WASHINGTON: US Muslim leaders who supported Republican Donald Trump to protest against the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s war on Gaza and attacks on Lebanon have been deeply disappointed by his Cabinet picks, they tell Reuters.
“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.
Trump picked Republican senator Marco Rubio, a staunch supporter of Israel for Secretary of State. Rubio said earlier this year he would not call for a ceasefire in Gaza, and that he believed Israel should destroy “every element” of Hamas. “These people are vicious animals,” he added.
Trump also nominated Mike Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor and staunch pro-Israel conservative who backs Israeli occupation of the West Bank and has called a two state solution in Palestine “unworkable,” as the next ambassador to Israel.
He has picked Republican Representative Elize Stefanik, who called the UN a “cesspool of antisemitism” for its condemnation of deaths in Gaza, to serve as US ambassador to the United Nations.
Rexhinaldo Nazarko, executive director of the American Muslim Engagement and Empowerment Network (AMEEN), said Muslim voters had hoped Trump would choose Cabinet officials who work toward peace, and there was no sign of that.
“We are very disappointed,” he said. “It seems like this administration has been packed entirely with neoconservatives and extremely pro-Israel, pro-war people, which is a failure on the 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.”
Hassan Abdel Salam, a former professor at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities and co-founder of the Abandon Harris campaign, which endorsed Green Party candidate Jill Stein, said Trump’s staffing plans were not surprising, but had proven even more extreme that he had feared.
“It’s like he’s going on Zionist overdrive,” he said. “We were always extremely skeptical...Obviously we’re still waiting to see where the administration will go, but it does look like our community has been played.”
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Several Muslim and Arab supporters of Trump said they hoped Richard Grenell, Trump’s former acting director of national intelligence, would play a key role after he led months of outreach to Muslim and Arab American communities, and was even introduced as a potential next secretary of state at events.
Another key Trump ally, Massad Boulos, the Lebanese father-in-law of Trump’s daughter Tiffany, met repeatedly with Arab American and Muslim leaders.
Both promised Arab American and Muslim voters that Trump was a candidate for peace who would act swiftly to end the wars in the Middle East and beyond. Neither was immediately reachable.
Trump made several visits to cities with large Arab American and Muslim populations, include a stop in Dearborn, a majority Arab city, where he said he loved Muslims, and Pittsburgh, where he called Muslims for Trump “a beautiful movement. They want peace. They want stability.”
Rola Makki, the Lebanese American, Muslim vice chair for outreach of the Michigan Republican Party, shrugged off the criticism.
“I don’t think everyone’s going to be happy with every appointment Trump makes, but the outcome is what matters,” she said. “I do know that Trump wants peace, and what people need to realize is that there’s 50,000 dead Palestinians and 3,000 dead Lebanese, and that’s happened during the current administration.”
Muslims who voted for Trump upset by his pro-Israel cabinet picks
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Muslims who voted for Trump upset by his pro-Israel cabinet picks
- Muslim support for Trump helped him win Michigan and may have factored into other swing state wins, strategists believe
- Hassan Abdel Salam, a former professor at the University of Minnesota said Trump’s staffing plans were not surprising, but had proven even more extreme that he had feared
Mother of Greek train tragedy victim says will form new party
- Opinion polls have shown that a ‘Karystianou party’ could grab between 10 and 30 percent of the vote
- The 53-year-old head of the Tempi Victims’ Relatives Association declined to give a timetable for the party’s launch or name
ATHENS: The main spokesperson for the victims of Greece’s worst rail tragedy has announced plans for a new political party to combat “corruption and clientelism,” with polls already predicting a strong start.
“The citizens’ movement against corruption and clientelism is being organized and will soon be ready to seek society’s vote,” Maria Karystianou, who lost her daughter in the 2023 disaster, told reporters late Friday.
Opinion polls have shown that a ‘Karystianou party’ could grab between 10 and 30 percent of the vote.
The February 2023 rail disaster in Tempi, central Greece killed 57 people, most of them young students on a passenger train that collided with a freight train in the middle of the night.
The government of conservative Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis swiftly came under fire after blaming a local station master for the accident.
The victims’ families also said valuable evidence was lost when the crash site was bulldozed soon after the accident, leading to claims of an attempted cover-up.
Nearly 40 people will go on trial in March, including railway executives and the station master responsible for directing the trains that night.
They face prison sentences of up to 20 years.
In a statement to AFP in February 2025, Karystianou said, “I am determined to take this to the end,” adding that she has “no faith” in Greek justice and would submit her case to the European Court of Human Rights.
On Friday, the 53-year-old head of the Tempi Victims’ Relatives Association declined to give a timetable for the party’s launch or name.
“When I have something complete — which means I will have a program and people — we will come out and speak,” Karystianou said.
Two former prime ministers — leftist Alexis Tsipras and conservative Antonis Samaras — are also rumored to be preparing parties of their own.
