Dumbasses!:
The half-dozen Lebanese American retirees sat socializing in the same spot they do every afternoon: the mall sofas on the ground floor of Fairlane Town Center.
Ali Hammoud, 77, was still incensed over what President Donald Trump had said days earlier about the United States taking control of the Gaza Strip, moving out its remaining residents and facilitating its redevelopment as the “Riviera of the Middle East.” Hammoud was among the longtime Democrats who helped Trump win this heavily Arab American city outside Detroit, supporting him for the first time in November over their dissatisfaction with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’s support for continued aid to Israel.
Now, some Arab American voters here who helped Trump win back Michigan are wondering whether they were duped by his promises to bring a swift end to the war that has left Gaza decimated.
“Instead of helping them in their own country, he wants to make it as a ‘riviera’ and kick all the Palestinians out,” Hammoud, one of more than a dozen people interviewed, said in disbelief, before saying that Trump’s plan is “never going to happen.”
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“Impossible,” Hammoud added.
He doesn’t regret voting for Trump last year, though.
“I still do like him, in a way,” Hammoud admitted. “He is good to America. … But as a Middle East policy, he’s lousy.”
Some here who spoke to The Washington Post have given Trump a pass for the comments about Palestinians and the conflict in Gaza, insisting that they were merely a tasteless negotiating ploy and that he will back away from them. Others believe Trump hoodwinked his new Arab American supporters, luring them in with assurances of peace and respect for Palestinians, only to do Israel’s bidding. And broadly, even those unhappy with his latest announcement still give Trump credit for there being a ceasefire at all — believing that his election expedited a process that would have dragged out longer otherwise.
Whether Trump can keep these new supporters could have significant implications not just on key upcoming statewide races Republicans believe they can win in Michigan, but on the fragile coalition the party assembled to gain ground this fall and declare sweeping governing mandates.
rime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to wrap up the conflict quickly. Trump also told Hamas there would be “all hell to pay” if it did not release the remaining hostages before Inauguration Day.
Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, worked closely with the outgoing Biden team to help broker the ceasefire deal that quieted the fighting on Jan. 19, a day before Trump retook office. Israel’s assault on Gaza — launched after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel that killed more than 1,200 people — has claimed at least 47,000 lives, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says the majority of the dead are women and children.
Starting in September, Israel launched widespread airstrikes on what it said were Hezbollah militant positions in Lebanon, followed by a ground invasion. It agreed to a ceasefire there in late November, but Israeli forces remain in Lebanese territory.
Seated next to Hammoud on the mall sofa, Sam Hasshem, 85, moved a string of orange rosary beads through his fingers. A lifelong Democrat, Hasshem also voted for Trump for the first time in November — but he doesn’t feel good about it now.
“I don’t like him,” Hasshem said. “He talked nice before he went in. Everybody said he makes peace, wants to make no more war, no more problems. But he’s a liar.”
In a nearby armchair, 60-year-old Kass Hachem, a lifelong union worker and Democrat, also withheld a vote from Harris last year. He voted for the Green Party’s Jill Stein.
She, too, had voted for him in November for the first time, after supporting Biden and Democrats in the past. And as CEO of the MENA American Chamber of Commerce — a Dearborn-based business group seeking to promote collaboration between the Middle Eastern and North African region and the United States — she helped organize meetings of both the Harris and Trump campaigns with local Arab American business leaders.
“It’s like saying ‘Uproot the 2.9 million people in Kyiv, Ukraine, just because there’s destruction there,’” Nemer said. “Or Hurricane Katrina victims — imagine telling Americans that you can’t return to your community because a hurricane destroyed your home or decimated the infrastructure.”
Nemer, though, is still hopeful that Trump will back away from the suggestion. And she claimed that if Harris had won, “there wouldn’t be any Palestinians left to relocate.” She questioned why Trump’s administration would “undermine and dismiss the momentum that they built” with Arab Americans.
“If they continue down this path of alienating that part of the base, I think it’ll come back to haunt them during the upcoming election cycle,” Nemer said.
The conflict in Gaza isn’t an academic issue for many Arab Americans in the area. Nemer’s family in Lebanon, from which she immigrated to the United States at age 10, also suffered loss. Her cousin’s 6-year-old child was killed during Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon. Nemer said Palestinians and the sovereignty of Lebanon became a “red line” in the election.
In early September, Nemer’s group hosted two advisers from Harris’s team in the same conference room where she met with a Post reporter this week. The campaign representatives started the meeting by saying bluntly they couldn’t commit to making any changes to Harris’s policy on Israel and Gaza, Nemer said.
Emotions were high. The previous evening, Liz Cheney — whose father was a leading advocate for the U.S. invasion of Iraq — had endorsed Harris. One of the business leaders in attendance at the meeting had lost immediate family members that morning in Gaza. Another leader closed her notebook and got up to leave after initial remarks from Harris’s team, Nemer said, but was urged to stay.
A month and a half later, interest in a meeting with Trump’s team was so high, they had to move it to a larger room, Nemer said. Some 40 local Arab American leaders came to hear from Massad Boulos, a Lebanese American businessman and the father-in-law of Trump’s youngest daughter, Tiffany. Soon after — and just days before the election — Trump again promised to secure lasting peace during a visit to a Lebanese-owned restaurant in Dearborn.
