Trump weaponizes 9/11 fear against El-Sayed in Port Huron

By Alma Cordero · Reporting from El Paso · October 26, 2026

Donald Trump attacked Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan with post-9/11 smears, turning the security state into a political weapon that voters must reject.

The machinery of suspicion built on a platform of hate

Stand in a Michigan arena in late October and listen to a former president call a Senate candidate a "jihadist." Hear him claim the candidate belongs to the Muslim Brotherhood. That is not a campaign speech. You are hearing the security state cranked up to grind a man down for his faith and his name. Donald Trump held a rally in Port Huron, Michigan, as reported by NPR and The Korea Herald. He attacked Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed, an epidemiologist and former Detroit health official. Trump suggested El-Sayed "would have to go through a metal detector before he's allowed to go into the Senate." He even compared stopping El-Sayed to the passengers on United Flight 93. According to The Washington Post, Trump urged supporters to fight El-Sayed like Americans battled terrorists on 9/11.

This is the exact same ugliness that gave us Executive Order 13769. Executive Order 13769, titled "Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States," was signed by U.S. President Donald J. Trump. It weaponized labels to justify excluding Muslim individuals based on faith. That mechanism treats religious identity as a national security threat. It runs straight from the 2017 travel bans into 2026 stump speeches. The USA PATRIOT Act institutionalized suspicion against Muslim citizens, treating faith as a security threat. We lived through the surveillance and fear. Now a politician deploys the Muslim Ban playbook on a domestic stage. He wants to divide working people who just need to pay rent and see a doctor.

The local architects of division and the voices breaking ranks

On the ground, men carrying water for this extremism launder it through debates and committee rooms. Mike Rogers is the Republican candidate in a bitter Senate contest against El-Sayed. Rogers weaponizes his past role as House Intelligence Committee chairman. He pushes unverified allegations linking El-Sayed to the Muslim Brotherhood, as detailed by the BBC and NPR. During a debate, Rogers asked El-Sayed: "Are you for America, or are you for these terrorist groups overseas?" Rogers stated on stage: "The Muslim Brotherhood celebrated exactly one victory in the United States in the primary this year... Abdul El-Sayed's." It is a pathetic attempt to distract from actual policy. It paints a man born in the United States to Egyptian immigrant parents as an existential threat.

Defenders of this bigotry call it politics as usual, but their own coalition is choking on it. Bishara Bahbah founded Arab Americans for Trump before renaming it Arab Americans for Peace. Bahbah broke ranks and called Trump's attacks on El-Sayed racist and out of line. He told the Associated Press that "The remarks are out of line and crazy." "I mean, no sane individual would say these things," he added, as noted by NPR and The Korea Herald. Yet Rogers and Trump keep hammering away because they offer Michigan nothing. Senator Bernie Sanders spoke alongside El-Sayed at a rally in Grand Rapids. Sanders pointed out that Trump and his allies have "nothing to say" about health care, housing, and income inequality. "All they can do is foment hatred and divisiveness," Sanders said. El-Sayed has met this sewage with steadfast dignity. According to NPR, El-Sayed spoke at a rally in Grand Rapids. He told supporters: "I don't even care that he remembers my whole name because he can just go on and call me 'senator' after November." He added: "I will be Senator Muhammad to you, bro."

What is at stake in the voting booth

Voters in the polling booth this November face more than two names on a ballot. They are deciding whether this country will run on the cheap fuel of manufactured terror. The opposition frames these attacks as a legitimate debate over national security and foreign ties. They point to old social media posts and internet chatter to justify endless suspicion. That defense is a sham to cover up a total lack of economic vision for working families. Mike Rogers and Donald Trump offer nothing to help a mother afford insulin or a family heat their home. Instead, they try to make a Muslim man's prayer mat look like a bomb.

We know where this road leads because we have walked it since the towers fell. The escalation of rhetoric in Port Huron reactivates the apparatus of suspicion and surveillance established after September 11. It grounds the midterm stump speech in a continuity of state-sanctioned fear. But history shows that targeted communities do not simply roll over. The intensification of rhetoric by Donald Trump and Mike Rogers against Abdul El-Sayed will permanently fracture the Arab American voting bloc in Michigan. It turns a Republican gain in Dearborn during 2024 into a mobilized defensive firewall for Democrats in 2026. Justice requires rejecting bigots who trade in hate. We must hold Mike Rogers and Donald Trump accountable at the ballot box. Electing Abdul El-Sayed will show that our democracy belongs to everyone who calls it home.

Trump weaponizes 9/11 fear against El-Sayed in Port Huron

The machinery of suspicion built on a platform of hate

The local architects of division and the voices breaking ranks

What is at stake in the voting booth

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