Trump focuses closing message on anti-Muslim racism, with attacks on Abdul El-Sayed, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib Donald Trump made anti-Muslim racism a focus of his attacks on Democrats in remarks in Kansas on Monday, with attacks on Abdul El-Sayed, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, and gratuitous mentions of Barack Obama’s middle name.
“Democrats are the party of Abdul Mohammad El-Sayed,” Trump said of the Michigan Senate candidate.
The president then repeated his riff about what a brilliant move it was for him to stop using El-Sayed’s first name and instead call him “Mohammed El-Sayed”, to better stoke Islamophobia.
“You know, he got very upset because I called him Mohammad. I just felt like it. Somebody said, ‘How did you do that?’ I said, ‘I’m the president, I can call him whatever the hell I want’”, Trump said.
“And actually his middle name is Mohammad,” the president added, before adding: “One good thing if you call somebody from that part of the world Mohammad, you’re about 65% sure to get it right. So if you have any problem with names, just call the guy Mohammad.”
El-Sayed responded to Trump mocking his name at a previous rally by writing on social media: “He says the name just fine when he’s begging the Qataris for a personal jet or the Saudis for funding for his son-in-law’s private equity firm.”
Despite being in Kansas to campaign for Republican senator Roger Marshall, Trump returned again and again to attacks on El-Sayed, and brought up two Muslim congresswoman, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, who are also not from Kansas.
He also lied that both El-Sayed and his sister are members of the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist opposition group in Egypt, a wild claim that is not supported by any evidence at all but is repeated almost daily by the president.