Trump invokes 9/11 in urging voters to oppose El-Sayed

Dawn · 27/10/2026، 1:58:41 AM

Senator Bernie Sanders joins hands with Democrat senatorial candidate Abdul El-Sayed at a campaign rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan.—AFP PORT HURON: President Donald Trump at a Sunday campaign rally ratcheted up his push to link US Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed to Muslim extremists, comparing him to the 9/11 attackers while saying Democrats would let violent anti-American terrorists into the United States. “I’m here to keep a jihadist, Muslim Brotherhood member from becoming a United States senator,” the president told a receptive audience in Port Huron, which is in a Michigan area where 66pc of the vote went to Trump in the 2024 presidential election. If El-Sayed wins, he would be the first Muslim elected to the US Senate. Trump has sought to paint him as an anti-American Muslim radical, and on Sunday he took the rhetoric to a new level, likening El-Sayed to the attackers who took over United Flight 93 during the Sept 11, 2001, attacks. Michigan has one of the nation’s most competitive US Senate contests going into the Nov 3 midterm elections, with former US Representative Mike Rogers, a Republican, and El-Sayed vying for an open seat that will help to decide control of the chamber. The president on Sunday compared voting against El-Sayed to the actions of Michigan native Todd Bea­mer and others who fought back aga­i­­nst the Flight 93 hijackers. “Twenty-five years later, Michigan needs to stand up and fight, just like Todd did, to stop a jihadist from walking into the Capitol,” said Trump. If El-Sayed wins, “he would be the only senator that will have to go through a metal detector before he’s allowed to go in the Senate,” Trump said. El-Sayed has dismissed the accusations against him, and at a Sunday night event, he suggested that Trump’s frequent emphasis of El-Sayed’s name contains a measure of hypocrisy. “I get that the president of the United States takes personal offence to my first name,” El-Sayed told an audience in Grand Rapids, Michigan. “He doesn’t min