U.S. Arab American and Muslim leaders, including some who supported Donald Trump in the 2024 election, criticized the president’s proposal for the U.S. to take over Gaza and resettle Palestinians, but some of them said they still believed he was the best option for lasting peace in the region.
The leaders largely dismissed Trump’s comments as unrealistic bluster and said he was unlikely to pay a big political price in the community.
“We believe that his ideas, as well-intentioned as they might be, rubbed a lot of people the wrong way,” Bishara Bahbah, who founded Arab Americans for Trump and helped rally support for him in Michigan and other battleground states, told Reuters.
“We’re opposed to any transfer of Palestinians, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, out of their homeland.”
Bahbah said he still supports Trump, seeing him as the best option to avoid conflict in Gaza. He said his organization changed its name to Arab Americans for Peace two days ago, reflecting its shift in focus following Trump’s election.
Trump outlined the idea for the U.S. to “take over” Gaza during a White House press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday. Trump also floated a proposal to relocate Palestinians to neighboring countries and redevelop the war-torn territory into a “Riviera of the Middle East,” while not ruling out the deployment of U.S. troops.
The move by Arab Americans and Muslims away from the Democratic Party likely factored into Trump’s victory, with the largest impact in the swing state of Michigan, home to the country’s biggest population of Arabs, Muslims and Palestinians.
Many in the community voted against then-Vice President Kamala Harris to protest the Biden administration’s support of Israel’s war on Gaza in retaliation for the October 7, 2023 attacks. Some also credit Trump with orchestrating a ceasefire, even though it happened before he entered the White House.
A nationwide exit poll conducted by the Council on American-Islamic Relations advocacy group showed that 53% of Muslims voted for Green Party candidate Jill Stein in the 2024 election, with Trump and Harris picking up 21% and 20%, respectively. The poll, which surveyed 1,575 Muslim voters via text message, marked a sharp constrast with 2020, when 69% of Muslim Americans voted for Biden and only 17% went for Trump.
Rabiul Chowdhury, co-founder of Muslims for Trump, said that while he was frustrated that no viable long-term solution for peace and rebuilding was being discussed for Gaza, he does not regret backing Trump.
“Conflating Trump’s rhetoric with the actions of Biden and Harris is not only disingenuous but outright dishonest,” he said, criticizing the Biden administration’s supply of weapons and other support for Israel while it bombed Gaza. “If we were to equate Trump’s actions with those of Biden and Harris, the contrast would be undeniable — Trump is the better option.”
Former President Joe Biden’s administration stood firmly by Israel during its assault on Gaza despite repeatedly pushing Israel to do more to curb civilian casualties and allow humanitarian aid into the enclave. Biden also hailed a ceasefire deal that went into effect last month as largely mirroring the framework of a proposal he made last year.
Osama Siblani, publisher of Arab American News based in Dearborn, Michigan, said he didn’t think many people in the community would regret their decision to either back Trump or withhold a vote for Harris due to her support of Israel.
But Siblani, a spokesperson for the Arab American Political Action Committee, which endorsed neither candidate in the 2024 election, likened Trump’s rhetoric to that of a “crazy man” and said they would not advance the cause of peace.
“Instead of helping people to recover, he’s trying to take advantage of their of their misery,” he told Reuters. “I can’t believe that a president of the United States is making such a suggestion.”
Yahya Basha, a doctor and founder of Muslims for American Progress, said he was not surprised by Trump’s comments, given earlier statements by his son-in-law Jared Kushner about Gaza being a good site for a future resort, but remained skeptical that the U.S. would execute those plans.
“I don’t regret anything I did to get Trump elected and I hope we see positive signs in the future,” said Basha, an early advocate for Trump in Michigan.
Instead, he said he believed Trump’s comments were often provocative rather than the basis of policy, citing his comments on buying Greenland or to make Canada the 51st state of the U.S.
Yemeni-American Samra’a Luqman, a registered Democrat who voted for Trump in 2024 in the hopes he would bring about a ceasefire in Gaza, said she did not support Trump’s proposal for a U.S. takeover. But she said she still views Trump more favorably compared to the actions of the Biden administration.
“I’m not pleased that I’m hearing things about people being displaced from their homeland for good, but at least they are not being killed off by the thousands or hundreds per day as we have seen in the last year,” said Luqman, a 42-year-old resident of Dearborn, Michigan.
