Donald Trump denounced Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed at a campaign event in Iowa on Sunday, repeatedly calling the Michigan progressive a “jihadist.”
Trump’s comments were aimed at swaying a neck-and-neck race that will play an outsized role in determining which party controls the Senate after Tuesday’s midterm elections.
The president criticized El-Sayed, a practicing Muslim, in openly racist terms, saying Congress should “get a special metal detector for Abdul” if he were elected.
“If you vote for this crazy jihadist who wants to destroy you, you are crazy,” Trump said.
The Michigan race has drawn national attention in recent days, as Hayley Stevens, who lost to El-Sayed in the August primary election, refused to campaign with him while demanding that he publicly disavow an outside group’s political ad that linked rising prices to U.S. military support for Israel’s war on Gaza.
El-Sayed responded by telling Stevens to stay away from a campaign event they were supposed to appear at together on Sunday. Stevens turned around and supported Mike Rogers, El-Sayed’s Republican opponent. Steven’s high-profile defection in the final hours of the tight race led to the condemnation of Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, who is Jewish.
Trump, for his part, praised Stevens for turning against El-Sayed, urging him to join the GOP.
“It was an incredible thing,” Trump said. “I would love for her to join the Republican Party. I think it could happen.”
Trump then congratulated Rogers in metaphorical terms.
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“Mike Rodgers is apple pie,” Trump said. “And you know what this country needs? A little apple pie. We don’t need the communists or the jihadists, the Muslim Brotherhood. We need an apple pie. He’s an apple pie. He’ll be good.”
Trump had little time to watch football this weekend, he noted, because he was “going to these damn rallies everywhere.”
“Pretend I’m on the ballot,” Trump said. “Basically, I’m on the ballot.”
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