President Donald Trump is getting fierce backlash over his latest attack on a Democratic Senate candidate, with critics blasting him as racist.
Trump is well known for his social media meltdowns, tantrums and vicious diatribes against opponents. But his latest remarks fanned an already heated controversy.
What initially raised questions about whether Trump had confused Dr. Abdul El-Sayed‘s name took another turn when he explained himself.
“This guy, I call him Mohammed El-Fayad. Some people call him Abdul. I call him Mohammed,” Trump said while speaking during a Columbus Day celebration at the White House Friday. “Somebody said, ‘why?’ I said, I don’t know. I feel like it.”
The explanation sparked fresh accusations that Trump was deliberately using “Mohammed” as an insult against the Muslim Senate candidate for Michigan.
“Because he’s a racist piece of s–t, that’s why,” one X user wrote in response to Trump’s explanation. “This is straight up bigotry and Islamophobia,” another added.
“Simple, because he, and other small-minded simpletons like him think that’s an insult,” a third wrote.
Trump’s comments made clear that his choice of name was deliberate, though he offered no explanation beyond his own preference.
The remarks followed a late-night social media diatribe against El-Sayed, who faces former Republican Congressman Mike Rogers in Michigan’s Senate race.
Late on Wednesday, Oct. 7, Trump sent out a truly bizarre post that initially raised questions about whether he had confused El-Sayed’s name.
At 11:13 p.m., Trump took to his Truth Social platform and declared, “Mohammed El-Sayed is a terrible Candidate for the Dumocrats.”
Trump used his favorite term there for Democrats, a misspelling he coined to describe his opponents and which he thinks is an insult.
While endorsing Rogers, Trump also made the nonsensical claim that “Mohammed goes back to the days of the Jihad.”
He continued, calling El-Sayed “a RADICAL Extremist” and a “Terrorist Sympathizer.”
He then called into question the Michigan Democrat’s “values,” claiming they “are not exactly those of Michiganders.”
Of course, El-Sayed took the high road when he responded, focusing on the issues.
“He knows my name is Abdul. He says it every day,” the doctor’s post on X began.
“But he’s not just attacking me. He’s attacking all of us. He thinks so low of us. 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 continued.
“He thinks we don’t know any better,” he said before adding, “It’s time for change.”
El-Sayed’s middle name is Mohamed, but he does not use it publicly.
In Trump’s post, the president subtly and disingenuously questioned the Michigan Democrat’s American identity.
El-Sayed was born in metro Detroit to immigrant parents from Egypt and is an American citizen.
Social media influencer and political commentator Brian Krassenstein fired back at Trump’s original post.
“Trump either has full-blown dementia, or he’s a disgusting bigot.”
Journalist Aaron Rupar noted, “The desperation is palpable.”
But recent polls dropped a gut punch on Trump’s efforts to rally MAGA supporters and Republicans in Michigan, which he won in 2024.
Recent polls show El-Sayed leading Rogers, though the latest survey puts the physician and epidemiologist within the margin of error.
El-Sayed held a seven-point lead over Rogers in a September Suffolk University poll.
His advantage narrowed to a single percentage point in a recent Fox News survey.
The progressive El-Sayed scored an upset victory over establishment-backed Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens in Michigan’s August primary.
Earlier this week, Trump raged at Fox News for interviewing El-Sayed.
“FoxNews spends more time covering the Jihadist and Dumocrat candidates than they do the good old fashioned Republicans,” he whined on Truth Social.
“All they talk about is Dumocrat Jihadists like El-Sayed, with his softball interview by Martha MacCallum, and the like,” Trump groused.
