Trump appeal to Arab Americans
Arab Americans across the country are angry at President Joe Biden’s response to the Israel-Hamas war. However, what would former President Donald Trump have done differently had he been in office? Arab Americans in recent history have overwhelmingly supported the Democratic Party but are angry at Biden due to his refusal to call for a permanent ceasefire and cut all aid to Israel. Metro Detroit has one of the largest Arab American populations in the country and has become a focal point of pushback due to its electoral importance in the battleground state.
The anger has extended beyond Arab American voters to various groups, including young voters, evident in widespread protests on college campuses nationwide. A movement to choose “uncommitted” as a protest in Democratic primaries has garnered hundreds of thousands of votes nationwide, receiving 18% of the vote in Kentucky’s Democratic primary.
Why Arabs and Muslim Americans Voted for Biden in 2020?
Arabs, Muslim Americans, and other minorities believe that President Trump is against minorities; in fact, Obama deported 2.5 million people between 2009 and 2015, earning him the nickname “deporter-in-chief” from immigration activists. Many sanctuary cities across the country proclaimed themselves as such in response to Obama’s immigration policies. “The sanctuary city movement gained steam largely as a rebellion against what many liberal jurisdictions viewed as intrusive immigration enforcement efforts under Obama,” reported The Huffington Post.
Under the Obama administration and Hillary Clinton’s service as Secretary of State, weapons exports to hot conflicted areas exponentially increased. Those weapons have been used to commit human rights atrocities and, in some cases, have fallen into the hands of terrorist groups that resulted in an attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, killing four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens. Weapons exports more than doubled under the Obama administration, and bombing campaigns increased to seven countries. Additionally, the Obama administration embraced the highly controversial use of drone strikes, increasingly relying on it despite the lack of oversight and accountability for the program killing civilians instead of intended targets.
Another take on the Trump administration is the Travel ban and the Terrorist Travel Prevention Act. As opposed to being an anomaly induced by Trump’s presidency, the ban was put into motion by Barack Obama’s administration. In December 2015, Obama signed into law the Visa Waiver Improvement Program and Terrorist Travel Prevention Act, which designated Iraq, Iran, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Libya, and Somalia as areas of concern. In January 2016, one of the victims of the ban implemented during Obama’s administration was BBC Journalist Rana Rahimpour, who was prevented from traveling to the United States because she was born in Iran.
Muslims and Arab Americans migrated from undemocratic countries and perceived the Democratic Party as the symbol of democracy, but “not all that glitters is gold’. The lack of political experience among Muslim Americans tends to blindfold the fact that the more religiously engaged the voter is, the more likely he or she will be a Republican; the less religious the voter, the more likely to be a Democrat. Muslim Americans are a socially conservative, family-oriented, business-friendly group; they are a natural GOP constituency.
Arabs and Muslims Americans Take on Biden and Democrats’ Administration
President Biden helped Iran to spread its influence considerably and allowed Iran to continue to be an outlaw state. Why do American presidents even consider shaking hands with Iran? What do you hear in Iran? “Death to America, and” Death to Arabs.” Their mobs chant it, and their leaders mean it. President Biden turned the United States relations with Saudi Arabia sharply; Biden pledged in 2020 to make Saudi Arabia a “pariah” state.
President Biden’s arms-control agreement with Iran was disastrous and a betrayal to the Arabic world; a deal that supported the “Shiite Crescent” anchored by the radical Shiite supremacists in Iran to pass through Iraq, Syria, and Hezb’allah to the Mediterranean Sea, and Yamen at the borders of Saudi Arabia. The arms-control agreement relieved the pressure on the Iranian regime to increase its support for terrorism and other rogue regimes to expand its conventional military power over Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen and to be ambitious to take over the Arabic Gulf countries.
On May 8, 2018, President Trump did America, the world, and Arabs a massive favor by withdrawing the United States from the JCPOA and signing a presidential memorandum to institute the “highest level” of economic sanctions on Iran to deter Iranian aggression. The Trump administration sanctions reached the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah at unprecedented levels, targeting lawmakers for the first time as well as a local bank that Washington claims has ties to the group. Currently, Canada, the U.S., Britain, the Netherlands, Israel, the Arab League, and several Latin American countries have outlawed Hezbollah’s entire organization, considering it as a terror organization. President Trump deserves the support of Muslims and Arab Americans for his role in deterring the Iranian Mobs and Leaders’ dreams.
