DON GONYEA, HOST:
Talks about the future of Gaza continue in the Middle East after President Trump suggested earlier this month a U.S. takeover of the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory. Candidate Trump picked up significant support among Arab and Muslim voters in the key swing state of Michigan in last year's election. NPR's Sarah McCammon recently traveled to Dearborn in southeast Michigan and joins me now. Hi, Sarah.
SARAH MCCAMMON, BYLINE: Hey, Don.
GONYEA: So you spent time in and around Dearborn - It's one of the nation's most heavily Muslim and Arab communities - just days after President Trump, again, repeatedly talked about the U.S. taking over the Gaza Strip and resettling Palestinians in neighboring countries.
I'm based in that part of the world, and I had some of those conversations in that area as well. Mine were within hours of Trump's comments. I found people very reluctant to talk. What did you hear from those that you met?
MCCAMMON: Yeah, you know, Don, I also ran into some of that reticence to talk. I spent some time at the largest mosque in the country there in Dearborn, and several people didn't want to talk about politics. But from those I did speak with, I heard a range of reactions, including disappointment and concern and also a lot of skepticism about Trump's proposal.
I visited a coffee shop in Dearborn Heights, which, as you know, is a heavily Arab and Muslim area where Trump outperformed Vice President Kamala Harris in November by several points. And there I met Mujtaba Hadi. He's a recent college graduate and an engineer, and I asked him about Trump's plan to relocate Palestinians.
MUJTABA HADI: He talks about it from, like, a positive point of view, how he wants to build community for them and get them out of their - the region. But to be honest, looking at it from my point of view, he doesn't care about the Palestinians. You know, he cares about the real estate that they're on, and I feel like that's his priority more than anything else.
MCCAMMON: And, you know, Hadi told me he didn't vote in the November election because he wasn't pleased with what he was hearing from Trump or the Democrats. His friend Abbas Al-Wisha is also an engineer. He voted third party in the election but for similar reasons, similar concerns, and he's also worried about Trump's plans for Gaza.
ABBAS AL-WISHA: If people want to move, it's their - it's on their own, but you can't forcibly do this. We've seen it historically. It's not good. America is looked at the leader in the world. But when you're doing these things or when you're saying these things - you want to forcibly move a population? That's not right.
MCCAMMON: And, you know, we should note, Don, that the Trump administration has offered mixed messages about that. The White House said that any move of Palestinians would be temporary, but Trump has talked about permanent relocation.
GONYEA: So we mentioned that there was a notable shift in the vote toward Trump among many Arab and Muslim Americans, a group that had historically leaned toward Democrats. Four years early, Joe Biden carried this area by a wide margin.
MCCAMMON: Right.
GONYEA: What did you hear from Trump supporters about how they're feeling now? - and again, including from some community leaders you talked to.
MCCAMMON: You know, one of the things I noticed, Don - and this is a phenomenon I think we have both seen before with Trump supporters - sometimes they don't take everything he says completely seriously. And I saw that with this newer group of Trump voters as well. Faye Nemer is CEO of the MENA American Chamber of Commerce in Dearborn. She says she voted for Trump after a long history of voting for Democrats, and she sees Trump's proposed takeover of Gaza as unrealistic.
FAYE NEMER: We feel like that is as likely and as practical as Canada becoming the 51st state or as Greenland becoming a property of the U.S. So we're not paying too much attention to what he's saying, more so monitoring what he's doing.
MCCAMMON: Nemer notes that Trump has been in talks with leaders of Arab nations who have rejected this plan, including the king of Jordan. And she says she did appreciate his outreach to local Arab and Muslim voters during the campaign.
GONYEA: And Sarah, if your experience was at all like mine, so much of the support for Trump or the abstaining from voting was rooted in just this strong, strong anger, even hatred, for Biden administration policies, specifically support of Israel.
MCCAMMON: I would agree with that. I heard, again and again, frustration with the status quo and a sense that many of these - especially community leaders were hopeful that by supporting Trump, they would see some change. They talked about his promise to be a peacemaker in the region and in the world. And their hope was that he would somehow bring a change to the status quo and the war.
GONYEA: All right. Thank you, Sarah. Sarah McCammon is a political correspondent at NPR.
MCCAMMON: Thanks, Don.
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