Can Trump turn Michigan's Arab community red with help from his in-laws?
How the former president plans to use anger over Biden's Gaza policy to win over a skeptical bloc in a crucial battleground state


It's been nearly a decade since then-presidential candidate Donald Trump issued his now-infamous call for a "total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on." Two years later Trump made good on his proposal, releasing various iterations of a travel ban focusing on Muslim-majority countries across the Middle East and North Africa. As such, his campaign rhetoric was a "preview for an unprecedentedly Islamophobic administration," said the Brennan Center for Justice at the start of his term.
Now, despite recent echos of his 2016 xenophobia — including promises that "any student that protests [Israel's war on Gaza], I throw them out of the country" — Trump is actively courting members of the country's largest concentration of Muslim and Arab Americans in the perennial swing state of Michigan. There, dissatisfaction with President Joe Biden's handling of the Gaza war has helped launch a national "uncommitted" movement, complicating the Democrats' reelection effort. It's a potential electoral weakness that Trump hopes to exploit with the help of his son-in-law Michael Boulos and Boulos' father, Lebanese-born billionaire Massad Boulos.
Last month, the Bouloses and Trump administration diplomat Richard Grenell met with dozens of Arab American activists in suburban Detroit in a push to make inroads with their influential voting bloc. But can Trump and his allies truly sway a community that has skewed heavily Democratic for the past 20 years?
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
What did the commentators say?
Dissatisfaction with Biden notwithstanding, any "apparent political opportunity for Trump may be limited," The Associated Press said. Many of the people who have met with the elder Boulos, whose son married Tiffany Trump in 2022, "so far are skeptical about the impact of these efforts." At his core, Massad struggles to "convince people to come to Trump's side because he hasn't offered anything substantial to the community," said Arab American News publisher Osama Siblani to the AP.
Many of the questions asked of the Trump surrogates "were not answered directly," Arab American activist Khaled Saffuri said to CBS News. "I didn't expect these issues to be answered in detail in such a meeting. That requires some thought. But at least engaging the community is one step forward."
"I told Massad, 'This isn't about you being Lebanese and me being Lebanese,'" said AAN's Siblani to Abu Dhabi's The National news outlet. "You can't just buy votes." Regarding his demand for something "substantial" for the Arab American and Muslim community, "Trump hasn't done that yet." What that substantial offering looks like remains to be seen. "Obviously the No. 1 point that is of high priority within the Arab American community is the current war in the Middle East," countered Boulos to The National. "And the question is, who can bring peace and who is bringing war? And they know the answer to that."
There's ample evidence that Trump would be "even more supportive of the Israeli government than Biden," The Washington Post said. Regardless, some Arab American and Muslim activists see the current administration's policies as so bad "they might as well roll the dice on a second Trump term." That Trump and Republicans are hoping to seize upon the dissatisfaction with the current administration "should be a wake-up call for the Biden team." The "fear of a second Trump term no longer resonates," said American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee Executive Director Abed Ayoub to The New York Times.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
What next?
Trump's Michigan outreach is the "beginning of a series of larger gatherings between Trump allies and Arab American leaders," Arab Americans for Trump chairman Bishara Bahbah said to CBS News. It is also the "latest example of outreach by some Republicans to Arab Americans" over the past several years through which the GOP "made gains in Dearborn in the November 2022 election," The Detroit Free Press said.
Trump and his envoys "can try all they want" to make inroads with Michigan's Arab American community, said former Democratic strategist Abbas Alawieh, an organizer with the Listen to Michigan movement, to The New York Times. "We won't be taken as fools here in Michigan. Whether or not Trump makes gains here is really more dependent on whether President Biden comes out more forcefully against this war."
Rafi Schwartz has worked as a politics writer at The Week since 2022, where he covers elections, Congress and the White House. He was previously a contributing writer with Mic focusing largely on politics, a senior writer with Splinter News, a staff writer for Fusion's news lab, and the managing editor of Heeb Magazine, a Jewish life and culture publication. Rafi's work has appeared in Rolling Stone, GOOD and The Forward, among others.
-
August 24 editorial cartoons
Cartoons Sunday's political cartoons include Putin at Donald Trump's circus, gallons of whitewash, and a foldable cartoon
-
5 Post Office-approved cartoons about mail-in voting
Cartoons Artists take on reverse logic, Putin's election advice, and more
-
The battle of the weight-loss drugs
Talking Point Can Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly regain their former stock market glory? A lot is riding on next year's pills
-
Judge: Trump's US attorney in NJ serving unlawfully
Speed Read The appointment of Trump's former personal defense lawyer, Alina Habba, as acting US attorney in New Jersey was ruled 'unlawful'
-
Gavin Newsom's Trump-style trolling roils critics while thrilling fans
TALKING POINTS The California governor has turned his X account into a cutting parody of Trump's digital cadence, angering Fox News conservatives
-
Israel starts Gaza assault, approves West Bank plan
Speed Read Israel forces pushed into the outskirts of Gaza City and Netanyahu's government gave approval for a settlement to cut the occupied Palestinian territory in two
-
Court says labor board's structure unconstitutional
Speed Read The ruling has broad implications for labor rights enforcement in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi
-
Inflation derailed Biden. Is Trump next?
Today's Big Question 'Financial anxiety' rises among voters
-
Judges: Threatened for ruling against Trump
Feature Threats against federal judges across the U.S. have surged since Donald Trump took office
-
The census: Why Trump wants a new one
Feature Donald Trump is pushing for a 'Trumpified census' that excludes undocumented immigrants
-
Trump warms to Kyiv security deal in summit
Speed Read Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called Trump's support for guaranteeing his country's security 'a major step forward'