President Donald Trump obliterated Michigan U.S. Senate candidate Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed over his portrayal as a medical doctor, going on to say, “He should not be allowed to serve in our Senate.” The president’s remarks are in response to a question from Breitbart News on the tarmac of Joint Base Andrews en route to Michigan where Trump will be stumping for GOP Senate candidate Mike Rogers, El-Sayed’s opponent.
“Well, I think he’s practicing illegally, from what I’ve been told. If he actually saw a patient, it would be illegal. So it’s just like everything else. He’s a jihadist, and he should not be allowed to serve in our Senate,” the president replied. While El-Sayed does have a medical degree, it appears he never completed the post-medical-school requirements necessary to become a licensed doctor.
Despite this, he has appeared in a white coat and has referred to himself for years as a physician. To make matters worse, major news outlets and publications, like the New York Times, have also referred to El-Sayed as a doctor. The Times referred to him as such a total of 42 times in one article. Compare that to when Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), an actual licensed surgeon and doctor, first ran for Senate in 2010, he was referred to by the publication as “Mr. Paul.”
According to Breitbart, Trump also made a comment about El-Sayed co-signing a letter in support of the Muslim Brotherhood in 2012, telling the outlet, “He’s at least very, very supportive of that group, and we can’t have that.” El-Sayed and Rogers are currently competing in what has turned out to be one of the most closely watched Senate races in the current cycle as the GOP looks to hold control of the Senate and Democrats are desperately trying to strip it away from them for the last two years of Trump’s term.
Rogers made an appearance on Breitbart’s weekend podcast where he shared the president’s concern about El-Sayed’s credentials, noting that it wouldn’t even be legal for the Democrat to see a patient. El-Sayed has responded to the attacks made against him that have called his loyalty to the United States into question as “shameful” and has repeatedly denied that he has any ties to radical Islamic extremist groups.
The remarks from Trump were also condemned by Bishara Bahbah, the founder of Arab Americans for Trump, which is an organization that helped the president reach out to Arab American voters during the 2024 presidential election, according to an article from PBS. “The president’s statements are out of line,” he went on to say in a phone interview. “They are crossing a red line. They are racist.”
A spokesperson for El-Sayed responded to President Trump’s comments about the candidate, saying, “While they lie and resort to desperate, bad faith attacks, Abdul remains laser focused on his plans to bring down costs and stand up to the chaos and corruption in Washington.” El-Sayed also said, “I’m proud of our Constitution that guarantees all of us the right to pray as we choose to pray.”
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