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Donald Trump became the first of the two main candidates to visit the so-called Muslim capital of the nation when he stopped in at a halal cafe in Dearborn, Michigan, to court Arab-American voters.
‘This is Trump country,’ shouted a guest as the former president toured The Great Commoner restaurant.
Trump told reporters traveling with him that the visit was part of an effort to make inroads with Lebanese people and Muslim voters.
It was an extraordinary moment for a man still hated by many Arab-Americans for the ‘Muslim ban’ imposed when he took office in 2016.
But the war in Gaza has turned the politics of Dearborn—where the population is 55 percent Muslim—upside down.
Former President Donald Trump visited the Great Commoner restaurant in Dearborn, Michigan, Friday. He is seen here alongside owner Albert Abbas
There are votes to be won in an area that had long been reliably Democratic. Many voters are hostile to Joe Biden’s support for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s war in Gaza, and are so far unconvinced by Kamala Harris’ efforts to change the messaging.
The Trump campaign senses an opportunity with young voters such as Ali Hamie, 21, a medical assistant who arrived early at the restaurant to stake out a spot.
He sat eating a burger as he explained how things had been better during Trump’s presidency, including peace in the Middle East.
‘The economy was great. He’s a strong leader. Gas prices. I’ve never seen so many people at the mall before. Now that’s kind of how it used to be,’ he said.
He sat with Joseph Hamed, 21. Both said their families came from Lebanon, which has been on the receiving end of Israeli airstrikes in recent weeks.
Both said the region would be in safer hands under Trump than Harris.
‘What’s happening with Biden right now is he’s given them all these billions of dollars. That won’t happen. I don’t see Trump handing them billions and billions of dollars for war,’ said Hamed.
‘I see him giving billions of dollars in aid for the people that are actually dying, not to, not the Israeli forces and stuff like that, to keep going and killing kids.’
Metro Detroit is home to the country’s biggest Arab-American population, with much of it centered in Dearborn.
With four days until the election, Trump was courting the Arab-American vote in Dearborn
They could decide the outcome of the vote in a state that swung from Donald Trump in 2016 to Joe Biden in 2020.
During the Democratic primary, thousands stayed home rather than back Biden in a protest vote against his handling of the war in Gaza.
In a state decided by such thin margins (barely 10,000 votes in 2016), Trump does not to win over many disaffected Arab-Americans. He may just need them not to bother voting.
Which is just as well.
The divisions in the community were on display as Trump’s motorcade pulled up outside the historic brick facade of The Great Commoner.
Fawzy Mohamad appeared from nowhere in billowing white dishdasha. ‘Free, free Palestine,’ he chanted in the middle of a pro-Trump crowd of bystanders.
A handful of young men on the far side of the street answered with their own: ‘Free, Free, Palestine.
Mohamad went further, shouting: ‘F*** Trump,’ much to the consternation of the red, MAGA-capped majority who made up the rest of the crowd.
‘It’s still a free country,’ said Mohamad, ‘Isn’t it?’
Trump signed a hat and posed for selfies during the visit
Fawzy Mohamad unfurled a Palestinian flag as part of a protest outside the Trump visit
Hassan Abdallah, 25, was among the supporters who turned out to see the former president
Later he explained to DailyMail.com that he planned to vote for Green Party candidate Jill Stein.
‘If you are a true Muslim, if you are have any decency, you will not vote for Kamala Harris,’ he said. ‘You will not vote for Trump either, because both of them are the whole problem.’
The visit is not the only part of the push. Earlier in the week, Trump wrote a letter to the American Lebanese community promising to ‘stop the suffering and destruction in Lebanon’
But after Trump headed off for a rally in Warren, it emerged that several Arab-American leaders had refused meetings with him. Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud, a Democrat who has offered no endorsement this year, and Arab American News publisher Osama Siblani both said no, according to the Associated Press.
Kamal Mustafa, 57, who used to own a restaurant on the site of the Great Commoner, watched proceedings unfold with a wry smile.
‘Only in America,’ he said, explaining how it was a southern Lebanese, Shia faction of business owners that supported Trump in Dearborn. Other groups may not like Harris much but it would be a stretch to see them vote for the president who limited travel from seven predominantly Muslim countries, separating families until the courts intervened.
‘Me? I’m just in the middle,’ he said.
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