Michigan senatorial candidate Dr. Abdul El-Sayed showed that he can dish it out as good as he can take it when he took on Trump's blatant bigotry and Islamophobia head-on during a speech at a rally:
I get that the President of the United States takes personal offense to my first name. He doesn't mind as much when it's a shared name from the Saudis who are funding his son-in-law's private equity. Doesn't seem to mind as much when It's the Qataris who are giving them a $400 million private jet.
He just seems to have trouble pronouncing it when it's my name. But y'all, I don't care how he pronounces my name. I don't even care that he remembers my whole name. Because he can just go on and call me Senator after November. I will be Senator Muhammad to you, bro.
The way he delivered those lines - the cadence, the directness, and with that slight smile on his face - it reminded me a little of Barack Obama. Between that and Obama stumping for AES this past weekend, it made me feel more than a little nostalgic and homesick for when we had a real president in the White House.
EL-SAYED: I get that the President takes personal offense to my first name. He doesn't mind as much when it's the Saudis who are funding his son-in-law's private equity. Doesn't seem to mind as much when it's the Qataris who are giving them a $400 million private jet. He just seems to have trouble pronouncing it when it's my name.
I don't care how he pronounces my name. I don't even care that he remembers my whole name. Because he can just go on and call me senator after November.
— Acyn (@Acyn) October 26, 2026
