DEMOCRAT HAMTRAMCK MICHIGAN MAYOR ENDORSES TRUMP:
More at the Detroit News from Wednesday: Trump lobbied Hamtramck mayor for his endorsement in Flint meeting.
The Republican presidential candidate campaigned Tuesday night at the Dort Financial Center in Flint, and Ghalib said he and Trump met at the events center before Trump addressed the crowd.
“He knew a lot about me before the meeting,” Ghalib said Wednesday in a text message to The Detroit News.
“We talked about various topics including the debates, the polls updates, the statistics of votes in Michigan and Wayne County, the Arab American concerns and the Yemeni Americans in particular. We also talked about the situation in Yemen,” Ghalib added.
Ghalib is an immigrant from Yemen. In 2021, he ousted incumbent mayor Karen Majewski. He and other Muslim candidates for city council won in that election in Hamtramck, a roughly two-square mile city of 28,000 residents that surrounded by Detroit. U.S. Census data shows more than 40% of Hamtramck’s population now is foreign-born, including natives of Yemen.
Flashback to last year: Democrats Have a Muslim Problem in Michigan.
LGBTQ+ and transgender-supporting Democrats have a Muslim problem in Michigan as the conservative Muslim community pushes back against Democrat-supported LGBTQ legislation and policies.
In Hamtramck, the all-Muslim city council in the only Muslim-majority city in the United States, recently voted unanimously to institute a flag resolution called “Resolution to Maintain and Conform the Neutrality of the City of Hamtramck Towards its Residents.” In the resolution, they prohibit flags of any racial, ethnic, religious or sexual-oriented group on city property.
The LGBTQ+ community took offense to the resolution and showed up at the meeting to protest it on June 13th. Muslim Hassan Aoun was also at the meeting and said, “Don’t sit here and throw Pride Month, or being gay, down kids’ throat, my throat or anybody’s throat. You can be gay by yourself.”
After the vote was made concerning the flag resolution, a group of LGBTQ+ activists also protested in front of Hamtramck City Hall on June 24th. The protest included an appearance and speech by Attorney General Dana Nessel who compared their flag ban to being evil, homophobic and transphobic.
Hamtramck Mayor Amer Ghalib has said publicly that he considers the protesters to be a “militia” and the protesters were comprised of folks sent into his community, including elected officials, to put pressure on them and threaten them.
As I wrote at the time, FDR, who assembled a coalition of “Progressive” northerners and stone-cold racist southern New Dealers, smiles.
As recently as June of this year, Trump reportedly had “a Slight Edge On Biden in Swing State of Michigan, Post-Verdict Poll Shows,” the New York Post reported. So much of the Biden-Harris administration’s hatred of Israel has been driven by their efforts to win over communities in Michigan with large Muslim-American populations such as Hamtramck. Losing the mayor’s endorsement to Trump will sting badly, but as always, eschew cockiness.