Donald Trump’s audacious attempt to topple Michigan by courting Arab-Americans in Dearborn

Donald Trump became the first of the two major candidates to visit the country’s so-called Muslim capital when he stopped by a halal cafe in Dearborn, Michigan, to woo Arab-American voters.

“This is Trump country,” one guest shouted as the former president toured The Great Commoner restaurant.

Trump told reporters traveling with him that the visit was part of an effort to reach Lebanese and Muslim voters.

It was an extraordinary moment for a man still hated by many Arab-Americans for the “Muslim ban” imposed when he came to power in 2016.

But the war in Gaza has turned the politics of Dearborn, where the population is 55 percent Muslim, upside down.

There are votes to be won in an area that has long been reliably Democratic. Many voters are hostile to Joe Biden’s support of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war in Gaza, and so far unconvinced by Kamala Harris’ attempts to change the message.

The Trump campaign sees an opportunity with young voters like Ali Hamie, 21, a medical assistant who arrived at the restaurant early to pick a spot.

He was eating a hamburger while explaining how things had been better during Trump’s presidency, including peace in the Middle East.

‘The economy was great. He is a strong leader. Gas prices. I’ve never seen so many people in the mall. That’s kind of how it used to be now,” he said.

He was sitting next to 21-year-old Joseph Hamed. Both said their families were from Lebanon, which has been subject to Israeli airstrikes in recent weeks.

Both said the region would be in safer hands under Trump than Harris.

“What’s happening now with Biden is he’s given them all these billions of dollars. That won’t happen. I don’t see Trump handing them billions and billions of dollars for war,” Hamed said.

“I see him giving billions of dollars in aid to the people who are actually dying, not to the Israeli forces and things like that, to go ahead and kill children.”

Metro Detroit is home to the nation’s largest Arab-American population, much of which is in Dearborn.

With four days until the election, Trump courted the Arab-American vote in Dearborn

They could determine the outcome of the vote in a state that went from Donald Trump in 2016 to Joe Biden in 2020.

During the Democratic primaries, thousands stayed home instead of supporting Biden in a protest vote against his handling of the war in Gaza.

In a state decided by such narrow margins (barely 10,000 votes in 2016), Trump is failing to win over many disaffected Arab-Americans. Maybe he just needs them not to bother voting.

That’s just as good.

The divisions in the community were visible when Trump’s motorcade stopped in front of the historic brick facade of The Great Commoner.

Fawzy Mohamad appeared out of nowhere in a flowing white dishdasha. “Free, free Palestine,” he sang amid a pro-Trump crowd of bystanders.

A handful of young men on the other side of the street responded with their own response: “Free, free, Palestine.

Mohamad went even further, shouting, “F*** Trump,” much to the consternation of the MAGA-capped red majority that made up the rest of the crowd.

“It’s still a free country,” Mohamad said, “right?”

Trump signed a hat and posed for selfies during the visit

Fawzy Mohamad unfurled a Palestinian flag as part of a protest outside Trump’s visit

Hassan Abdallah, 25, was among supporters who visited the former president

He later explained to DailyMail.com that he planned to vote for Green Party candidate Jill Stein.

“If you are a true Muslim, if you have any decency, you will not vote for Kamala Harris,” he said. “You’re not going to vote for Trump either, because they’re both the whole problem.”

The visit is not the only part of the push. Earlier this week, Trump wrote a letter to the American Lebanese community vowing to ‘stop the suffering and destruction in Lebanon’

But after Trump headed to a meeting in Warren, it emerged that several Arab-American leaders had declined meetings with him. Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud, a Democrat who has not endorsed this year, and Arab American News publisher Osama Siblani both said no, according to the Associated Press.

Kamal Mustafa, 57, owner of a restaurant on the site of the Great Commoner, watched the proceedings with a wry smile.

“Only in America,” he said, explaining that it was a southern Lebanese, Shiite faction of business owners who supported Trump in Dearborn. Other groups may not like Harris as much, but it would be a stretch to see them vote for the president, who restricted travel from seven predominantly Muslim countries and separated families until the court intervened.

‘Me? “I’m just in the middle of it,” he said.