President Donald Trump on Thursday linked Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed to the Muslim Brotherhood, citing alleged family ties to the organization. "He's a Muslim Brotherhood guy, 100%," Trump stated during a lunch in the White House Rose Garden. He expressed concern over El-Sayed potentially serving on the Senate Intelligence Committee, asserting, "The guy's 100% Muslim Brotherhood."
El-Sayed has faced scrutiny from Republicans due to social media posts made by his half-sister, Eman Abdelhadi, who claimed their mother was an active member of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt during the 1970s. El-Sayed has denied any family connections to the group. In a recent interview with NBC's Meet the Press, he stated, "I have no ties; we have no ties."
El-Sayed accused his political opponents of using anti-Muslim rhetoric instead of focusing on policy issues. He remarked, "[Opponent Mike Rogers'] only strategy is to point to me and my name and my faith and to say that we're different, and that you should suspect people simply because they are different than you in how they pray."
Abdelhadi, however, has indicated that their mother was involved with the Muslim Brotherhood, stating in a 2012 post on X, "Had an amazing talk with my mom about her activism in the Muslim Brotherhood during the early 70s while she was in college #respect." In another post from the same year, she wrote, "My family has long been MB, but I've always felt that it has navigated the political sphere poorly/destructively."
During his remarks, Trump expressed his intention to visit Michigan to "expose this fraud that's running," referring to El-Sayed, whom he labeled as "a fraud" and "a con man." Fox News Digital has reached out to El-Sayed's campaign for comment.