Abdul El-Sayed is the Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate in Michigan, and if he wins, he will be the first Muslim senator.
President Donald Trump has frequently railed against El-Sayed’s candidacy, including on Truth Social Thursday, where he called the candidate by the wrong name.
“Mohammed El-Sayed is a terrible Candidate for the Democrats,” Trump wrote in the Truth Social post. “While his opponent, Mike Rogers, is an extremely good one, Mohammed goes back to the days of the Jihad. He is a RADICAL Extremist, Terrorist Sympathizer, and no different from his best friend, America Hating Hasan Piker. How’s France doing? Mohammed’s Values are not exactly those of Michiganders, or those of our Great United States of America! He is WRONG for Michigan, and WRONG for America.”
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The candidate’s first name is “Abdul,” not “Mohammad.” Trump likely meant that as some type of slur, although it’s also possible that he was conflating Abdul El-Sayed with Mohamed Al-Fayed, the Egyptian businessman of the 1980s, whose son Dodi died alongside Princess Diana in 1997. Trump was long obsessed with Diana, and in his midterm convention speech last month, he even referenced Al-Fayed, using his name as a generic Muslim name, when talking about a potential attack on Iran’s Pickaxe Mountain.
“Speaking about a potential attack on Pickaxe Mountain, an alleged Iranian nuclear site, Trump told a whooping crowd that the U.S. Space Force could ‘see everything’ taking place at secure Iranian facilities: “We can see everything. We can see the tag on their coat. ‘Mohamed Al-Fayed,'” The Independent reported at the time.
The late Al-Fayed was Egyptian and El Sayed, who was born in Michigan, is the son of Egyptian immigrants.
Trump also, in the 1980s, claimed to have met Mohamed Al-Fayed and visited his home.
The candidate replied on X to Trump’s misnaming of him.
He knows my name is Abdul. He says it everyday.
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 thinks we don’t know any better.
It’s time for change.
— Dr. Abdul El-Sayed (@AbdulElSayed) October 8, 2026
“He knows my name is Abdul,” El Sayed said on X. “He says it everyday. 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 thinks we don’t know any better.”
Photo courtesy of an X screenshot.
