Donald Trump stands with local leaders of the Muslim community as they endorse him during a campaign rally at the Suburban Collection Showplace in Novi, Michigan, October 26, 2024. [GETTY]
When Donald Trump won the 2024 election over Kamala Harris, he did so with increased support from various minority groups that usually vote for the Democratic Party, including Latino voters, Black voters, young voters, and even Muslim voters.
Although Muslims were arguably Enemy #1 during Trump’s 2016 campaign, second perhaps only to Mexican immigrants, 2024 was different. Instead of constantly using American Muslims as a political punching bag, the Trump campaign tried to capitalise on the breach between them and the Biden-Harris administration.
Long before President Biden’s debate meltdown, Muslim voters had largely abandoned him due to his callous support for the genocide in Gaza.
Although many of those same Muslim voters were hopeful for a change when vice president Harris stepped into the race, they soon grew frustrated by her failure to meaningfully distinguish herself from Biden on Gaza, her refusal to let a Palestinian-American supporter speak at the DNC, and her embrace of warmonger, torture advocate and anti-Muslim bigot Liz Cheney.
Trump pounced.
He vaguely promised to pursue peace abroad, including in Gaza. “Get it over with and let’s get back to peace and stop killing people,” he said about a potential ceasefire during an interview in April 2024.
He went after the Democratic Party’s embrace of Cheney, calling her a “war hawk” who “like her father, the man that pushed Bush to ridiculously go to war in the Middle East, also wants to go to war with every Muslim country known to mankind.”
He gleefully accepted endorsements from Muslim religious figures and local politicians in Michigan, some of whom were concerned over the Democratic Party’s position on social issues. He even shared a stage with Muslim endorsers who were warmly applauded by a MAGA audience while wearing thobes and kufis.
Needless to say, if a group of Muslims dressed in such clothing had so much as approached a 2016 Trump campaign event, they would have been at risk of being tackled by security guards.
Although Trump in 2024 promised to reimplement a bigger “travel ban” and regularly dabbled in hateful rhetoric, even using ‘Palestinian’ as a racial slur, he managed to control himself just enough to get a second look from some Muslim voters and other minority groups.
In the end, a clear majority of Muslim voters still supported either Harris or Green Party candidate Jill Stein. However, an exit poll conducted by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) found that 21% of Muslim voters cast their ballot for president Trump.
Just before taking office, Trump did what those voters had begged Biden to do: force Benjamin Netanyahu to finally accept a ceasefire-and-captive release deal in Gaza.
With the genocide seemingly over thanks to him, Trump entered office with a historic opportunity to realign at least some of the voters who had abandoned the Democratic Party, including some American Muslims.
All the president had to do was maintain the ceasefire in Gaza, avoid new forever wars in the Middle East, fulfil his stated support for free speech, focus his immigration restrictions on hardened criminals instead of everyday immigrants, and treat all Americans with respect regardless of their faith or race.
Obviously, the Trump administration has gone in a completely different direction.
After letting Netanyahu torpedo the ceasefire deal and resume the genocide in Gaza, president Trump has repeatedly talked up the idea of supplanting Palestinians from Gaza and rebuilding the territory as a vacation spot owned by the United States. He has also entangled the US in a new forever war in Yemen, killing civilians on a daily basis without any apparent exit strategy.
Here at home, the Trump administration launched an unprecedented crackdown on free speech under the guise of fighting antisemitism, all for the benefit of the Israeli government.
In scenes reminiscent of Soviet Russia, masked ICE agents have been literally abducting Muslim students off American city streets. Columbia graduate Mahmoud Khalil, Tufts University PhD Rumesya Ozturk, Georgetown University researcher Badr Khan Suri all face the threat of deportation for the thought crime of criticising the Israeli government’s genocide.
Meanwhile, a draft version of a potential new Muslim ban was leaked showing 40 mostly Muslim and African countries on the list.
The administration’s broader immigration crackdown has also gone beyond criminals as it promised, sweeping up everyday immigrants like a father of three from Maryland sent to El Salvador in violation of a court order.
In pursuing such policies, as well as wanton cuts to the federal work force and potential threats to Medicare and Social Security, Trump is squandering the historic opportunity to realign voters open to a new political home—including some American Muslim voters.
President Trump still has time to change course. Although he cannot bring back the untold number of Palestinians and Yemenis who have been slaughtered with US weapons over the past month, he can once again force an end to the genocide, stop bombing Yemen, complete negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program without launching a new war, and refocus his immigration crackdown on violent criminals, not college students who dared to criticise a foreign government’s war crimes.
Regardless of what president Trump does next, Muslim voters will likely maintain their political flexibility heading into the 2026 midterms and the 2028 elections, judging candidates by their stances and not their political party–come what may.
Edward Ahmed Mitchell is a civil rights attorney who serves as the National Deputy Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization. Ismail Allison is a graduate of Howard University who serves as the Communications Manager of CAIR.
Ismail Allison serves as the National Communications Manager at the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization.
Follow them on X: @CAIR National @EdAhmedMitchell
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