President Trump called Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed a “Muslim Brotherhood guy” and a “jihadist” during a series of campaign appearances, even after El-Sayed publicly denied any link to the group.
Story Snapshot
- Trump called El-Sayed a “Muslim Brotherhood guy” at a White House event on October 15.
- He repeated the claim in a Truth Social video and again at a Port Huron rally on October 25.
- El-Sayed disavowed the Muslim Brotherhood at an October 17 town hall in Michigan.
- Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers and Vice President JD Vance echoed similar attacks.
- No records, documents, or sworn testimony have been made public to back the membership claim.
White House Remarks Start the Attacks
President Trump made the claim first at a White House Rose Garden lunch on October 15. He said, “His name is Abdul, but I call him Mohammed Abdul el Sayed, and he’s a Muslim Brotherhood guy, 100%, 100%.” The comment targeted El-Sayed, a Democrat running for the open Michigan Senate seat, and marked the start of a repeated line of attack from the president heading into the fall campaign.
Two days later, Trump posted a video to Truth Social aimed at Michigan voters. In it, he said, “He’s a Muslim radical. He’s a Muslim Brotherhood member, even though he denies it.” The video came out the same day Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers publicly called on El-Sayed to disavow the group at a campaign stop in Birch Run.
Rally Stop in Port Huron Raises the Volume
Trump took the message to a Michigan rally stage on October 25. Speaking in Port Huron, he told the crowd he came “to keep a jihadist Muslim Brotherhood member from becoming a United States senator.” The remark tied Trump’s visit directly to the Senate race and placed the unproven claim at the center of his pitch to Michigan voters just weeks before the election.
El-Sayed Pushes Back in Public
El-Sayed addressed the claim directly at an October 17 town hall in Michigan. Asked whether he would disavow the Muslim Brotherhood, he answered, “sure, yeah, absolutely.” His response came the same week Trump and Rogers escalated their rhetoric, putting a clear, on-the-record denial next to the accusations being made against him on the campaign trail.
Allies Repeat and Expand the Message
The attacks did not stay with Trump alone. Vice President JD Vance separately called El-Sayed a “weasel” as the race intensified, adding to a string of overlapping descriptions from top Republicans. Mike Rogers, running against El-Sayed for the seat, later said in a separate comment that he had never called El-Sayed a terrorist, drawing a distinction between his own language and Trump’s.
No documents, financial records, or sworn statements tied to the Muslim Brotherhood claim have been made public. Trump has pointed to what he called El-Sayed’s “past correspondence” without releasing it. The available public record so far consists of statements from Trump and allied Republicans on one side and El-Sayed’s denial on the other.
Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed responds to President Trump’s repeated mispronunciation of his name, noting that the President appears unbothered by Saudi funding of his son-in-law’s private equity firm or a $400 million Qatari private jet and adds that after November,…
— OneclickAfrica (@1clickAfrica) October 26, 2026
Part of a Larger Pattern for Muslim Candidates
Researchers who study Muslim American candidates have documented similar lines of attack going back more than two decades. A Rutgers University review of more than 30 cases between 2001 and 2026 found recurring claims about Sharia law, dual loyalty, and ties to extremism aimed at Muslim candidates for office. The group found these patterns repeat across elections regardless of the specific candidate or office sought.
Coverage of the Michigan race has drawn criticism from Arab American groups, who say the rhetoric crosses from political attack into religious targeting. If El-Sayed wins, he would become the first Muslim elected to the United States Senate, adding extra national attention to a race that has already become one of the most closely watched Senate contests of the midterm cycle.
Sources:
cbsnews.com, detroitnews.com, edition.cnn.com, newsweek.com, ndtv.com
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