The president launched into a deranged midnight rant.
President Donald Trump has attacked a Democratic rising star after a heated debate with his Republican rival.
With the Nov. 3 midterm elections less than a month away, the 80-year-old is resorting to ugly tactics, continually labeling Abdul El-Sayed, the Michigan Democratic Senate candidate, a “jihadist.”
The desperate attempts to smear El-Sayed continued just after midnight on Friday, after the Senate hopeful had an explosive debate with his opponent, Mike Rogers.
A sleepless Trump was clearly anxious that his appraisal was needed, so he fired off an ugly attack at El-Sayed, the 41-year-old son of Egyptian immigrants, on Truth Social.
El-Sayed and Rogers slug it out during the debate.
He claimed that Rogers, 63, “completely obliterated Mohammad El-Sayed in the big debate tonight.” One of Trump’s new attacks is to call El-Sayed by his middle name, Mohamed, although he routinely misspells it.
“If this was a fight they would have stopped it. Mohammad is a Jihadist lunatic who hates our Country, the Black People of Detroit, and wants to see the U.S. fail. Short on Stature, Patriotism, and Truth, Mohammed’s statements have been loaded up with lies and deceit. I won Michigan BIG, and know that Mike Rogers, a total winner, is the man for you!!!” the president’s deranged message continued.
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El-Sayed, whose full name is Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed, said Trump using his middle name is a crass trick to rile up anti-Muslim rhetoric among his voters. “He knows my name is Abdul. He says it everyday,” he wrote on X on Thursday morning. “But he’s not just attacking me. He’s attacking all of us.”
Truth Social / Donald Trump
“He thinks so low of us,” El-Sayed continued. “He thinks he can use my name and my faith to distract us from the suffering his policies are inflicting on us at the pump, at the grocery store, and at the doctor’s office. He thinks we don’t know any better. It’s time for change.”
Trump rolled out a similar attack on Wednesday evening, calling the physician “Mohammed El-Sayed” and labeling him “a RADICAL Extremist” and a “Terrorist Sympathizer.”
“Mohammed’s Values are not exactly those of Michiganders, or those of our Great United States of America!” the president continued.
His latest assault on the Senate hopeful comes as most polls show El-Sayed with a slim lead over Rogers.
On Thursday, the Democrat went head-to-head with the former congressman in a televised debate that turned ugly, and which even saw both men argue into a commercial break.
Abdul El-Sayed will face Republican nominee Mike Rogers in the Michigan Senate race in November.
Rebecca Cook/Rebecca Cook/Reuters
During the Grand Rapids, Michigan, clash, El-Sayed attempted to nail Rogers over his wealth and his flip-flopping on Trump policies. He has suddenly started appealing to the president to stop his trade war with Canada, after initially backing him.
“We didn’t change,” Rogers said. “What we said is—things move. We’re trying to get it wrapped up. We want a deal.”
“Weak, cowardly, won’t stand up until his poll numbers drop,” El-Sayed clapped back. “It’s incoherent. The only thing he cares about is his power, and going back one more time through the revolving door to make—what? Fourteen million dollars you made?”
El-Sayed was referring to a claim that Rogers “took a $14 million payout as a pharma lobbyist.” He denies this.
“Listen, I can’t let that stand. I won’t let this stand from a guy who is taking corporate PAC money,” Rogers appealed as the moderator, WOOD TV8’s Rick Albin, tried to move on.
Trump has stumped for Rogers.
“Oh, I’m taking corporate—OK,” El-Sayed said sarcastically. “How many yachts do you—how many yachts?”
Rogers demurred, and El-Sayed held up two fingers and mouthed the number.
“Gentlemen,” Albin cut in. “We have to keep this in order.”
“The hypocrisy here is absolutely astounding,” Rogers said.
“Two yachts. Made $14 million,” El-Sayed went on. “Do you guys know what Telefónica is? It’s a corporation he advised that was helping Maduro spy on his own people. How much money did you make off them? Can you tell us how much money you made? Can you say?”
According to the Michigan Advance, Rogers received nearly $100,000 in contributions from telecommunications industry figures while serving in Congress, and during his current Senate campaign.
The report found that some donors had interests aligned with legislation Rogers introduced concerning government data sharing, citing federal campaign finance records and his congressional record.
Rogers and El-Sayed are vying for Michigan’s open Senate seat, with incumbent Democratic Sen. Gary Peters planning to retire at the end of his term.
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