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Mayor of Muslim-Majority US City Officially Endorses Trump for President
Republican presidential nominee and former US President Donald Trump points to his ear as he speaks at the Economic Club of New York in New York City, Sept. 5, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
The mayor of the only Muslim-majority city in the United States endorsed Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump over the weekend, potentially boosting the former US president’s chances of winning the critical swing state of Michigan this November.
Amer Ghalib, mayor of Hamtramck, Michigan, released a statement on Facebook on Sunday, praising Trump’s character and urging his residents to vote for the former president on Election Day. Ghalib also posted a photo of himself standing alongside Trump, claiming that the pair met in person just days before.
“I believe he is the right choice for this critical time,” Ghalib said of Trump, praising him as a “man of principles.”
“I’ll not regret my decision no matter what the outcome would be, and I’m ready to face the consequences,” Ghalib added.
The mayor told The Detroit News that Trump was already familiar with him prior to the sit-down.
“He knew a lot about me before the meeting,” Ghalib told the outlet.
“We talked about various topics including the debates, the polls updates, the statistics of votes in Michigan and Wayne County, the Arab American concerns and the Yemeni Americans in particular. We also talked about the situation in Yemen,” the mayor continued.
The mayor added that during their private 20-minute meeting, Trump asked for an endorsement from him as he seeks to win the presidency and defeat Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.
“He asked me if I can endorse him and ask people to vote for him? I told him: ‘I’m here to talk about that and how we can make it happen,’” the mayor said. “I then handed him an official letter with some details about our concerns and to invite him to come to Hamtramck if possible.”
Ghalib did not specify whether he and Trump discussed the ongoing war in Gaza or placing an arms embargo on Israel, a demand that anti-Israel activists have made of Harris.
Ghalib has a history of making racist and antisemitic statements online. He liked comments on social media that referred to African Americans as “animalistic” and “subhuman.” He also condemned Arab leaders as being covert “Jews.”
In a 2021 Facebook post defending Trump’s role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riots, Ghalib told his Arab American followers to compare Trump with “the leaders of your countries, who are willing to become Jewish if the president is Jewish and to abandon all national and religious reproach if ordered by the directorial dictator!”
Nonetheless, the mayor’s endorsement could prove to be an asset for Trump as he continues to spar with Harris for votes in the hotly-contested swing state of Michigan.
Moreover, many Arab American activists have expressed disillusionment and anger with Harris over her refusal to adopt hardline anti-Israel stances. The “Uncommitted movement” — a coalition of Democratic delegates opposed to the Jewish state’s defensive military operations in Gaza — issued a statement last week announcing that the group would not endorse a candidate for the 2024 presidential election. The group criticized Harris for not agreeing to withhold weapons from Israel and slammed the Democratic National Convention (DNC) for not allowing a Palestinian-American speaker on the main-stage of the event.
On the polling front, Harris has also struggled to coalesce the Arab American vote, an issue that could potentially puncture her chances of winning November’s election. Recent polls suggest that Jill Stein, the presidential nominee for the Green Party, holds a staggering lead over Harris among Arab American voters in Michigan. Stein, a Jewish woman, has repeatedly accused Israel of committing a “genocide” in Gaza and has defended Hamas’s slaughter of roughly 1,200 people on Oct. 7 as an act of “self-defense.”
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Iran’s Supreme Leader Says Trump Is Lying When He Speaks of Peace
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks during a meeting with government officials in Tehran, Iran, April 15, 2025. Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused Donald Trump on Saturday of lying when the US president said during his Gulf tour this week that he wanted peace in the region.
On the contrary, said Khamenei, the United States uses its power to give “10-ton bombs to the Zionist (Israeli) regime to drop on the heads of Gaza’s children.”
Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One after departing the United Arab Emirates on Friday that Iran had to move quickly on a US proposal for its nuclear program or “something bad’s going to happen.”
His remarks, said Khamenei, “aren’t even worth responding to.” They are an “embarrassment to the speaker and the American people,” Khamenei added.
“Undoubtedly, the source of corruption, war, and conflict in this region is the Zionist regime — a dangerous, deadly cancerous tumor that must be uprooted; it will be uprooted,” he said at an event at a religious center in Tehran, according to state media.
Earlier on Saturday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Trump speaks about peace while simultaneously making threats.
“Which should we believe?” Pezeshkian said at a naval event in Tehran. “On the one hand, he speaks of peace and on the other, he threatens with the most advanced tools of mass killing.”
Tehran would continue Iran-US nuclear talks but is not afraid of threats. “We are not seeking war,” Pezeshkian said.
While Trump said on Friday that Iran had a US proposal about its nuclear program, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi in a post on X said Tehran had not received any such proposal. “There is no scenario in which Iran abandons its hard-earned right to (uranium) enrichment for peaceful purposes…” he said.
Araqchi warned on Saturday that Washington’s constant change of stance prolongs nuclear talks, state TV reported.
“It is absolutely unacceptable that America repeatedly defines a new framework for negotiations that prolongs the process,” the broadcast quoted Araqchi as saying.
Pezeshkian said Iran would not “back down from our legitimate rights”.
“Because we refuse to bow to bullying, they say we are source of instability in the region,” he said.
A fourth round of Iran-U.S. talks ended in Oman last Sunday. A new round has not been scheduled yet.
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Hamas Confirms New Gaza Ceasefire Talks with Israel in Qatar on Saturday
Doha, Qatar. Photo: StellarD via Wikimedia Commons.
A new round of Gaza ceasefire negotiations between Hamas and Israel is underway in Qatar’s Doha, Hamas official Taher al-Nono told Reuters on Saturday.
He said the two sides were discussing all issues without “pre-conditions.”
Nono said Hamas was “keen to exert all the effort needed” to help mediators make the negotiations a success, adding there was “no certain offer on the table.”
The negotiations come despite Israel preparing to expand operations in the Gaza Strip as they seek “operational control” in some areas of the war-torn enclave.
The return to negotiations also comes after US President Donald Trump ended a Middle East tour on Friday with no apparent progress towards a new ceasefire, although he acknowledged Gaza’s growing hunger crisis and the need for aid deliveries.
The post Hamas Confirms New Gaza Ceasefire Talks with Israel in Qatar on Saturday first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Report: ICC’s Khan Goes on Administrative Leave Amid Sexual Misconduct Probe
International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan speaks during an interview with Reuters in The Hague, Netherlands, Feb. 12, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw
i24 News – Chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Karim Khan has stepped down temporarily as an investigation into his alleged sexual misconduct by United Nations investigators is nearing its final phase, Reuters reported on Friday citing sources from the international court.
Khan allegedly forced sexual intercourse upon a member of staff on multiple occasions, the Wall Street Journal reported last week, linking the allegations to Khan’s decision to issue arrest warrants for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then-defense minister Yoav Gallant.
A statement is expected later today announcing that Khan is going on administrative leave, according to a source in the prosecutor’s office.
The post Report: ICC’s Khan Goes on Administrative Leave Amid Sexual Misconduct Probe first appeared on Algemeiner.com.