US election: The Arab-Americans turning to ‘wild card’ Trump in Michigan
America is full of contradictions. This is the story of one of them: the Arab-Americans who will vote for Donald Trump.
He’s the man who says immigrants are “poisoning the blood of the country”, who calls them “terrorists”, and who wants a “Muslim ban”.
And yet, in a journey through Michigan, I’ve found they are swinging to him.
It’s not just a story about the war in the Middle East. It goes beyond the desire to punish Biden and now Harris. It is about much more than the war.
In places like Dearborn or Hamtramck, it doesn’t take long to discover that a dynamic shift in views is taking place and that – as is so often the case – is about a perceived sense of abandonment but here with a particular twist.
My journey began at a local high school. Picture the place you’d imagine in the movies and that’s it.
Red brick outside, rows of lockers inside. The yellow buses, the Stars and Stripes and the pledge of allegiance.
It is the perfect reflection of America but with a diversity that defies the stereotypes, and views that may do too.
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The Frontier International Academy is in the heart of Hamtramck, the only Muslim-majority city in America and the students reflect the demographic.
In between the “recess” game of American Football, the first-time voters and second-generation immigrants talk politics.
“We don’t know what she is going to provide, we don’t know what she is going to do. So I think it’s just a safer bet to go for Donald Trump,” 18-year-old Jubran Ali tells me.
Jubran Ali, 18, who thinks Trump is a ‘safer bet’ than Harris
“I’m actually asking people around me to see what they’re voting, and most people are voting for Donald Trump,” Edris Alhady, also 18, says.
Michigan is one of the seven swing states in this country where the White House will be won or lost.
Shifts to the left or the right among small margins of voters will determine which way the country goes.
In 2016, Trump was the first Republican to win Michigan since 1988. He beat Hillary Clinton by fewer than 11,000 votes.
Four years later, in 2020, Joe Biden won the state by only 154,188 votes out of more than 5.5 million cast – a 2.8% margin of victory.
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Michigan has the highest number of Arab-Americans in America. They represent a key voting bloc – one which the Democratic Party may have taken for granted.
Amer Ghalib is a member of the Democratic Party and his office is a reflection of his political roots – a photo of him with President Joe Biden.
But something profound has happened since that snap was taken.
On Friday Mayor Ghalib welcomed Donald Trump to the city – a visit which came weeks after he endorsed the former president.
Mayor Amer Ghalib, a Democrat who has endorsed the former president
“Why Trump?” I asked.
“Well… it’s a combination of two things. Disappointment and hope. Disappointment that the current administration and how they are handling things locally or internationally, and hope that the new administration, led by Trump, will do something different.”
Our conversation was revealing in many ways. I’d come to this city expecting to hear anger about American policy in the Middle East. After all, the people here have deep existing ties to the region.
But only now was it obvious that the Arab-American shift right is also a consequence of the gradual leftward drift by the Democrats.
It’s about the real war in the Middle East, but it’s about culture wars too.
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Last year an attempt to fly a pride flag on city property was blocked by the mayor and his team.
“There is so much aggression and attempts to enforce certain values on the majority of this community,” Mayor Ghalib said, “…on schools, on public properties, city hall and the Democratic Party is not doing anything to prevent that shift in dynamics.”
I asked if anyone from Kamala Harris’s team had been in touch about his concerns before or since his endorsement of Trump.”No. No,” he said.
“Does that surprise you?”
“They think I’m a fake Democrat. All my life here I voted Democrat.”
Trump’s visit to the city is the culmination of groundwork by members of Team Trump for months, an indication of how important they see this state and this demographic.
So what about Trump’s pro-Israel stance? As he arrived in Detroit last week he praised Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“Well, I don’t think there’s anything worse than what’s happening now,” the mayor said.
It’s a sentiment echoed here. The idea that no one can be worse than the Democrats on Israel-Gaza, and that domestically – on social issues and the economy – Trump would be better for this community.
Drive west out of Hamtramck through the Detroit suburbs and you reach Dearborn.
About half the population here is Arab-American, most from Lebanon. Over coffee with local environmental activist Samraa Luqman, a conversation that should alarm the Harris campaign.
Samraa Luqman, who voted for Clinton in 2016 and wrote in Sanders’s name in 2020
She tells me that she voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016, she wrote Bernie Sanders’s name onto the ballot in 2020. And this year?
“I’m voting for Trump,” Samraa says. “Why?” I ask.
“The genocide. Policy-wise, I don’t like any of the Republican policies, to be frank, at all… I will still vote for him because one thing I hate more than all those other policies is genocide… And that’s the sentiment of an entire community.”
I asked what made her think Trump would be any better for the Arab cause.
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“Trump is a wild card… will he do exactly what Kamala does or worse or better? But I know for sure what the Democrats are doing and they’re intending to continue it.”
This journey through communities that feel now forgotten and unheard ends for me where it started for them – at Detroit’s old Ford factory which drew so many Middle Eastern immigrants here generations ago.
There I met the local Yemeni-American Democratic Party caucus leader with a startling conclusion.
“I think the damage is great. I assure you that it’s not just about Michigan. This is a nationwide phenomena,” he said.
“I am very worried,” Abdulhakim Alsadeh said.
Abdulhakim Alsadeh
I ask him if he thinks the Democratic Party has messed up this campaign.
“Yes, I believe so. I really do,” he said. “The Republican nominee, former president Donald Trump, reached out to the Yemeni-American community. They sat with him. They talked with him.”
“Everybody is concerned,” he said.
It won’t take many to swing this state and streamline the path to the White House.
Here, through all the contradictions, many are swinging to Trump.
