Abdul El-Sayed says Donald Trump is using his name and faith to distract voters from rising costs at the pump, grocery store and doctor’s office as Republicans face difficult midterm prospects. Trump called the Michigan Democratic Senate candidate “Mohammed” and later “a jihadist.” El-Sayed said the attacks targeted more than him: they targeted voters who share his faith.
Costs and the campaign
Trump’s approval rating stood at 33% in the latest CNN poll of polls, three weeks before the midterm election. Polls showed majorities of Americans blamed his decisions for worsening their struggles with high food, housing, gasoline and diesel costs. Trump and Vice President JD Vance have campaigned in red states where Republicans hadn’t expected to fight in the final stretch.
El-Sayed, formerly executive director of the Detroit Health Department, addressed the attacks on X. “He knows my name is Abdul. He says it everyday,” he wrote. “But he's not just attacking me. He's attacking all of us. He thinks so low of us. He thinks he can use my name and my faith to distract us from the suffering his policies are inflicting on us at the pump, at the grocery store, and at the doctor's office.”
Trump attacked El-Sayed in Tennessee on Saturday. “I call him Mohammed,” Trump said. “Somebody said, 'His name isn't Mohammed' I'm the president, I can call him whatever the hell I want.” On Monday night in Ohio, Trump added, “He's a jihadist.” The races involving El-Sayed and James Talarico were expected to go down to the wire on November 3.
Republicans have sought attention for El-Sayed’s claim that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza shortly after the October 7 attacks. Those attacks killed more than 1,200 people, mostly Israelis, in 2023; tens of thousands of Palestinians were killed in the Israel-Hamas war, according to the article.
Political enemies and state power
Federal officials searched the home of Somali-born Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar on Monday. Trump then questioned whether she had constitutional rights as a naturalized citizen “from one of the worst countries anywhere on the planet.” The Department of Justice said it conducted an enforcement operation at Omar’s home. Independent verification of evidence or accusations against her wasn’t yet possible. Omar said Trump had smeared her for years and was now targeting her as a political enemy.
Trump said Omar was bringing what he depicted as Somalia’s anarchy to Minnesota. “She's a disaster. She comes in from a country without laws, without police, without military, without — all they do is shoot each other,” he said in Ohio on Monday. “They come into the United States of America and they tell us how to run our country. We're not going to stand for it. They drive up taxes. They drive up healthcare costs, insurance costs, childcare costs.”
Minnesota welcomed tens of thousands of Somalis in the early 1990s after their country collapsed into violence. The administration says the community includes violent criminals and widespread fraud centered in day care centers. Somali leaders say violent criminals make up a tiny minority and that Trump and Republicans malign the community without justification.
Rivals under attack
Vance called Talarico a “freak” in Texas on Tuesday, apparently trying to distract from struggling, scandal-plagued GOP Senate candidate Attorney General Ken Paxton, whom Trump had personally selected for the seat. Vance also joked in a way that implied Talarico is gay. Trump has repeatedly claimed Talarico is a vegan incompatible with Texas; Talarico now often appears in pictures with a plate of meat.
Trump has revived racially derogatory rhetoric suggesting Haitians and Africans are invading key election states such as Ohio. His aides deny he is racist or uses racist rhetoric, pointing to events marking occasions such as Black History Month and increased support among minority voters in the 2024 election.
Party leaders commonly try to disqualify rivals they can’t beat on policy issues. Trump’s attacks on Muslim candidates parallel his descriptions of Democrats as “socialists” and “communists.” El-Sayed said the name-calling insulted voters’ intelligence. His campaign is putting food, housing, fuel and health costs before them.