takeaways from the Republican event.
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While Trump has repeatedly targeted El-Sayed’s Muslim identity in recent weeks, including by misrepresenting the Democrat’s name as “Mohammed”, the US president took his rhetoric to new heights on Sunday.
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Throughout the speech, Trump returned to themes related to El-Sayed’s Muslim faith, falsely accusing the candidate of wanting to impose Islamic law in the US.
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“So Abdul… also wants our country to go to Sharia law, and if he ever pulls that off, he should be the first one that’s tried. I’ll be a witness,” Trump said, apparently imagining El-Sayed being tried in a religious court.
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Several times during the rally, some attendees blurted out “traitor” when El-Sayed’s name was mentioned.
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“I’m here to keep a jihadist Muslim Brotherhood member from becoming a United States senator,” Trump said.
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El-Sayed is a US-born citizen and former public health official who has pledged to uphold the Constitution. There is no evidence that he was ever a member of the Muslim Brotherhood or any foreign organisation.
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Since Trump first ran for president during the 2016 election cycle, he has weaponised anti-Muslim bigotry for political gain.
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In 2015, for instance – near the beginning of his first successful campaign – Trump said he would support “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States”.
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Less than two years later, Trump used the presidency to sign a short-lived executive order barring travel from multiple Muslim-majority countries, what became known as the “Muslim ban”.
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In Sunday’s speech, Trump appealed once more to fears of Muslim immigration.
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“If Abdul and the Democrats win, they will open the floodgates and invite hordes of jihadists to our shores, creating a nightmare of violence and terror until you cannot even have a Christmas,” Trump said.
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El-Sayed has previously largely dismissed the anti-Muslim rhetoric against him as an attempt to create “distractions”, saying he is focused more on domestic issues, including lowering the cost of living and expanding access to healthcare.
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With Trump’s approval ratings plummeting, some Republican candidates in tight races have kept their distance from the president.
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Rogers has previously called for an end to the Iran war and expressed reservations about Trump’s tariff campaign, urging an end to the trade war with Canada, which borders Michigan.
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But Rogers attended Sunday’s rally and took the stage alongside Trump in a display of mutual support.
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A survey by the research firm Marketing Resource Group suggested earlier this month that only 35 percent of voters in Michigan view Trump positively.
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Rogers set the tone for the anti-Muslim attacks against El-Sayed earlier in the rally, also claiming the Democrat is connected to the Muslim Brotherhood, a political movement in Egypt designated as a “terrorist” group by the US this year.
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As a congressman, however, Rogers voted in 2012 to continue US aid to Egypt under Muslim Brotherhood President Mohamed Morsi.
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In Sunday’s speech, Rogers also tried to paint El-Sayed as part of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), but unlike other progressives, El-Sayed is not a member of the left-wing group.
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“This DSA-affiliated candidate is also taking a lot of money from organizations that support the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas and Hezbollah,” Rogers said, without offering evidence.
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All three groups are designated as “terrorist” organisations in the US, making it illegal to provide any material support to them.
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On Sunday, the average price of a gallon (3.8 litres) of petrol in Michigan was $4.83, up from $2.91 before the start of the war on Iran.
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Tehran has restricted passage through the Strait of Hormuz in response to the war, sending energy prices soaring.
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Trump initially promised the conflict would only last four to six weeks.
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But nearly eight months after the US and Israel launched the war on February 28, the conflict is showing no signs of concluding.
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On Sunday, Trump said he has no regrets about the war.
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“I made that decision, and I have no second guess,” Trump told the crowd.
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He added that he thought petrol prices would have increased by much more than they had. He also defended his decision by referencing the threat of nuclear warfare.
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“The number one state sponsor of terror is Iran by far, and we had to make sure they didn’t have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said.
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Iran has denied seeking a nuclear weapon. It has long argued its uranium enrichment programme is for civilian energy production.
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Before the war, Trump also argued that US strikes against Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities in June 2025 had completely “obliterated” the country’s nuclear programme.
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Despite the economic anxiety related to the cost of living and skyrocketing petrol prices, Trump bragged about the amount of profit US oil companies are making from the war.
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Demand for energy products has increased globally in recent months, as supply chains tighten.
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“Our country is making hundreds of billions of dollars because of what’s happened in the Middle East, because they’re coming to Texas, and they’re coming to Oklahoma, and they’re coming to Louisiana, and they’re taking that oil,” Trump said. “They’re making hundreds of billions of dollars.” Trump added that his advisers asked him not to bring up this issue because “people are paying a little higher” for petrol and gas.
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“I could just see the fake headline: ‘President Trump is talking about all the money they’re making while people are suffering at the pump.’ That’ll be the headline.
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I said, ‘I don’t give a damn. I’m going to say it. We’re making a freaking fortune,'” the US president said. A line of Trump supporters stretched several blocks outside the rally on Sunday.
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Attendees, dressed in Make America Great Again (MAGA) gear, filled the hockey arena where Trump spoke.
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The crowd roared and laughed with Trump, with attendees frequently blurting out expressions of admiration for the president and insults against his opponents, especially El-Sayed.
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Trump may appear politically on the back foot amid dwindling popularity and mounting anger over inflation and the Iran war.
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But the president has highlighted his continued ability to mobilise his core MAGA base, often pointing to his crowd size as a metric for his success as a campaigner.
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The audience remained engaged and seated throughout the speech on Sunday.
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At one point, the address took a bizarre turn as the president spoke about the backside of Jon Husted, a Republican incumbent from Ohio competing in another tight Senate race.
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“I looked at his a**, and I’ve never done that with a man before. Women? Yes. Men?
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No,” Trump said. The US president also complimented the derriere of the rapper Nicki Minaj, one of his prominent supporters in attendance.
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“By the way, I looked at one hell of a beautiful a** before: Nicki Minaj.
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That’s hard to miss,” Trump said.
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