Donald Trump has launched an unhinged Truth Social attack on the Democratic Senate candidate from Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed.
Feeling the looming specter of the midterm elections, the 80-year-old president appealed directly to Michiganders in a video. “To the people of Michigan, Mohamed Al-Sayed is bad news,” he said, purposely using the budding senator’s middle name instead of his first.
He then launched into a series of unsubstantiated claims about El-Sayed he’s rolled out regularly of late, as the elections creep closer. “He’s a Muslim radical. He’s a Muslim Brotherhood member, even though he denies it. All you have to do is look at his past correspondence. And we cannot take a chance on having this guy be in the United States Senate,” he said.
El-Sayed, whose full name is Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed, is vying for Michigan’s open Senate seat against Trump’s pick, former congressman Mike Rogers. Incumbent Democratic Sen. Gary Peters is retiring at the end of his term.
“We have somebody who’s great, Mike Rogers. He’s all about making America great again, whereas Mohamed is about making America terrible like it was just two years ago. We were in the dark ages. Now we’re in the golden age of America. Let’s keep it that way. Don’t vote for Mohamed El-Sayed. He’s not for us, and he hates our country,” Trump ranted on.
Trump’s use of El-Sayed’s middle name, which he consistently misspells, appears to be part of a dog-whistle tactic against the candidate, who would be the first Muslim elected to the U.S. Senate.
Trump has repeatedly used El-Sayed’s faith as a stick to beat him with, attempting to paint him as an Islamist extremist. After Rogers and El-Sayed debated earlier this month, the president again used inflammatory anti-Muslim language against El-Sayed, labeling him a “Jihadist lunatic.”
Trump has also lashed out at Fox News for interviewing El-Sayed, accusing the network of helping Democratic candidates as concern mounts over Republican prospects on Nov. 3.
Republicans currently hold a 53-47 Senate majority, with Michigan among the battlegrounds that could determine control of the chamber. The RealClearPolling average puts El-Sayed ahead of Rogers by 2.7 percentage points, 48.4 percent to 45.7 percent.
