Trump’s claim that El-Sayed is a jihadist is unsubstantiated

The political statements and family associations cited against Abdul El-Sayed do not substantiate Donald Trump’s portrayal of Michigan’s Democratic Senate candidate as a jihadist. Trump’s separate “Fake Doctor” attack also blurs an important distinction: El-Sayed’s medical degree is genuine, but he is not licensed to practise in Michigan or New York.

In a Truth Social post dated 25 October 2026, preserved by the Trump’s Truth archive, the president called the candidate backed by Barack Obama a “Muslim Brotherhood Jihadist”. He also accused him of hating Jewish and Black people and Americans generally, without identifying statements or actions supporting those allegations.

Trump did not name El-Sayed, but ended by urging voters to elect his Republican opponent, Mike Rogers. Obama had campaigned alongside El-Sayed at Detroit’s Cass Technical High School on 24 October, where he challenged Republican efforts to brand Democrats as jihadists, Bridge Michigan reported.

The contest for retiring Democrat Gary Peters’s seat could help determine control of the US Senate. Democrats must defend it while trying to overturn the Republicans’ 53–47 majority.

What the Brotherhood allegation rests on

Rogers and his allies have pointed to El-Sayed’s commentary on Egyptian politics and relatives’ old social media posts. One substantive part of that political record is a group statement published by the Egyptian news outlet Al-Ahram on 25 November 2012, which lists El-Sayed among its signatories.

The statement backed decisions by Egypt’s then president, Mohamed Morsi, who was supported by the Muslim Brotherhood, and called for a purge of the media and police. Its signatories also expressed concern about the powers Morsi held and asked him to confirm that they would end once a constitution had been written.

That goes beyond a general endorsement of democracy. It records support for Morsi’s actions, but does not establish Brotherhood membership or support for political violence. Bridge Michigan’s September examination of the statement and a 2011 column found no pledge of support to the organisation itself.

Reuters reported on 23 October that El-Sayed had disavowed the Brotherhood and denied any connection. Rogers had also cited posts by El-Sayed’s half-sister about their mother’s involvement with the group in the 1970s. El-Sayed says his parents divorced when he was three and that he was raised by his father and stepmother. Accounts of a relative’s politics do not establish his own affiliation.

There are genuine disputes over El-Sayed’s conduct. The Associated Press reported that he condemned the Temple Israel synagogue attack but drew criticism for saying “hurt people hurt people”. He later apologised to anyone who felt his comments might have been hurtful.

Some Jewish Democrats interviewed by AP also objected to his appearances with streamer Hasan Piker, whose comments have been criticised as antisemitic. Other Jewish Democrats support El-Sayed. Those disagreements concern particular statements and associations; they do not substantiate Trump’s sweeping allegation of group hatred.

A medical degree is not a licence

El-Sayed earned an MD from Columbia University in 2014 and holds a doctorate in public health from Oxford. Columbia’s 2016 alumni profile describes his decision to withdraw his residency application and pursue public health instead.

PolitiFact reported on 14 October that he had never held a medical licence in Michigan or New York and had not undertaken a residency, the postgraduate clinical training towards independent practice. Without a licence, he is not authorised to practise independently or write prescriptions.

His use of “physician” is a narrower dispute than whether his qualifications are fake. As PolitiFact explained, Michigan law ties the term to authorisation to practise, while the American Medical Association’s definition includes holders of medical degrees without specifying a licensing requirement. El-Sayed has called himself a physician, but has also publicly acknowledged that he does not practise medicine.

Trump’s claim that El-Sayed runs the “WORST CLINIC IN AMERICA” comes without a named institution, assessor, ranking or year. His recent public-health leadership role was directing Wayne County’s health department from 2022 to 2025, according to PolitiFact. That employment history supplies no basis for the national quality comparison Trump asserted.

Michigan’s numbers and the election stakes

Trump coupled the personal attacks with a claim of “more jobs than ever before”. If he meant Michigan’s seasonally adjusted non-farm payroll total, that is false.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics series published through the St Louis Federal Reserve’s FRED database puts September employment at about 4.487 million, against 4.694 million in June 2000 — roughly 207,000 fewer jobs, or 4.4% below that earlier level. The latest state report does show modest annual growth of about 2,000 payroll jobs, although the total fell by around 6,000 during September. Trump did not specify whether his boast referred to Michigan or the country as a whole.

The wider attack campaign has a possible electoral payoff for Rogers. Strategists quoted in Reuters’s 23 October report described an effort to discourage Jewish and Black Democrats around Detroit from backing El-Sayed. Republican consultant Dennis Darnoi said Democratic voters withholding support would be a “net benefit to Mike Rogers’ campaign”. In an earlier response to the Brotherhood controversy, Rogers’s spokesperson told Bridge Michigan that he condemns hatred against all religious groups, including Muslims.

Whether the strategy is working remains uncertain. Reuters described the race as a toss-up, with El-Sayed holding a modest average polling lead, rather than the assured defeat Trump predicted. Its report also cited a September Emerson College poll showing El-Sayed with 81% support among Black voters.

There was already pushback before this latest post. In AP’s 17 October report, Bishara Bahbah, who helped lead Trump’s Michigan outreach in 2024, said the president’s rhetoric towards El-Sayed had crossed a “red line”.

The documented controversies concern El-Sayed’s political judgements and how he describes his professional status. Neither those disputes nor relatives’ histories substantiate the much heavier allegation that he is a jihadist.