Trump Invokes 9/11 at Michigan Rally to Oppose Senate Candidate El-Sayed
A sitting president's use of the September 11 attacks to characterize a state-level Senate candidate raises questions about the boundaries of federal involvement in congressional races and the use...
President Donald Trump, at a campaign rally in Port Huron, Michigan on Sunday, October 25, 2026, called Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed a "jihadist" and alleged he is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, according to the South China Morning Post. Trump made the remarks while invoking the September 11, 2001 attacks and claimed Democrats would allow "violent anti-American terrorists" into the United States.
"I'm here to keep a jihadist, Muslim Brotherhood member from becoming a United States senator," Trump told the audience, according to the South China Morning Post's account of the rally.
El-Sayed is a physician and former Detroit Health Department director who ran for Michigan governor in 2018, losing in the Democratic primary to Gretchen Whitmer. He is a Muslim American of Egyptian descent. No public record or verified government document reviewed for this report has established any formal link between El-Sayed and the Muslim Brotherhood. El-Sayed's campaign response to the Port Huron remarks, if any, was not available in the source material reviewed.
The Muslim Brotherhood is a transnational Islamist organization founded in Egypt in 1928. It is designated as a terrorist organization by Russia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and several other governments. The United States government has not formally designated the Muslim Brotherhood as a foreign terrorist organization, a status that requires a determination by the Secretary of State under federal law.
Trump's appearance in Michigan signals continued direct presidential involvement in the 2026 midterm Senate races. Michigan is a competitive state in federal elections: Trump won it in 2016, lost it to Joe Biden in 2020, and won it again in 2024, according to certified state election results. The Michigan Senate seat at stake in 2026 has not been identified in available source material as currently held by either party's incumbent, and the full field of candidates has not been detailed in the reviewed sources.
The framing of a Senate candidate in religious and security terms by a sitting president is not without precedent in American political history. During the post-September 11 era, multiple congressional campaigns saw candidates' faith or national origin cited by opponents in security contexts, though direct presidential involvement at the rally level in state Senate races has been less common historically.
As previously reported by The Congressional Times, Michigan GOP Senate nominee Mike Rogers has publicly rejected Trump's terrorism characterization of El-Sayed, a position that places Rogers at odds with the president of his own party. See: Michigan GOP Senate Nominee Rogers Rejects Trump's Terrorism Label for El Sayed. Rogers's posture complicates the degree to which the Republican Party in Michigan is unified behind the president's rhetorical approach to the race.
The Port Huron rally marks at least the second occasion on which Trump has publicly linked El-Sayed to extremism during this election cycle, according to the South China Morning Post, which described Sunday's remarks as Trump "ratcheting up" an existing line of argument rather than introducing a new one.
Federal law permits a sitting president to campaign for or against candidates in any election. The Federal Election Commission regulates campaign finance disclosures for such activity, but no law restricts the content of a president's campaign speech beyond existing statutes on defamation, which are enforced through civil litigation rather than electoral authority.
Whether El-Sayed or any affiliated group intends to respond legally or through formal complaint to the Federal Election Commission is unknown. A formal FEC complaint, a civil defamation filing, or a public statement directly rebutting specific factual claims from El-Sayed's campaign would be the records most likely to reveal the candidate's next steps.