President Obama threatened Mr. Bashar Assad of Syria but did nothing to stop his aggression on the Syrian people; instead, he supported Iran, which supported Hezb’allah, who occupied Syria and Saved the Dictatorship of the Assad regime. Former Obama national security adviser Jim Jones praised the Trump administration for its progress in Syria and criticized former President Obama for his lack of action in the region. “The Trump administration has had some success in defeating ISIS, which I think is commendable,” Jones told Hill. T.V. co-hosts Buck Sexton and Krystal Ball.
The liberal Democratic Party strongly and unequivocally supports Roe v. Wade and a woman’s right to abortion and opposes any efforts to weaken or undermine that right. Abortion is an anti-Islamic act and is forbidden in Islamic countries. The latest Pew numbers from 2018 show that the USA is home to an estimated 3.45 million Muslims, which makes up about 1.1 percent of the total U.S. population, and according to CAIR’s survey, 74 percent of the registered voters polled intend to vote in this year’s election. American Muslims are professionals, especially doctors and business people, who do not have to feel like minorities and vote for what is claimed as the minority party. Instead, they have to get engaged in the political map of America in the right direction to comply with their professions and faith.
Trump appeal to Arab Americans
A nearly two-hour meeting marked the beginning of increased outreach by Trump allies in swing state Michigan, where critical parts of Biden’s coalition are angry with him over Israel’s offensive following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. “We appreciate the outreach,” said Khaled Saffuri, an Arab American political activist who was in attendance Tuesday night. “But it will not be easy to convince the community to switch from Biden to Trump because even though we are angry with Biden, many still have a bad taste in their mouth from the four years of Trump.” Michael Boulos, the husband of Trump’s daughter Tiffany, and his father, Massad Boulos, a wealthy Lebanese businessman, joined in the meeting
The nearly 40 Arab American activists in attendance came from across the country. Some already support Trump, while others were attending to hear directly from his surrogates, according to Yahya Basha, a Michigan doctor who was in attendance. “I think most people were there to hear what specific policy changes Trump would have. It was a lot of back and forth with questions,” said Basha, who left the meeting still uncommitted to any candidate in November.
Richard Grenell, acting director of national intelligence in the Trump administration, fielded questions related to a travel ban on majority Muslim countries enacted during Trump’s presidency, which he denied was ever implemented, according to Saffuri. He was also asked about recent remarks from Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and a key adviser on the Middle East during his administration, on the potential of Gaza’s “waterfront property.”
Saffuri said the topic of Gaza was “never addressed correctly” by Grenell. “Most of the questions were not answered directly, and I did not expect these issues to be answered in detail in such a meeting. That requires some thought. Nevertheless, at least engaging the community is one step forward,” said Saffuri, who said he leans Republican but voted third-party in 2020.
In a statement in response to the meeting, a spokesperson for Biden’s campaign, Ammar Mousa, said that Trump is “the biggest threat to the Muslim and Arab community” and that he is “openly speaking about allowing Israel to bomb Gaza without any regard.” “President Biden, on the other hand, is working tirelessly towards a just and lasting peace,” said Moussa.
Massad Boulos, Tiffany Trump’s father-in-law, said he gave a speech sharing his experiences as an immigrant and how they shaped his conservative values. He also highlighted a more personal side of Trump, emphasizing his “love and admiration for the Middle East in general,” according to Boulos. “And then we discussed the need to organize ourselves and get ready for November and to mobilize our respective communities,” Boulos said in an interview.
The meeting in Michigan was just the beginning of a series of larger gatherings between Trump allies and Arab American leaders, according to Bishara Bahbah, chairman of Arab Americans for Trump and organizer of the meeting. Bahbah, who was present at the meeting, said he is already arranging future meetings. Brian Hughes, a spokesman for the Trump campaign, said in a statement that while the campaign did not request the meeting, they “will continue to communicate to those voters and remind them that President Trump’s policies in the Middle East brought those region historic levels of peace and stability.”
