By Andrea Shalal
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – American Muslim leaders who backed Republican Donald Trump to protest the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s war on Gaza and attacks on Lebanon are deeply disappointed by his Cabinet choices, they told Reuters.
“Trump won because of us and we are not happy with his choice for secretary of state and others,” said Rabiul Chowdhury, a Philadelphia investor who chaired the Abandon Harris campaign in Pennsylvania and co-founded Muslims for Trump . Muslim support for Trump helped him win Michigan and may have contributed to other victories in the swing state, strategists believe.
Trump chose Republican Senator Marco Rubio, a staunch supporter of Israel, as secretary of state. Rubio said earlier this year that he would not call for a ceasefire in Gaza, and that he believed Israel should destroy “every element” of Hamas. “These people are cruel animals,” he added.
Trump also nominated Mike Huckabee, a former governor of Arkansas and a staunch pro-Israel conservative who supports Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and has called a two-state solution in Palestine “unworkable,” as the next ambassador to Israel.
He has picked Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik, who called the U.N. a “cesspool of anti-Semitism” for its condemnation of the deaths in Gaza, to serve as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
Rexhinaldo Nazarko, executive director of the American Muslim Engagement and Empowerment Network (AMEEN), said Muslim voters had hoped Trump would choose Cabinet officials committed to peace, and there was no sign of that.
“We are very disappointed,” he said. “It appears that this administration is filled entirely with neoconservatives and extremely pro-Israel, pro-war people, which is a failure on President Trump’s part versus the pro-peace and anti-war movement.”
Nazarko said the community would continue to push to make its voice heard after collecting votes to help Trump win. “At least we’re on the map.”
Hassan Abdel Salam, a former professor at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities and co-founder of the Abandon Harris campaign, which backed Green Party candidate Jill Stein, said Trump’s staffing plans were not surprising but had proven to be even more extreme than he had done. feared.
“It’s like he’s going into Zionist overdrive,” he said. “We were always extremely skeptical… Obviously we’re still waiting to see where the government will go, but it seems like our community has been played.”
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Several Muslim and Arab Trump supporters said they hoped Richard Grenell, Trump’s former acting director of national intelligence, would play a key role after months of leading Muslim and Arab American communities, even being introduced as a potential next Secretary of State. at events.
Another key Trump ally, Massad Boulos, the Lebanese father-in-law of Trump’s daughter Tiffany, met repeatedly with Arab-American and Muslim leaders.
Both promised Arab American and Muslim voters that Trump was a peace candidate who would act quickly to end wars in the Middle East and beyond. Neither was immediately reachable.
Trump made several visits to cities with large Arab-American and Muslim populations, including a stop in Dearborn, a majority-Arab city, where he said he loved Muslims, and Pittsburgh, where he called Muslims “a nice movement” for Trump mentioned. They want peace. They want stability.”
Rola Makki, the Lebanese-American Muslim vice chair for outreach for the Republican Party of Michigan, shrugged off the criticism.
“I don’t think everyone will be happy with every appointment Trump makes, but the outcome is what matters,” she said. “I do know that Trump wants peace, and what people need to realize is that there are 50,000 dead Palestinians and 3,000 dead Lebanese, and that has happened during the current administration.”
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Heather Timmons and Peter Graff)
