In the lead-up to the Presidential election, much was made of the loud minority of voters in Michigan turning against Kamala Harris in the key swing state of Michigan. Especially on social media, it seemed like there was a never-ending supply of Muslim voters angry at the ‘complicity’ of the Vice President when it comes to Israel and Gaza.
But since the election, as a second Trump term comes into focus, religious leaders, who supported the former president have expressed extreme frustration over Trump’s recent cabinet selections.
Dearborn, Michigan is the largest majority Arab American city in the U.S. with 55 percent of the city’s 110,000 residents having Middle Eastern or North African ancestry, a 2023 census found. In previous election cycles it has always been a Democratic stronghold. Not this time. Trump visited the town during the campaign, and won 47 percent of the votes, compared with 28 percent for Harris and 22 percent going to Jill Stein, the presidential candidate for the Green Party.
Donald Trump meets Arab voters in Michigan (Getty Images) [Missing Credit]
Abed Hammoud, a well-respected figure in the Detroit-area legal community, was born in Lebanon and lives in Dearborn. He is the founder of the Arab American Political Action Committee (AAPAC). Although previously a committed Democrat – he was a delegate for Al Gore in 2000 - this election cycle was different for him and he struggled. He felt that Harris had shown unconditional support to Israel during the war in Gaza, and like many in his community, wanted to show the Democrats that the Arab American vote could no longer be taken for granted. “Don’t vote for Trump or Harris was our message,” he said.
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Hammoud said that he knew of Arab American families that had voted for Trump, believing that Trump might be able to stop the war quicker. “Some people also feel a commonality with Trump’s so-called conservative values which they believe are more similar to Islam’s values,” he explained.
In some ways he is relieved that the election results were so resoundingly in favour of Trump across the country that Michigan’s swing state result in favour of Trump couldn’t be blamed on the Arab American vote. He says people’s reactions in the community, particularly among those that wanted to chastise Harris and the Democrats, are mixed. “The vocal ones were very excited saying “Peace is coming, peace is coming” but now the gloating has stopped,” he said.
Hammoud, along with many Arab Americans, is alarmed by the choices that President-elect Trump is making for his cabinet but adds: “I can’t say I’m shocked.” Mike Huckabee, the former Governor of Arkansas who once said “there’s really no such thing as a Palestinian” is nominated for the position of Ambassador to Israel.“
Mike Huckabee (Getty Images)Getty Images
“We were always extremely sceptical,” Abandon Harris campaign co-founder Hassan Abdel Salam, a former professor at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, told Reuters. “Obviously we’re still waiting to see where the administration will go, but it does look like our community has been played.”
Rabiul Chowdhury, a Philadelphia investor who chaired the Abandon Harris campaign in Pennsylvania and co-founded Muslims for Trump, added: “Trump won because of us and we’re not happy with his secretary of state pick and others.” For the role of secretary of state, Trump selected Republican senator Marco Rubio, a staunch supporter of Israel.
Earlier this year, Rubio said he would not call for a ceasefire in Gaza, and that Israel should destroy “every element” of Hamas. “These people are vicious animals,” he added.
To serve as US ambassador to the UN, Trump selected Republican Representative Elise Stefanik, who called the UN a “cesspool of antisemitism” for its condemnation of deaths in Gaza.
“It seems like this administration has been packed entirely with neoconservatives and extremely pro-Israel, pro-war people, which is a failure on the on the side of President Trump, to the pro-peace and anti-war movement,” Rexhinaldo Nazarko, executive director of the American Muslim Engagement and Empowerment Network (AMEEN), told Reuters.
Blaise Misztal, vice president for policy at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA), said: “President Trump and his administration are going to take the region, the Middle East, the threats confronting Israel, seriously and take the US friendship with Israel seriously.”
