Muslim supporters of President-elect Donald Trump have expressed deep disappointment with his cabinet selections, according to US Muslim leaders interviewed by Reuters. These leaders are protesting the administration’s pro-Israel stance, including its support for Israel\u2019s war in Gaza and attacks on Lebanon.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrump won because of us, and we are not happy with his choices for secretary of state and other positions,\u201d said Rabiul Chowdhury, a Philadelphia investor who chaired the Abandon Harris campaign in Pennsylvania and co-founded Muslims for Trump.<\/p>\n
Muslim support for Trump was a key factor in helping him win Michigan and may have contributed to victories in other swing states, strategists say.<\/p>\n
For secretary of state, Trump chose Republican Senator Marco Rubio, a staunch supporter of Israel. Rubio has stated he would not call for a ceasefire in Gaza and believes Israel should destroy “every element” of Hamas, referring to its members as “wild animals.”<\/p>\n
Trump also nominated former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, a pro-Israel conservative, as the next ambassador to Israel. Huckabee has voiced support for Israel\u2019s occupation of the West Bank and has dismissed the two-state solution as \u201cunworkable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Additionally, Republican Representative Elise Stefanik, who has called the UN a \u201ccesspool of anti-Semitism,\u201d was selected as the US ambassador to the UN.<\/p>\n
Rexhinaldo Nazarko, executive director of the American Muslim Engagement and Empowerment Network (AMEEN), stated that Muslim voters had hoped Trump would appoint cabinet members committed to peace, but so far, there are no signs of that. \u201cWe are disappointed,\u201d Nazarko said, adding that the new administration appears filled with \u201cneo-conservatives\u201d and \u201cextremely pro-Israel, pro-war individuals.\u201d Nazarko emphasized that the community would continue to push for an end to the war in Gaza.<\/p>\n
Hassan Abdel Salam, a former University of Minnesota professor and co-founder of the Abandon Harris campaign, said that while Trump\u2019s staffing plans were unsurprising, they are proving \u201cmore extreme\u201d than he feared. \u201cObviously, we\u2019re still waiting to see where the administration goes, but it looks like our community has been played,\u201d Salam said.<\/p>\n
Some Muslim and Arab Trump supporters had hoped that Richard Grenell, Trump\u2019s former acting director of national intelligence, would play a key role. Grenell had spent months reaching out to Muslim and Arab American communities, even being introduced at events as a potential secretary of state.<\/p>\n
Another notable Trump ally, Massad Boulos\u2014the Lebanese father-in-law of Trump\u2019s daughter Tiffany\u2014has also met repeatedly with Arab American and Muslim leaders. Both Grenell and Boulos had promised these communities that Trump was a peace candidate who would act swiftly to end wars in the Middle East and beyond.<\/p>\n
Trump made several visits to cities with large Arab-American and Muslim populations, including Dearborn, Michigan, where he expressed his affection for Muslims, and Pittsburgh, where he called Muslims a \u201cbeautiful movement.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mayor Bill Bazzi of neighboring Dearborn Heights, a Trump supporter, stated that he had met the president-elect three times and still believed Trump would work to end the war, despite his cabinet appointments.<\/p>\n
Rola Makki, the Lebanese-American Muslim vice chair of the Michigan Republican Party\u2019s outreach arm, agreed. \u201cI don\u2019t think everyone will be happy with every appointment Trump makes, but the end result is what matters,\u201d Makki said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Muslim supporters of President-elect Donald Trump have expressed deep disappointment with his cabinet selections, according to US Muslim leaders interviewed by Reuters. These leaders are protesting the administration’s pro-Israel stance, including its support for Israel\u2019s war in Gaza and attacks on Lebanon. \u201cTrump won because of us, and we are not happy with his choices […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6249,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[176],"tags":[3762,319,3765,3583,3763,3764,3761,3766,3760,1587,3262],"class_list":["post-6248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-america","tag-arab-american-leaders","tag-donald-trump","tag-elise-stefanik","tag-marco-rubio","tag-middle-east-peace","tag-mike-huckabee","tag-muslims-for-trump","tag-neo-conservatives","tag-pro-israel-cabinet","tag-two-state-solution","tag-war-in-gaza"],"yoast_head":"\n