U.S. Muslim leaders who supported Republican Donald Trump to protest against the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s genocidal war against Gaza and attacks on Lebanon, have been deeply disappointed by his Cabinet picks, so reported Reuters on Nov. 14. “Trump won because of us and we’re not happy with his Secretary of State pick and others,” said Rabiul Chowdhury, a Philadelphia investor who chaired the Abandon Harris campaign in Pennsylvania and co-founded Muslims for Trump. Muslim support for Trump helped him win Michigan and may have factored into other swing state wins, strategists believe.
Reuters names the appointments of Marco Rubio as secretary of state, Mike Huckabee as ambassador to Israel and Elise Stefanik as ambassador to the UN as particular disappointments. “We are very disappointed,” said Rexhinaldo Nazarko, executive director of the American Muslim Engagement and Empowerment Network (AMEEN). “It seems like this administration has been packed entirely with neoconservatives and extremely pro-Israel, pro-war people, which is a failure on the side of President Trump, to the pro-peace and anti-war movement.” Nazarko said the community would continue pressing to make its voices heard after rallying votes to help Trump win. “At least we’re on the map.”
According to a Detroit Free Press report yesterday, Lebanese Americans who organized Trump’s visit to Dearborn, on Nov. 1 have sent a letter to Trump asking him “to apply your political influence in demanding an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon and Palestine,” saying it aligns with an earlier promise Trump made calling for a “lasting peace.” Some Arab American activists, the Detroit Free Press reports, are calling for Trump to appoint Richard Grenell, his former acting Director of National Intelligence, to a security position. Grenell visited metro Detroit often this year to meet with Arab Americans and encourage them to vote for Trump.
After the election, Arab American advocates urged Trump to select Grenell as Secretary of State instead of Rubio. Grenell has more of “a non-interventionist tone,” Abed Ayoub, a Dearborn native who is national executive director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, told the Detroit Free Press earlier this week. “Changing foreign policy is what the community voted on,” Ayoub said, while Rubio is “just a continuation of the Biden foreign policy.”
