Trump leans into Islamophobia and conspiracy in last-ditch campaign rallies
Trump attacks Muslim politicians Abdul El-Sayed and Ilhan Omar in his two last rallies on the campaign trail.
United States President Donald Trump has doubled down on Islamophobic rhetoric and conspiracy theories about the Democratic Party at campaign events in Iowa and Kansas, days before the US votes in crucial midterm elections that will decide who controls Congress during Trump’s last two years as president.
The president repeated his claim that Abdul El-Sayed, a Democratic US Senate hopeful from Michigan, is a “jihadist” at both rallies on Sunday, and joked that if he gets elected, the Senate will have to install metal detectors to scan him before he enters the building.
“We’ll have a hundred senators, and most of them will go directly [into the Senate]… We’re gonna have to get a special metal detector for Abdul,” Trump said, drawing laughter from the crowd.
In Iowa, the president said he would “love” Democratic Representative Haley Stevens, who lost to Abdul El-Sayed in the primaries, to switch parties, after she endorsed El-Sayed’s Republican opponent, Mike Rogers.