President Donald Trump intensified his anti-Muslim rhetoric against Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed during a Sunday campaign rally in Port Huron, calling the progressive Democrat a jihadist and questioning his loyalty. The remarks drew sharp rebukes from Arab American leaders ahead of the November 3 midterm elections.
The remarks in Port Huron placed the Michigan Senate contest at the center of national political polarization. President Donald Trump bashed El-Sayed in terms that directly compared stopping his potential entry into the United States Senate to the passengers who fought back against hijackers aboard United Flight 93 on September 11, 2001. The rally came as El-Sayed seeks to become the nation’s first Muslim senator, facing Republican nominee Mike Rogers in a race that polls show is tightly contested.
Port Huron Rally Tariffs and Attacks on El-Sayed
Before taking the stage at McMorran Place Sports and Entertainment Center on October 25, 2026, Trump discussed trade and foreign policy with local media, noting that a tariff deal with Canada could take months or resolve before the election, while the war in Iran would require certainty regarding nuclear capabilities (according to an interview with FOX 2’s Roop Raj). Once inside the arena, the president shifted focus to the Senate race.
🔴 WATCH: Trump invokes Flight 93 passenger Todd Beamer to urge Abdul El-Sayed’s defeat: “Twenty-five years later, Michigan needs to stand up and fight, just like Todd did, to stop a jihadist from walking into the Capitol.”Full story: https://t.co/VqkW07nPdq pic.twitter.com/Siz08f8Mkl
I’m here today to keep a jihadist … Muslim Brotherhood member from becoming a United States senator,
Trump told the crowd, as Michigan Advance reported. The president suggested that Congress would need to install a special metal detector to scan El-Sayed before allowing him into the chamber.
Bishara Bahbah and Arab American Leaders Express Regret
The rhetoric drew immediate condemnation from Bishara Bahbah, a founder of Arab Americans for Trump, the organization that coordinated Arab American voter outreach during the 2024 presidential election. Bahbah, who now chairs Arab Americans for Peace, stated that the president’s comments crossed a red line.
Bishara Bahbah said the president’s statements were out of line and were crossing a red line, adding that the president of the United States saying that about a person because of his religion is not acceptable and that people are going to remember that on Nov. 3.
While Arab American voters in cities like Dearborn helped carry Michigan for Trump in 2024 amid deep frustration with the Biden administration’s handling of the war in Gaza, Bahbah and other community leaders noted that the current campaign has alienated voters who once supported the Republican ticket.
Abdul El-Sayed Responds With a Polygraph Challenge
El-Sayed shrugged off the attacks on his faith while escalating his political counter-offensive. Speaking at a campaign event in Kalamazoo, Michigan, he issued a direct challenge to the president regarding the proposed metal detector requirement (as reported by Al-Quds).
I am prepared to pass through a metal detector daily, provided that Trump agrees to undergo a lie detector test once.
Abdul El-Sayed, Democratic U.S. Senate candidate
The race has also experienced turbulence on the Democratic side. Haley Stevens, who lost to El-Sayed in the August primary election, endorsed Republican Mike Rogers after refusing to appear alongside El-Sayed at a joint campaign event (The Guardian detailed). Trump praised Stevens for the defection during subsequent rallies in Iowa and Kansas, while Rogers continued to press claims regarding El-Sayed’s background on stage.
Mike Rogers and Senate Control Stakes
The outcome in Michigan carries national consequences for control of the upper chamber. A victory by Mike Rogers would mark the first time Republicans have held one of Michigan’s Senate seats in two decades and would eliminate the easiest path for Democrats to take control of the Senate, forcing them instead to win three states that Trump won by more than 10 percentage points (according to HuffPost’s analysis of the electoral map).
Polling released ahead of the election showed El-Sayed leading Rogers, even as likely voters surveyed expressed concerns about a Muslim candidate. With both parties staging final rallies across the Midwest, voters head to the polls on November 3 to decide the retiring Gary Peters’s Senate seat (Al-Quds reported).