That effort impressed Arab Americans in the area, Nemer said. Trump won Dearborn and Dearborn Heights after losing them both in 2016 and 2020, and saw gains in the nearby heavily Arab American community of Hamtramck.
“Where we may have a disconnect,” Nemer said, “is what is his vision of peace compared to our community’s vision of peace? Our community’s vision of peace is that there is no pathway to peace unless there is a sovereign Palestinian state.”
Local Arab American leaders who met with Trump’s team during the campaign are still working their points of contact as much as they can, hoping the Trump administration takes their warnings seriously.
The Muslim mayors of Dearborn Heights and Hamtramck, who endorsed Trump and campaigned for him this election, did not respond to requests for comment. Nor did the mayor of Dearborn, who declined to issue an endorsement in the election and had been critical of Biden’s policies on the war.
Albert Abbas, who hosted Trump in Dearborn in November at his Lebanese family’s restaurant, said Trump’s recent comments were “concerning,” but he believes Trump still has an opportunity to change course and keep his support from Arab Americans in Michigan.
“He won on a plurality, not on a majority. And the future of elections, whether it’s midterm or presidential elections, will be heavily weighed upon the upcoming steps that he takes in regards to foreign policy in Gaza and in Lebanon,” Abbas said.
He was stunned to see Trump gladly receive a golden pager trophy from Netanyahu this week, a reference to pager explosions after Israel targeted Hezbollah officials in Lebanon, but which also maimed and killed innocent civilians. Abbas said that Trump should have rejected it and that “accepting such a plaque is deeply insensitive to human life.” His community had previously believed Trump was “the only one” who would stand up to Israel and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
“Right now, the current statements don’t align with that,” Abbas said. “However, there’s plenty of time to correct it.”
Samer Ibrahim, a 42-year-old engineer, sat out the election altogether this past year. Previously a Barack Obama supporter,, he was intrigued enough by Trump in 2016 to vote for him, a decision that raised eyebrows from some of his Arab American friends at the time.
But, Ibrahim said, voting this time “felt like it was stupid,” adding that “both options were really bad.” He thought Trump, having emerged from four years out of power, sounded like he was going to go too far this time. Scrolling on Facebook this past week and seeing posts about Trump’s latest Gaza comments, Ibrahim felt vindicated for not supporting him again.
The half-dozen Lebanese American retirees sat socializing in the same spot they do every afternoon: the mall sofas on the ground floor of Fairlane Town Center.
Ali Hammoud, 77, was still incensed over what President Donald Trump had said days earlier about the United States taking control of the Gaza Strip, moving out its remaining residents and facilitating its redevelopment as the “Riviera of the Middle East.” Hammoud was among the longtime Democrats who helped Trump win this heavily Arab American city outside Detroit, supporting him for the first time in November over their dissatisfaction with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’s support for continued aid to Israel.
Now, some Arab American voters here who helped Trump win back Michigan are wondering whether they were duped by his promises to bring a swift end to the war that has left Gaza decimated.
“Instead of helping them in their own country, he wants to make it as a ‘riviera’ and kick all the Palestinians out,” Hammoud, one of more than a dozen people interviewed, said in disbelief, before saying that Trump’s plan is “never going to happen.”
🏛️
Follow Politics
“Impossible,” Hammoud added.
He doesn’t regret voting for Trump last year, though.
“I still do like him, in a way,” Hammoud admitted. “He is good to America. … But as a Middle East policy, he’s lousy.”
Some here who spoke to The Washington Post have given Trump a pass for the comments about Palestinians and the conflict in Gaza, insisting that they were merely a tasteless negotiating ploy and that he will back away from them. Others believe Trump hoodwinked his new Arab American supporters, luring them in with assurances of peace and respect for Palestinians, only to do Israel’s bidding. And broadly, even those unhappy with his latest announcement still give Trump credit for there being a ceasefire at all — believing that his election expedited a process that would have dragged out longer otherwise.
Whether Trump can keep these new supporters could have significant implications not just on key upcoming statewide races Republicans believe they can win in Michigan, but on the fragile coalition the party assembled to gain ground this fall and declare sweeping governing mandates.
rime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to wrap up the conflict quickly. Trump also told Hamas there would be “all hell to pay” if it did not release the remaining hostages before Inauguration Day.
Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, worked closely with the outgoing Biden team to help broker the ceasefire deal that quieted the fighting on Jan. 19, a day before Trump retook office. Israel’s assault on Gaza — launched after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel that killed more than 1,200 people — has claimed at least 47,000 lives, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says the majority of the dead are women and children.
Starting in September, Israel launched widespread airstrikes on what it said were Hezbollah militant positions in Lebanon, followed by a ground invasion. It agreed to a ceasefire there in late November, but Israeli forces remain in Lebanese territory.
Seated next to Hammoud on the mall sofa, Sam Hasshem, 85, moved a string of orange rosary beads through his fingers. A lifelong Democrat, Hasshem also voted for Trump for the first time in November — but he doesn’t feel good about it now.
