USA02 November, 20262 min read
Archive photo · 2 June 2025Trump Calls Abdul El-Sayed Jihadist, Says Senate Must Install Metal Detectors
“From President Donald Trump to Health Secretary Robert F.”
“The president repeated his claim that Abdul El-Sayed, a Democratic US Senate hopeful from Michigan, is a ‘jihadist’”
Photo: Daniel Torok / US federal government, Public domain · Cropped for layout
This article is an automated aggregation of coverage from news outlets. Our editorials offer in-depth analysis curated by the NewsCord team.
Trump called Abdul El-Sayed a jihadist during campaign events in Iowa and Kansas. Islamophobia and anti-Arab rhetoric from U.S. leaders featured in coverage.
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Trump targets El-Sayed
United States President Donald Trump doubled down on Islamophobic rhetoric and conspiracy theories about the Democratic Party at campaign events in Iowa and Kansas days before the US votes in crucial midterm elections on November 3. Trump repeated his claim that Abdul El-Sayed, a Democratic US Senate hopeful from Michigan, is a “jihadist” at both rallies on Sunday, and he joked that if El-Sayed gets elected, the Senate will have to install metal detectors to scan him before he enters the building. Trump also repeated his claim that El-Sayed is a member of the transnational Muslim Brotherhood, and Trump urged supporters to “pretend I’m on the ballot” as he sought to energise Republican voters.
“The US will vote in the midterm elections on November 3.”
In Iowa, Trump said he would “love” Democratic Representative Haley Stevens, who lost to Abdul El-Sayed in the primaries, to switch parties after she endorsed El-Sayed’s Republican opponent, Mike Rogers. In Kansas, Trump attacked Democratic Senate hopeful Adam Hamilton, a church pastor, for his support for trans rights and called him a “stiff” who reads his sermons from teleprompters.
Metal detector and backlash
Trump told crowds at both events that the Senate would have to install a metal detector for Abdul, and he said, “We’re gonna have to get a special metal detector for Abdul,” drawing laughter from the crowd. In a separate account of the same campaign stretch, Al Arabi Al-Jadid described Trump’s strategy as including an “anti-Islamophobia campaign against candidate Abdulrahman Mohammed Al-Sayyid,” while also framing the broader polling and election stakes.
Islamophobia and anti-Arab hate are “absolutely outrageous” and Trump’s remarks about Abdul El-Sayed include Trump’s claim that El-Sayed is a “Muslim Brotherhood Jihadist, who hates Jews and Blacks and AMERICANS.” Republican Senator Ted Cruz’s campaign rhetoric includes Cruz’s claim that his nickname for Abdul El-Sayed is “the jihadist leprechaun.”
What the election decides
Kansas has five federal congressional seats up for election in the midterms, including one Senate seat and all four House seats, and the state last elected a Democratic senator in 1932.
Iowa’s Senate race is too close to call, while polling suggests two Iowan state representative seats up for grabs are leaning Democrat.
Abdul El-Sayed’s final stretch of the campaign in Michigan has been shaped by “Xenophobia and attacks against immigrants,” and residents in Detroit and nearby areas reported “racist protests.”
Dearborn, next to Detroit, is a hub of Arab-origin population, and it reported that Dearborn has roughly 110,000 inhabitants and about 60% have roots in Middle Eastern countries.
Teresa Amaya of the Mexicantown neighborhood said, “There is a lot of debate and the people who are against El-Sayed are also against migration. There have been racist protests,” and attorney Emily Thomas described the elections as “fundamental to protect the rule of law.”
