President Trump's unexpected pronouncement Tuesday that the U.S. will "take over" and redevelop war-ravaged Gaza — while calling for Palestinians to be relocated to neighboring countries — landed with a thud in Dearborn, Mich., where he aggressively courted the votes of the city's Arab American population during the 2024 presidential campaign.
Democrats have long counted on the support of voters here, but last year Trump carried Dearborn thanks to widespread anger with the Biden administration over its handling of the war in Gaza. Protests labeled then-President Joe Biden as "Genocide Joe" for his continued support of Israel throughout the war, and Trump won some key endorsement from imams in the Detroit area, as well as from some elected officials, including the mayor of Hamtramck, Mich., Amer Ghalib, a Democrat.
Trump won 42% of the vote in Dearborn to Vice President Kamala Harris' 36%, while Green Party candidate Jill Stein — who ran on ending the violence in Gaza — won 18%.
Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud, who did not endorse either candidate ahead of the election, wrote on social media Tuesday: "President Trump's proposal to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from Gaza and have the U.S. 'take over' is yet another chapter in the ongoing genocide."
"Deploying U.S. troops and using taxpayer dollars to invade Gaza is morally indefensible. Our commitment to justice remains unshaken, no matter who sits in the White House," he continued.
Abbas Alawieh is a Democratic strategist who organized the "uncommitted" campaign — which pushed Biden and Harris to call for a ceasefire and to halt weapons transfers to Israel. When Biden dropped out of the race, many uncommitted voters were hopeful that Harris would change course as the new Democratic nominee. Ultimately, the group urged voters to vote against Trump, but declined to officially endorse Harris.
Alawieh, who did end up voting for Harris, described Trump on Wednesday as being "reckless," "delusional" and "disgusting." He said that Trump came to Dearborn during the campaign and "lied to a whole bunch of folks saying that he would be a pro-peace president."
"Abandon Harris" — another, more hard-line protest group previously known as "Abandon Biden" — released a statement Wednesday condemning Trump for "grotesque statements" regarding Gaza. But the organization also kept up its attacks on Biden and Harris, saying in the release, "We refuse to equate Trump's inflammatory rhetoric with the Biden-Harris administration's concrete actions — actions that spanned 15 months of material, verbal, monetary, and political support for Israel's genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza."
Sam Ali, a Dearborn business consultant, sat out the presidential race over the Biden-Harris administration's handling of the war in Gaza. But he places some blame for the current situation on Muslim and Arab Americans who did vote for Trump.
"It's like, what did you think? What did you think he was going to do?" Ali told NPR. "What did you think he was going to say? And now people have to live with the consequences of their decision to vote for him."
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