(AFP) – A Muslim candidate for US Senate accused Donald Trump of “struggling” on Thursday after the president misnamed him “Mohammed” on social media amid increasingly bitter exchanges between the two men. Trump attacked the left-wing Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed on his Truth Social platform, baselessly accusing him of being a “Terrorist Sympathizer.”
El-Sayed, an Arab American running for a Michigan senate seat that could decide which party wins the US upper chamber in knife-edge midterm elections next month, said, “I think Donald might be struggling a little bit.” “He thinks my name’s Mohammed … My name’s Abdul, and you know it. And the only reason he won’t say it is I keep ripping you,” El-Sayed said at a campaign event in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
“So try again and get it right because we’re going to teach you how to say it properly,” he added to laughter at a restaurant photo-op, where he was joined by Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Delaware Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester. Like many Muslim men, El-Sayed’s middle name is Mohamed, but he does not use it publicly.
Trump and his supporters have fixated on El-Sayed, accusing him and his family of ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and the Al-Qaeda jihadist group. Trump said El-Sayed, locked in a knife-edge race with Republican Mike Rogers, was the “best friend” of “America Hating Hasan Piker,” the left-wing influencer who campaigned for El-Sayed during the Democratic primary.
The Michigan Senate seat is considered essential to Democratic hopes of regaining the Senate. The party aims to retain the Michigan seat in Democratic hands while wresting four other seats in the 100-member chamber from Republicans. The midwestern state backed Trump in the 2024 presidential election, even as Democrat Elissa Slotkin narrowly defeated Rogers for Michigan’s other Senate seat.
El-Sayed was backed by progressive leaders including Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Elizabeth Warren, as well as the United Auto Workers union. His platform includes health care for all, higher taxes on billionaires, ending unconditional US military aid to Israel, and reducing the role of corporate money in elections.
© 2024 AFP