There are 161 people still missing in Texas in the aftermath of last weekend’s deadly flash floods, the state’s governor has said.
Speaking at a news conference on Tuesday, governor Gregg Abbot said the number of missing had risen markedly.
He said among the missing were five children and one counsellor from Camp Mystic – where at least 27 people were killed in the flash flooding.
At least 109 people are confirmed to have died in the floods, which took place on the 4 July weekend, but this figure has been steadily climbing ever since.
People comforted each other in Kerville. Pic: Jason Fochtman/Houston Chronicle via AP
The bulk of deaths, and the main search for additional bodies, have been concentrated in Kerr County and the city of Kerrville.
The area was transformed into a disaster zone when torrential rains struck the region early last Friday, unleashing deadly flooding along the Guadalupe River.
Travis County, Kendall County, Burnett County, Williamson County, and Tom Green County were also hit.
Mr Abbot said many of those who were unaccounted for were in the Texas Hill Country area, but had not registered at a camp or hotel, posing further challenges for authorities.
Camp Mystic
Mr Abbot planned to make another visit to Camp Mystic.
The century-old all-girls Christian summer camp was badly hit by the flash floods, with at least 27 campers and counsellors dying.
Hanna Lawrence, left, and Rebecca Lawrence, right. Pic: John Lawrence/AP
Lila Bonner (L) and Eloise Peck both died in the flash floods at Camp Mystic, Texas. Pic: Family handout
Chloe Childress. Pic: Debra Alexander Photography via AP
Some of the victims include Hanna and Rebecca Lawrence, both eight, Chloe Childress, 19, who was among the counsellors at Camp Mystic when the flood hit, and Eloise Peck and Lila Bonner, both nine.
There were scenes of devastation at the camp as the flood water receded.
Outside the cabins where the girls had slept, mud-splattered blankets and pillows were scattered.
Also in the debris were pink, purple and light blue luggage, decorated with stickers.
A view inside a cabin at Camp Mystic after the flooding. Pic: Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP via Getty Images
Camper’s belongings lie on the ground following flooding on the Guadalupe River, at Camp Mystic.
Pic: Reuters
‘Everything looked flooded and broken’
One of the campers, 10-year-old Lucy Kennedy, told Sky’s US partner network, NBC News, that she woke up to the sound of thunder at around midnight before the floods struck.
“I couldn’t go back to sleep,” she said. “I just had a feeling that something really bad was about to happen.”
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She said the girls at the camp were told to grab blankets, pillows and water bottles and line up single file as the floodwater rose, before getting airlifted to safety.
Wynne Kennedy, Lucy’s mother, added: “When I saw her, she was wrapped up in a blanket, had a teddy bear.
“We just held each other tight, and I held her all night.”
Their home in Kerrville was also destroyed by the flash floods.
Lucy Kennedy, 10 who was rescued from Camp Mystic, and her mother Wynne. Pic: NBC
Political row
Meanwhile, a political row has unfolded parallel to the recovery efforts, with some questioning whether local authorities sent out warnings and alerts early enough.
Similarly, Democrats have criticised Donald Trump over cuts his Elon Musk-launched Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has made to the National Weather Service – but it isn’t clear whether these actually made any difference.
Read more:
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Wall of water
The flash floods erupted before daybreak on Friday, after massive amounts of rainfall caused the Guadalupe River to rise by eight metres in less than an hour.
The wall of water overwhelmed cabins, tents and trails along the river’s edge.
Some survivors were found clinging to trees.
Some of the campers had to swim out of their cabin windows to get to safety, while others clung to rope to make it to higher ground.
The date for Sean “Diddy” Combs’s sentencing hearing has been confirmed.
Following his high-profile trial, the hip-hop mogul was found guilty of two counts of transportation for prostitution by jurors in Manhattan, New York, last week – but was cleared of sex-trafficking and racketeering conspiracy.
Defence lawyers argued Combs, who has been in prison in Brooklyn since his arrest in September last year, should be bailed ahead of sentencing given the not guilty verdicts for the more serious charges, but Judge Arun Subramanian denied this – citing, among other things, the rapper’s own admissions of previous violent behaviour.
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs in court after the verdict was delivered. Pic: Reuters/ Jane Rosenberg
The charges of sex-trafficking and racketeering conspiracy carried a potential life sentence. Combs still faces up to 20 years in prison for the prostitution-related offences, but is not expected to receive the maximum punishment.
After the verdict was delivered, the judge scheduled the sentencing hearing for 3 October. At a remote follow-up conference on Tuesday, with agreement from the defence and prosecution, the judge approved the date.
Combs joined the call but did not make any comment.
Any sentence will include credit for time already served – which will be just over a year by the time the hearing takes place.
During his trial, Combs was accused by prosecutors of abusing and coercing three alleged victims, including his former long-term partner, singer and model Cassie Ventura.
Jurors found the allegations did not amount to sex-trafficking or racketeering, or running a criminal enterprise – but they did find him guilty of transporting Cassie and another former girlfriend “Jane” for prostitution offences around the US, and paying male escorts to engage in sexual encounters.
Despite the guilty verdict on those charges, the 55-year-old’s team described it as “the victory of all victories”.
Read more:
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In an interview over the weekend, defence lawyer Marc Agnifilo said Combs had received a standing ovation from fellow inmates when he returned to jail after being acquitted of the more serious charges.
“They all said, ‘We never get to see anyone who beats the government’,” he said.
Ahead of sentencing, Combs’s lawyers will file their recommendations by 19 September, with prosecutors likely to follow a week later.
Prosecutors previously said the rapper could face about four to five years in prison under federal sentencing guidelines, while the defence has suggested a two-year sentence.
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