Trump invokes 9/11 to attack Michigan Senate candidate El-Sayed

Donald Trump has renewed unsupported accusations that Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed belongs to the Muslim Brotherhood and wants America governed by sharia, or Islamic law. The political writings and speeches Republicans have cited do not substantiate either claim.

In a Truth Social post on 25 October 2026, preserved by the Trump’s Truth archive, the president called the Democrat a “Jihadist Member of the Muslim Brotherhood” and said he should never be allowed inside the Capitol. If America adopted sharia, Trump added, El-Sayed “should be the first that’s tried”.

The post came ahead of a planned rally for Republican Mike Rogers in Port Huron. Their 3 November contest for the seat of retiring Democrat Gary Peters will help determine control of the Senate. Barack Obama campaigned alongside El-Sayed in Detroit the previous day. El-Sayed, a former public health official, would be the first Muslim US senator if elected.

Republicans have pointed to El-Sayed’s writings about Egyptian politics. A statement published by Al-Ahram on 25 November 2012 lists him among the signatories supporting Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s Brotherhood-affiliated president. It backed Morsi’s decisions and urged a purge of the media and police. It also expressed concern about presidential powers and asked him to clarify that the exceptional powers would end once a constitution was completed.

That records substantive political support for Morsi, including his controversial measures. It does not establish personal membership of the Brotherhood or jihadist activity.

El-Sayed has repeatedly denied having ties to the group. At a 17 October town hall in Caro, he was specifically asked whether he would disavow it. “Sure, yeah, absolutely,” he replied, in video examined by PolitiFact. He then challenged the implication that his Muslim faith called his loyalty to the US Constitution into question.

Earlier sharia accusations relied on clips of a 2022 speech to the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Oklahoma chapter. PolitiFact’s August review found that the clips misrepresented remarks about discrimination, civil rights and Oklahoma’s overturned sharia ban. El-Sayed invoked the US Constitution; he did not call for Islamic law to replace American law.

He was explicit in a 24 August Fox News interview reported by the Catholic news outlet EWTN News: “Nobody is trying to push sharia law on anyone else.” He defended personal religious practice by comparing it with Catholic canon law. That analogy drew criticism, including over sharia’s potential role in civil and political affairs, but it was not a proposal to impose it nationally.

Selfridge already had a future mission planned

Trump’s post also claimed that he had saved Selfridge Air National Guard Base when Democrats were closing it, preserving thousands of jobs, and that only he could have done so.

He did announce a significant new fighter mission. On 29 April 2025, Trump said F-15EX jets would replace the base’s retiring A-10 mission. The 127th Wing’s December 2025 modernisation account set out plans for the first F-15EX arrivals in 2028 and KC-46 refuelling aircraft in 2030.

But an Air Force announcement of 12 January 2024, reproduced in Michigan’s military magazine Wolverine Guard, had already selected Selfridge as the preferred location for a replacement KC-46 mission. That plan would replace both the A-10 and KC-135 fleets with tanker aircraft, giving Selfridge what the Air Force called an “enduring and modern mission”.

The earlier plan undercuts Trump’s portrayal of Democrats closing the installation. His announcement provided a future fighter role alongside the planned tanker mission; it was not the beginning of all planning for the base’s continued use.

The magazine also quoted the base commander at the time thanking Trump, Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Michigan’s congressional delegation and military leaders. The December modernisation report forecast hundreds of new training and job opportunities. Those opportunities are not a calculation of thousands of jobs saved from closure, nor do the accounts support Trump’s claim to exclusive credit.

No record on factory jobs or output

Trump also claimed personal credit for the car industry’s best-ever performance, pointing to factories being built and expanded. He did not specify a measure of success. Two major indicators — manufacturing employment and real output — do not support an all-time record.

US motor vehicle and parts manufacturing employed 962,500 people in September 2026, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ seasonally adjusted figures. That was 1,600 above August, but below 975,500 in January 2025 and 1,333,600 in June 2000.

The Federal Reserve’s real-output index for vehicles and parts was about 6% lower in September than in July 2023. Production had risen from January 2025, but that recovery had not produced a historical high.

Rogers offered a mixed assessment on 25 October. He credited Trump’s tariffs with securing Michigan investments by Chevrolet and Detroit Diesel, but said “the automobile portion of these Canadian tariffs worries me a little bit”, Reuters reported.

Investment at individual companies does not establish an industry-wide record or quantify the effect of Trump’s policies. Measured by factory employment and real output, his claim of the industry’s best-ever performance is wrong.

Update

Donald Trump called Democratic US Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed a “jihadist Muslim Brotherhood member” at a rally in Port Huron, Michigan, on Sunday. He then invoked the passengers who resisted the hijackers of United Flight 93 on 11 September 2001 to urge voters to stop El-Sayed from reaching the Senate. The allegation that El-Sayed personally belongs to the Brotherhood remains unsubstantiated.

Referring to passenger Todd Beamer, Trump said Michigan needed to “stand up and fight just like Todd did” to stop a “jihadist” entering the Capitol. He also said that, if El-Sayed were elected, he should be the only senator made to pass through a metal detector before entering the Senate. Trump was making a campaign attack, not announcing a security rule.

Trump had accused El-Sayed of Brotherhood membership before the rally. On Sunday, he pointed to older writings and a 2012 statement supporting decisions by Egypt’s then president, Mohamed Morsi. PolitiFact says the statement was not a pledge of support for the Brotherhood. AP has reported that El-Sayed’s half-sister wrote of Brotherhood ties within the family. That account complicates his earlier denial of family ties, but neither it nor the statement establishes his own membership. El-Sayed has denied any affiliation and explicitly disavowed the Brotherhood at a town hall on 17 October, according to PolitiFact.

Mike Rogers, the Republican candidate Trump was supporting, has also alleged Brotherhood links. But Rogers told NBC on Sunday that he had never called El-Sayed a terrorist, Reuters reported. Bishara Bahbah, a founder of the former campaign group Arab Americans for Trump, told AP the president’s remarks were “out of line” and “racist”.

At an event in Grand Rapids later on Sunday, El-Sayed responded to Trump’s repeated emphasis on his name by pointing to Saudi financing of an investment fund founded by Trump’s son-in-law and a jet gifted by Qatar, Reuters reported. AP recorded him telling supporters that Trump could call him “senator” after November. El-Sayed and Rogers face voters on 3 November in a contest that could help decide control of the Senate.