President Donald Trump slammed Michigan U.S. Senate candidate Dr. Abdul El-Sayed during a speech on Wednesday in Las Vegas after the Democrat notched a primary win in a closely watched race this week.
The president accused El-Sayed of being part of a wave of “communists” who would bring “squalor” and “death” to America.
“When I watch Abdul, he’s full of s***,” Trump told a crowd at the Red Rock Casino Resort and Spa.
El-Sayed is not a communist, but rather a progressive who is campaigning on issues including Medicare for all and removing corporate money from politics.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Trump accused El-Sayed, who has been critical of the U.S. for supporting Israel’s “genocide” in Gaza, of being hateful and antisemitic.
“Put him in office, you’re going to find out what he loves,” Trump said. “He doesn’t love Israel. He doesn’t love Jewish people. He hates them. He hates them with a passion that burns in his heart.”
The Independent has contacted the El-Sayed campaign for comment.
The Michigan primary race was a key target of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a pro-Israel lobbying group whose super PAC spent an estimated $32 million spreading the message that El-Sayed was pursuing a “radical anti-Israel agenda.”
El-Sayed, a former public health official, has argued U.S. money would be better spent on domestic priorities like healthcare than on supporting Israel’s military.
In a victory speech on Wednesday after his primary win over Rep. Haley Stevens, El-Sayed thanked Jewish supporters of his campaign and affirmed his commitment to representing people of all faiths in Michigan.
“To all of my sisters and brothers of the Jewish faith, or any faith at all, or no faith at all, I want you to know that my commitment to your safety, my commitment to Jewish safety, is the same commitment that I have to the safety of my own daughters,” he said.
He added that he had been “listening to sisters and brothers who said, ‘I want to join this movement because AIPAC doesn’t speak for me, because I understand that self-determination for one people does not require the quenching of self-determination for another people.”
Elsewhere in his speech, President Trump sought to contrast El-Sayed’s left-leaning views with the Trump agenda, which has included a package of tax cuts largely benefitting the upper middle class and new deductions for tips and Social Security.
As for the other big economic factor looming over Americans ahead of midterm season, the Iran war, the president’s Vegas speech was relatively brief. He accused “fake polls” of distorting American economic sentiment and touted the U.S. war effort, which has sent gas prices spiking.
Trump claimed the U.S. had been set at some point to launch “the biggest attack since World War II” against the Iranians, but that Tehran sought to negotiate.
“We are talking,” Trump added of the Iran conflict, which continues to elude a quick resolution for the president. “Let’s see what happens.”
The president has revived a Red Scare-style public campaign against communism ahead of the midterms, as insurgent left-wing candidates such as El-Sayed and New York City’s democratic socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani have risen to prominence in the party’s grassroots.
The president has frequently referred to Democratic rivals as communists, and the State Department last month accused Cuba of a “sustained campaign of subversion” supporting American activists and progressive officials, including the Democratic Socialists of America, Mamdani and Rep. Ilhan Omar, among others.
The Trump administration has also moved to classify various forms of left-wing political activism as a crime.
Last year, the administration labeled anti-fascist activists as members of a “domestic terrorist organization,” despite so-called antifa groups lacking any singular organization or unified agenda.
Meanwhile, a September national security memo on domestic terrorism enforcement lists “anti-Americanism” and criticisms of “law enforcement and border control” as key indicators that could merit an investigation.
