Arab Americans for Trump, a group unthinkable 4 years ago, gathers to watch results in Michigan

DEARBORN, Michigan — The leadership of Arab Americans for Trump is getting together for an election watch party at a smoke-filled hookah lounge in Dearborn, Michigan.

Several dozen members of the local Arab community, considered the largest outside of the Middle East, come and go, as a clear picture is not expected for several hours at the earliest. Organizers plan to puff away in the lounge until at least 2 a.m.

Just two hours have passed since polls began closing in certain states and no competitive states have been called yet, so little attention is being paid to the election eve broadcasts, as attendees largely converse among themselves.

While attendance at the watch party appears underwhelming, the mere existence of an Arab American campaign supportive of former president Donald Trump would have been all but unheard of in the previous election cycle, when the Republican leader’s record during his first term included a host of steps supportive of Israel and a ban on immigration from Muslim-majority countries.

But fury over the Biden-Harris administration’s handling of the war in Gaza has led to a mass abandonment of the Democratic Party by the Arab American community, which backed the Democratic nominee overwhelmingly in 2020, helping Biden win the critical swing state. Some have embraced Trump’s anti-war rhetoric.

After spending the day canvassing in Dearborn, Arab Americans for Trump national chairman Bishara Bahbah says turnout in the community seemed about average, but well down numbers from 2020 when there was significant enthusiasm in preventing a second term for Trump.

This time around, Bahbah predicts a radically different breakdown, with the voters in the half-a-million-strong Arab American community split between Trump and third-party candidate Jill Stein.

“Very few people would be willing to admit that they voted for Harris,” the Trump surrogate claims.