“I don’t like him,” Hasshem said. “He talked nice before he went in. Everybody said he makes peace, wants to make no more war, no more problems. But he’s a liar.”
In a nearby armchair, 60-year-old Kass Hachem, a lifelong union worker and Democrat, also withheld a vote from Harris last year. He voted for the Green Party’s Jill Stein.
‘There’s plenty of time to correct it’
In the fourth-floor conference room of an office complex in Dearborn, Faye Nemer, 39, said Trump’s Gaza position just wasn’t aligned with the promises of “peace and dignity” he made to her community in the fall.She, too, had voted for him in November for the first time, after supporting Biden and Democrats in the past. And as CEO of the MENA American Chamber of Commerce — a Dearborn-based business group seeking to promote collaboration between the Middle Eastern and North African region and the United States — she helped organize meetings of both the Harris and Trump campaigns with local Arab American business leaders.
“It’s like saying ‘Uproot the 2.9 million people in Kyiv, Ukraine, just because there’s destruction there,’” Nemer said. “Or Hurricane Katrina victims — imagine telling Americans that you can’t return to your community because a hurricane destroyed your home or decimated the infrastructure.”
Nemer, though, is still hopeful that Trump will back away from the suggestion. And she claimed that if Harris had won, “there wouldn’t be any Palestinians left to relocate.” She questioned why Trump’s administration would “undermine and dismiss the momentum that they built” with Arab Americans.
“If they continue down this path of alienating that part of the base, I think it’ll come back to haunt them during the upcoming election cycle,” Nemer said.
The conflict in Gaza isn’t an academic issue for many Arab Americans in the area. Nemer’s family in Lebanon, from which she immigrated to the United States at age 10, also suffered loss. Her cousin’s 6-year-old child was killed during Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon. Nemer said Palestinians and the sovereignty of Lebanon became a “red line” in the election.
In early September, Nemer’s group hosted two advisers from Harris’s team in the same conference room where she met with a Post reporter this week. The campaign representatives started the meeting by saying bluntly they couldn’t commit to making any changes to Harris’s policy on Israel and Gaza, Nemer said.
Emotions were high. The previous evening, Liz Cheney — whose father was a leading advocate for the U.S. invasion of Iraq — had endorsed Harris. One of the business leaders in attendance at the meeting had lost immediate family members that morning in Gaza. Another leader closed her notebook and got up to leave after initial remarks from Harris’s team, Nemer said, but was urged to stay.
A month and a half later, interest in a meeting with Trump’s team was so high, they had to move it to a larger room, Nemer said. Some 40 local Arab American leaders came to hear from Massad Boulos, a Lebanese American businessman and the father-in-law of Trump’s youngest daughter, Tiffany. Soon after — and just days before the election — Trump again promised to secure lasting peace during a visit to a Lebanese-owned restaurant in Dearborn.
That effort impressed Arab Americans in the area, Nemer said. Trump won Dearborn and Dearborn Heights after losing them both in 2016 and 2020, and saw gains in the nearby heavily Arab American community of Hamtramck.
“Where we may have a disconnect,” Nemer said, “is what is his vision of peace compared to our community’s vision of peace? Our community’s vision of peace is that there is no pathway to peace unless there is a sovereign Palestinian state.”
Local Arab American leaders who met with Trump’s team during the campaign are still working their points of contact as much as they can, hoping the Trump administration takes their warnings seriously.
The Muslim mayors of Dearborn Heights and Hamtramck, who endorsed Trump and campaigned for him this election, did not respond to requests for comment. Nor did the mayor of Dearborn, who declined to issue an endorsement in the election and had been critical of Biden’s policies on the war.
Albert Abbas, who hosted Trump in Dearborn in November at his Lebanese family’s restaurant, said Trump’s recent comments were “concerning,” but he believes Trump still has an opportunity to change course and keep his support from Arab Americans in Michigan.
“He won on a plurality, not on a majority. And the future of elections, whether it’s midterm or presidential elections, will be heavily weighed upon the upcoming steps that he takes in regards to foreign policy in Gaza and in Lebanon,” Abbas said.
He was stunned to see Trump gladly receive a golden pager trophy from Netanyahu this week, a reference to pager explosions after Israel targeted Hezbollah officials in Lebanon, but which also maimed and killed innocent civilians. Abbas said that Trump should have rejected it and that “accepting such a plaque is deeply insensitive to human life.” His community had previously believed Trump was “the only one” who would stand up to Israel and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
“Right now, the current statements don’t align with that,” Abbas said. “However, there’s plenty of time to correct it.”
Samer Ibrahim, a 42-year-old engineer, sat out the election altogether this past year. Previously a Barack Obama supporter,, he was intrigued enough by Trump in 2016 to vote for him, a decision that raised eyebrows from some of his Arab American friends at the time.
But, Ibrahim said, voting this time “felt like it was stupid,” adding that “both options were really bad.” He thought Trump, having emerged from four years out of power, sounded like he was going to go too far this time. Scrolling on Facebook this past week and seeing posts about Trump’s latest Gaza comments, Ibrahim felt vindicated for not supporting him again.
