Trump attacks Michigan Senate hopeful Abdul El‑Sayed at Iowa rally

President Donald Trump used a campaign rally in Iowa on Sunday to launch a personal attack on Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El‑Sayed, repeatedly calling the Michigan progressive a “jihadist”.

Trump suggested that Congress would need “a special metal detector for Abdul” if he were elected and warned voters that supporting the “jihadist lunatic” would be “crazy”. The remarks were aimed at influencing a tightly contested Senate race that will affect control of the chamber after the mid‑term elections.

The controversy follows a split within the Democratic side of the race. Hayley Stevens, who lost to El‑Sayed in the August primary, refused to campaign with him and demanded that he disavow an external advertisement linking rising prices to U.S. military support for Israel’s war in Gaza. Stevens subsequently endorsed El‑Sayed’s Republican opponent, Mike Rogers, a move that drew criticism from Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer.

Trump praised Stevens for her defection, saying he would welcome her to the Republican Party and describing Rogers as “apple pie”, adding that the country “doesn’t need the communists or jihadists, the Muslim Brotherhood”. He also noted he had little time for football because of his rally schedule, quipping “Pretend I’m on the ballot, essentially I am on the ballot.”

Source: The Guardian. Photo: Lee chinyama / Pexels.