THE DAILY BS: HOW MUCH CAN YOU HANDLE?
SPARE ME THE BS (I’ve got things to do).
- Trump called Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed a “jihadist” Sunday and demanded he pass through a metal detector if elected.
- The president invoked September 11, introduced Flight 93 hero Todd Beamer’s father, and accused El-Sayed of having dangerous associations.
- Bishara Bahbah, a founder of Arab Americans for Trump, condemned the remarks as racist, while El-Sayed rejected the accusations.
LAY IT ON ME (I’ve got time).
Donald Trump has a new security proposal for the United States Senate.
Elect Michigan Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, and make him pass through a metal detector every time he enters the chamber.
That was just one of the verbal grenades the president tossed Sunday at a Port Huron rally that quickly became an extraordinary attack on the man hoping to become America’s first Muslim senator.
“He would be the only senator that will have to go through a metal detector before he’s allowed to go into the Senate,” Trump declared.
“I want him to have a metal detector.”
And if you thought that was the president’s most dramatic accusation, he was only getting warmed up.
Trump had come to Michigan to campaign for Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers and gubernatorial nominee John James. But a significant portion of his speech was devoted to dismantling Rogers’ Democratic opponent.
“I’m here today to keep a jihadist … Muslim Brotherhood member from becoming a United States senator,” Trump announced.
The president claimed El-Sayed’s past writings and family associations raised national-security concerns, pointing to alleged links involving relatives and organizations associated with Islamist extremism.
Trump asserted that El-Sayed’s father-in-law led a Muslim Brotherhood-linked organization and that his sister-in-law had appeared on a terrorism watchlist.
El-Sayed has denied belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood or having extremist affiliations. The campaign allegations concerning his family have not established that he is a member of the organization.
Trump wasn’t interested in stopping at the family tree.
He argued that El-Sayed’s election would grant him access to sensitive national-security information and influence over the military, border security and intelligence matters.
“If Abdul gets to the Senate, he would have access to our nation’s most closely guarded national security secrets,” Trump warned.
That’s quite an escalation from the usual campaign-season accusations about taxes and government spending.
Then the president brought September 11 into the argument.
Trump introduced David Beamer, father of Todd Beamer, the United Flight 93 passenger remembered for helping lead the resistance against the hijackers on September 11, 2001.
Standing before the crowd, Trump compared the spirit of those passengers with what he said Michigan voters needed to do at the ballot box.
“Twenty-five years later, Michigan needs to stand up and fight just like Todd did to stop a jihadist from walking into the Capitol.”
David Beamer then took the microphone and expanded on the comparison, warning that the threat facing voters was no longer coming from overseas.
“The enemy is right here among us, local terrorists, local citizens that want to demolish our country,” Beamer told the crowd.
Now there’s a campaign rally that didn’t need any additional fireworks.
Trump also accused El-Sayed of wanting to replace American law with sharia law, an allegation the Democrat has denied.
The president repeatedly promoted Rogers as an experienced national-security figure who would defend Michigan’s industrial economy and American constitutional principles.
But the rally’s attacks weren’t confined to El-Sayed’s alleged ideological associations.
Later in the speech, Trump turned his attention to the candidate’s medical credentials, describing him as a “fake doctor” and attacking the quality of a clinic he claimed El-Sayed had operated.
El-Sayed is a physician by training with a medical degree, and previously served as Detroit’s health director. Trump’s accusations about his qualifications and the clinic were campaign claims, not independently established findings.
The president also aired a video montage connecting El-Sayed with controversial streamer Hasan Piker.
Among the footage were remarks attributed to Piker about September 11 and America, alongside an exchange in which El-Sayed declined to disavow another person’s political views.
Republicans have made El-Sayed’s association with Piker a recurring campaign issue, questioning whether he is willing to distance himself from inflammatory statements made by political allies.
El-Sayed has said he disagrees with comments by Piker and has rejected attempts to characterize him as supportive of terrorism.
But Sunday’s most unexpected political blowback didn’t come from the candidate himself.
It came from Bishara Bahbah, a founder of Arab Americans for Trump, the organization that helped rally Arab-American support for the president during the 2024 election.
Bahbah condemned Trump’s remarks, particularly the attacks involving El-Sayed’s Muslim identity.
“The president’s statements are out of line,” Bahbah said.
“They are crossing a red line. They are racist.”
That creates an interesting complication for the president.
During the last presidential election, Trump made substantial efforts to court Arab-American voters in Michigan, particularly those unhappy with the Biden administration’s Middle East policies.
Now one of the men who helped organize that outreach is publicly accusing him of going too far.
Bahbah had already criticized Trump’s treatment of El-Sayed’s name during a separate appearance, arguing that mocking someone’s background or identity was unacceptable regardless of who delivered the remarks.
Meanwhile, the Democratic candidate has rejected attacks on his loyalty to the United States, describing the accusations as shameful.
El-Sayed’s supporters accuse Republicans of using religious prejudice to distract from economic and foreign-policy disputes. Rogers and other Republicans maintain that El-Sayed’s political associations and positions deserve scrutiny.
And there are real policy differences here, including healthcare, law enforcement, immigration and the direction of American foreign policy.
El-Sayed supports a sweeping expansion of government-run healthcare, while Rogers has argued that such proposals threaten private insurance coverage and existing employer-sponsored plans.
But those disputes received considerably less attention Sunday than Trump’s descriptions of what might happen if El-Sayed ever tried to enter the Senate chamber.
The speech came just one day after former President Barack Obama appeared in Michigan to campaign for El-Sayed.
So Michigan voters have now been treated to back-to-back presidential campaign visits, with the two sides offering dramatically different portrayals of the Democratic nominee.
Trump wants voters examining El-Sayed’s associations and record. El-Sayed wants voters examining economic conditions, healthcare costs and the administration’s policies.
And now David Beamer’s appearance, the metal-detector demand and Bahbah’s rebuke have turned what might have been another routine closing campaign rally into a national political controversy.
DBS WIRE SOURCES (I’ve got all day).
- Trump Archive — Full October 25 Port Huron rally transcript, including metal-detector remarks
- Associated Press — Rally accusations, El-Sayed’s response and Bahbah’s rebuke
- NBC News — Metal-detector comments and David Beamer’s appearance
- Fox News — October 25 Michigan campaign coverage
- CBS Detroit — Trump’s rally and attacks on El-Sayed
RELATED DAILY BS COVERAGE:
- The Daily BS — If you’re running for office, uncomfortable questions come with the territory
- The Daily BS — El-Sayed and Rogers clash in heated Michigan Senate debate
