Trump Calls Democrats ‘Jihadists’ After Muslim-American Wins Michigan Primary

WASHINGTON — When Abdul El-Sayed closed his election night speech with the word “inshallah,” the Arabic expression for “God willing,” he was expressing hope that money alone could not determine an election. The phrase, as ordinary to his audience as “amen” at another candidate’s victory party, was by Monday morning extracted, stripped of context, and shared more than 2,500 times by nearly 2,000 social media accounts within 24 hours.Before those shares reached their peak, President Trump had already logged onto his platform and called the people his party opposes “jihadists.”“We have jihadists being elected all over the place,” Trump wrote Monday, naming El-Sayed directly. “People don’t want radical lunatics running our country.” He called the physician and former state health director a “hater of Jews” and “hater of Israel” who would bring “filth, crime, death, destruction” to the United States.El-Sayed had, the night before, won Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary, becoming the first Muslim American to do so in the state’s history. He will face Republican Mike Rogers, a former FBI agent and congressman, in November.The attack followed a pattern documented by Al Jazeera in precise terms: 1,966 accounts generated more than 2,500 interactions in the first 24 hours after the primary result, a signature of centralized amplification rather than organic spread. Benny Johnson, a far-right commentator, posted a clip of the “inshallah” moment to 193,000 views, captioning it “Muslim Socialist Candidate for Senate.” Laura Loomer called it “disgusting.”El-Sayed addressed the attacks without directly quoting them. Speaking to supporters in Detroit on Monday, he returned to the issues that defined his primary campaign: access to healthcare, quality public education, employment equality across Michigan’s industries. “They don’t want to talk about what they’ve done to this state,” he said. “That’s the conversation we’re going to have through November.”Privately, El-Sayed had reason to register the moment differently. Barack Obama called the nominee after the primary result, El-Sayed revealed Monday, a gesture the former president had withheld through the campaign itself. Senator Bernie Sanders, who endorsed El-Sayed before the primary, called the result “a victory against billionaire politics.” Elizabeth Warren said party divisions would heal. DNC Chair Ken Martin said Democrats would “unite fully behind our nominee.”The primary had been one of the most significant AIPAC defeats of the cycle. The pro-Israel lobbying organization spent heavily against El-Sayed in Michigan races and came up short. El-Sayed had been explicit throughout his campaign about his opposition to American weapons transfers to Israel during the Gaza conflict, and his win came despite the full force of institutional opposition that position invited.Trump’s “jihadist” framing was not confined to El-Sayed alone. Wisconsin is holding its Democratic primary for governor Tuesday, where progressive state Rep. Francesca Hong, a democratic socialist, faces Milwaukee Mayor David Crowley in a race that has drawn national attention as a test of where the Democratic Party is heading before November. Trump’s posts appeared to encompass a broader category of Democratic nominee beyond any specific faith.The White House offered no clarifying statement on the posts. Rogers had not publicly responded to press requests by Monday evening. The Republican National Committee did not immediately comment.The broader midterm terrain has shifted measurably. House Democrats expanded their competitive target list to 58 Republican seats last week, with polling showing a plurality of voters preferring Democratic House control. Michigan’s Senate race, with Rogers entering it with fundraising advantages and Trump’s direct endorsement, is among the most watched in the country.What “jihadist,” used by the president against a major-party Senate nominee, produces in November is a question without an answer from the data available Monday. Michigan has a Muslim American population among the largest of any competitive Senate state, a community that has been a contested political variable since 2024, when significant portions of Arab American voters in Dearborn withheld support from Democrats over Gaza. El-Sayed, who has spoken openly about his faith and his position on Gaza policy, represents a kind of candidacy Michigan’s Senate has not previously produced.Whether Trump’s attacks sharpen that identity or overextend it is the question Rogers and El-Sayed will spend the next three months answering. That the attacks arrived the morning after the primary, not during the campaign, suggests both sides already understand the general election will be fought on different terrain.The association between political rhetoric and physical danger is not abstract in Michigan. The memory of anti-Muslim violence at American institutions remains present in communities where El-Sayed held rallies and where he will campaign through autumn. What the word “jihadist,” deployed by a sitting president against a Muslim Senate candidate, does to that memory is part of what November will measure.