Trump rips El-Sayed after Michigan Senate debate

President Trump slammed Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed (D) following the first debate between him and his opponent, former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), on Thursday evening.

“Mike Rogers, the great American Patriot and Republican Candidate for the U.S. Senate from Michigan, completely obliterated Mohammed El-Sayed in the big debate tonight,” Trump wrote on Truth Social shortly after midnight, using his preferred nickname for the Democratic nominee.

“If this was a fight they would have stopped it. Mohammed is a Jihadist lunatic who hates our Country, the Black People of Detroit, and wants to see the U.S. fail,” the president continued. “Short on Stature, Patriotism, and Truth, Mohammed’s statements have been loaded up with lies and deceit.”

Trump has repeatedly referred to the Democrat as “Mohammed” during the race. El-Sayed, whose full name is Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed, has accused the president of using his name and Muslim faith to “distract” from rising costs under the Trump administration.

“He knows my name is Abdul. He says it everyday,” the progressive candidate wrote in a social media post , after the president referred to him as “Mohammed” again ahead of the debate.

“He thinks so low of us,” he continued. “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.”

During the forum, El-Sayed accused his Republican opponent of being a “rubber stamp” for the president and attempted to tie Rogers’s positions to the White House, as Trump faces a historic decline in approval ratings ahead of the midterms.

“It’s about whether or not you trust your next U.S. senator [to] stand up to Trump and Trumpism,” he said. “But when [you’re] running because Donald Trump called you and asked you to run, you can tell he’s not going to stand up to anybody.”

Rogers, in response, tried to showcase several points of disagreement with the Trump administration during the exchange, pointing to his call this week to end the trade war with Canada and suggesting that the mass federal immigration crackdown had gone too far at times.