Former President Donald Trump could soon host a rally in Hamtramck to speak directly to the concerns of Muslim and Arab Americans following a positive meeting with the mayor on Tuesday.
Hamtramck Mayor Ameer Ghalib posted to Facebook about the 20-minute meeting ahead of Trump’s town hall in Flint, where the two discussed Arab Americans’ concerns and a potential endorsement.
“It’s a new era!” Ghalib posted, according to a translation. “I received a special invitation from Mr. President Trump, and I met him in a closed session today before the (town hall) in Flint, the meeting lasted about 20 minutes. During this we discussed many issues. Will talk about details later.”
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Ghalib followed up the post with a video outlining the meeting and what it means for Arab Americans frustrated with the Biden-Harris administration’s handling of Hamas’ war against Israel.
“We opened that channel of communication with the former president, and it will continue,” Ghalib said. “We talked about the possibility of breaking the war between the Republican Party and the minorities because … the myth that this party is not for the minorities.”
“He asked me if it was possible to ensure him, and to call people to support him. I told him I’m here to discuss that matter, that’s why I’m here,” he continued. “So we agreed there would be further discussion, the possibility of opening an office in Hamtramck, Trump 47, and the discussion continues.”
Ghalib said Trump assured him “his goal is to end the chaos in the Middle East and elsewhere, he doesn’t wars.”
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Ghalib continued: “He will try to stop the wars everywhere, and that’s actually what we have been calling for for the past 11 months, a ceasefire,” he said, “but nobody listens, nobody is putting enough effort to address our concern.”
Ghalib said Trump invited him to speak on stage in Flint on Tuesday, but security and other concerns delayed the appearance.
“In my official letter that I gave to him, I invited him officially to consider coming to Hamtramck and organize a rally here,” he said. “So if that is possible, we will hear from him soon.”
The meeting followed just days after an Abandon Biden campaign rebranded its efforts as the Abandon Harris movement to continue pressure on the Biden-Harris administration to call for a ceasefire and halt all military aid to Israel.
During Michigan’s Democratic presidential primary in January, more than 100,000 cast “uncommitted” ballots to press those issues, vowing to withhold their votes for the Democratic candidate in November if the administration doesn’t change course.
As a result, Biden lost Hamtramck and Dearborn, as well as Dearborn Heights, to the uncommitted vote, which has since snowballed into more than 700,000 voters nationwide.
Hamtramck, the only city in the U.S. governed by an all Muslim city council, is home to the highest concentration of Yemeni Americans in the country, and the second most Arab Americans in Michigan behind Dearborn, the Detroit Free Press reports.
Dearborn has the highest proportion of Arab Americans in the U.S.
Ghalib’s meeting with Trump came about a week after Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein and independent presidential candidate Cornel West appeared at the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee’s annual convention in Dearborn.
A recent poll from the Council on American Islamic Relations found 40% of Michigan’s Muslim-American voters plan to back Stein in the 2024 presidential election, while 18% support Trump, 12% plan to vote for Harris, and 4% for West.
An Emgage report on Muslim voter turnout in the 2020 election shows that despite the pandemic, 71% of registered Muslim voters, or more than 1 million, cast a ballot that year – up 2% from 2016. The CAIR survey found 69.1% of American Muslims said they generally vote for the Democratic Party, but 59.7% plan to cast their ballots for “other” parties in 2024.
The shift away from Democrats is playing out in Michigan, where voters in Dearborn pulled support for Democratic candidates in November 2022 over outrage at sexually explicit LGBTQ+ books in local schools.
More recently, Yahya Basha, an Arab American and Muslim advocate in West Bloomfield, told the Free Press some are considering expanding the Abandon Harris campaign to a broader “Abandon Democrats” campaign, citing Democratic Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel’s decision to charge 11 pro-Palestinian protestors at the University of Michigan.
“A lot of people are shifting to the right,” Hassan Aoun said of Arab Americans in Dearborn. Aoun was among several Arab Americans who attended Trump’s Flint town hall.
“I will vote for Trump,” Aoun said, pointing to the former president’s vow not to support new wars.