While many appearing on stage during president-elect Donald Trump’s victory speech in the early hours of 6 November were familiar faces, one man, standing next to Tiffany Trump, was not.
Michael Boulos, the son of Lebanese billionaire and Trump’s new senior adviser on Middle Eastern affairs, Massad Boulos, and the husband of Trump’s youngest daughter, stood cautiously to the president-elect’s right as America looked on.
While Boulos’ presence – part of Trump’s successful coalition-building effort – may have gone largely unnoticed by many viewers, for Arab Americans such as Yahya Basha, a Syrian American doctor who runs several medical facilities in Detroit, it served as a breakthrough moment.
In September, Basha met Trump and Boulos during one of the president-elect’s many campaign trips to Michigan.
“I felt that they were serious and wanted to do business and communicate and partner on the issues,” says Basha of his engagement with Trump and Boulos. “If you are out, you don’t count. You have to stay in the battle.”
Twenty years after the spike in animosity and prejudice in the aftermath of 9/11, Arab Americans are now finding themselves incorporated into US politics like never before and – ironically given his nationalism – the process is getting a boost from Trump.
On 22 November, Trump nominated Janette Nesheiwat, the daughter of Jordanian Christian immigrants and a Fox News contributor, to the post of US surgeon general, and Marty Makary, a British American doctor with Lebanese heritage who also contributes to Fox News, to commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration.
Alina Habba, Trump’s Iraqi American lawyer and adviser, is another prominent face in Trump’s entourage. During his previous administration Mark Esper and Alex Azar, both who have Lebanese heritage, served in senior positions.
Many Arab Americans, particularly older generations who fled dictatorships in the Middle East, feel this is the first time that such prominent voices have been heard in a political context – despite Trump’s threats and a track record that has seen him ban travel from a host of Muslim-majority countries during his previous administration.
While many Arab Americans say they are forced to look past Trump’s previous actions given the failure of the Biden administration to stop Israel’s wars in Gaza and Lebanon, others believe the president-elect’s overtures to figures in their community is genuine.
While the Democrats declined to allow a Palestinian American speaker at their August convention, a month earlier, at the Republican’s equivalent event, Habba was strategically given a place in the coveted Thursday night session, where she spoke of being a “proud first-generation Arab American woman”.
Part of Trump’s outreach to Arab Americans has focused on connecting with Christian elements within the wider community, rather than Muslim ones.
Boulos, Habba, Azar and Esper are either Maronite, Chaldean or Greek Orthodox Christians.
“[The Arab American and Chaldean communities] needed one of their own – someone that is of their own and is in politics,” says Casey Askar, a Chaldean businessman who was recruited by Trump as far back as July 2023 to engage with Chaldeans in Michigan. Askar believes 80% of the Chaldean voters in Michigan – many of whom don’t identify as ethnically Arab but celebrate their own distinct heritage within the Arab world – backed Trump in last month’s election.
“Because Chaldeans didn’t come from a democratic world or have opportunities for democracy or freedom of speech, they didn’t engage in politics,” he says.
“But in 2016, Chaldeans really came out to vote. And they generally voted for Trump and Republican candidates.” He says that since a majority of Chaldean households in south-east Michigan, where the community is thought to number almost 200,000 people, own or run their own businesses, there’s an attraction to Trump and the Republicans.
After a fall off in 2020, he says the Chaldean vote helped Trump win Michigan last month, where he beat Kamala Harris by 80,000 votes.
“Historically, the Democratic party was the party of immigrants and minorities. I know that because when my family came, I believe they were more Democrat-leaning. If you look at the Catholic vote as a whole, it was predominantly Democrat,” he says.
“But the party has changed. There’s so much hypocrisy. They pushed too far with wokeness, and that alienated a lot of people.”
It’s a view shared by Basha, who is not Christian and who donated to Democrats’ election campaigns including Joe Biden, the governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer, and others running against Israel lobby-backed candidates.
“I had an excellent relationship with [Democrats]; I went to the White House many times,” he says.
But last year, he says he felt slighted during a call with Michigan donors hosted by the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer.
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“I wasn’t allowed to speak during the call. I raised my hand but wasn’t given the floor to speak when others were,” he says. “The Democrats became so complacent. I think the Arab-Americans were treated in the Democratic party as insignificant partners, from the Obama administration onward.”
Though he donated thousands of dollars to Trump’s first opponent, Hillary Clinton, in 2016, he says that this time around when Harris’ campaign approached him for a donation, he refused.
“I told them: I’m committed to Trump.”
Trump’s efforts to build a coalition from within elements of the Arab American community has in part prompted many to run – and win as Republicans – at various political levels across the US.
Amer Ghalib, the Democratic Yemeni American mayor of the Muslim-majority city of Hamtramck in Michigan, attracted headlines by endorsing and campaigning with Trump in October.
Nor is the move to the Republican party confined to Michigan.
Last month, Abe Hamadeh, a 33-year-old lawyer and former army reservist with little political experience, was elected to Arizona’s eighth congressional district, defeating a Democrat in an open race. Endorsed by Trump and Arizona firebrand Kari Lake, and the son of Syrian immigrants, Hamadeh’s campaign website photos see him leaning into his military and Middle Eastern background.
For many Arab Americans, the messages espoused by Republicans resonate.
Samra’a Luqman, a Yemeni American from Dearborn, Michigan, campaigned on behalf of and voted for Trump because “you cannot reward genocide with a second term”, referring to the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s war on Gaza, where more than 44,000 people have been killed.
But a second reason for abandoning the Democratic party related to her and others more conservative social values.
Luqman, who still considers herself a Democrat, was among parents who railed against sexually-explicate content in schoolbooks in Dearborn in 2022.
“The story of this election does not start with 7 October [when Hamas attacked Israel]. It started in 2022, and the community felt betrayed by their own [Democratic] party,” she says.
“It’s unfortunate, but the minute the [Arab American] community disagreed with the policies espoused by the Democratic party, they became ostracized and painted in a negative light. That betrayal started the shift to the Republican party.”
Basha says he is fully aware of the dangers the second Trump administration may incur on the Arab world, not least to Palestinians suffering horrendous conditions as Israel continues to attack Gaza. Trump – and many of his cabinet picks – are vociferous supporters of Israel and its army’s actions. Trump has also promised to bring back travel bans on Muslim-majority countries which he says is “definitely a concern”.
“It’s better to be at the table than outside the door,” he says.
“I want to see what we can be a part of and establish a positive view of [Arab Americans] and negotiate on local, national and international issues.”
2024-12-08 15:00:56
