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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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IDF Denies Troops Fired on Civilians After Incidents of Settler Violence

Illustrative. Israeli troops during counterterrorism activity in Tulkarem, northwestern Samaria, September 2024. Photo: IDF.
i24 News – The IDF released a statement after an incident during which Israeli soldiers opened fire on Israeli civilians in the West Bank on Saturday night, denying that the trooped fired live ammunition.
This comes at the heels of arson incidents by settlers against Palestinian villages, with clashes breaking out. The IDF said that its soldiers had come under attack on Friday as they entered the area of Kafr Malik, the site of the disturbances, by Israeli civilians. “The undermining of the rule of law and the use of violence by a radical minority harm security and stability in the area.”
The IDF later said that “an initial investigation indicates that IDF forces did not fire live ammunition at Israeli civilians in the area. It should be clarified that the battalion commander’s force operating in the Baal Hatzor area of the Binyamin brigade did not fire live ammunition at all.” On the other hand, the civilians claimed this was false, posting a video that showed shell casings on the ground right next to where the troops were deployed.
Meanwhile, the police requested the remand of six individuals, two of whom are minors, to be extended in connection with the incident.
The IDF later said that, “in another area within the sector, stones were thrown at a military vehicle near the site of the clash by masked individuals from an ambush. The force responded with a warning shot of three bullets.” A possible connection “between this incident and the claim that an Israeli civilian was injured by live fire” is being investigated.
After the incidents late last week, the IDF issued an unusual directive for soldiers to exercise special vigilance and also prepare for scenarios involving nationalist incidents perpetrated by Israeli citizens. The directive was issued after a military vehicle was set on fire inside a Jewish settlement, the tires of an armored David vehicle were punctured, and a community policing caravan near the community of Beit El was also set on fire.
“The security establishment system is highly alert,” a security official told i24NEWS. “We are seeing an escalation on the ground – and if you cannot leave a military vehicle in a Jewish community without it being burned in the sector, it is a sign that the situation is dangerous.”
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Israel Orders Evacuations in Northern Gaza as Trump Calls for War to End

US President Donald Trump speaks during a swearing-in ceremony of Special Envoy Steve Witkoff in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC, US, May 6, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Kent Nishimura
The Israeli military ordered Palestinians to evacuate areas in northern Gaza on Sunday before intensified fighting against Hamas, as US President Donald Trump called for an end to the war amid renewed efforts to broker a ceasefire.
“Make the deal in Gaza, get the hostages back,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform early on Sunday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was due to hold talks later in the day on the progress of Israel’s offensive. A senior security official said the military will tell him the campaign is close to reaching its objectives, and warn that expanding fighting to new areas in Gaza may endanger the remaining Israeli hostages.
But in a statement posted on X and text messages sent to many residents, the military urged people in northern parts of the enclave to head south towards the Al-Mawasi area in Khan Younis, which Israel designated as a humanitarian area. Palestinian and U.N. officials say nowhere in Gaza is safe.
“The (Israeli) Defense Forces is operating with extreme force in these areas, and these military operations will escalate, intensify, and extend westward to the city center to destroy the capabilities of terrorist organizations,” the military said.
The evacuation order covered the Jabalia area and most Gaza City districts. Medics and residents said the Israeli army’s bombardments escalated in the early hours in Jabalia, destroying several houses and killing at least six people.
At Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, relatives arrived to pay their respects to white-shrouded bodies before they are buried.
“A month ago, they (Israel) told us to go to Al-Mawasi (in Khan Younis) and we stayed there for a month, it is a safe zone,” said Zeyad Abu Marouf. He said three of his children were killed and a fourth was wounded in the Israeli airstrike.
“We ask God and the Arabs to move and end this occupation and the injustice taking place against us,” Abu Marouf told Reuters.
NEW CEASEFIRE PUSH
The military escalation comes as Arab mediators, Egypt and Qatar, backed by the United States, begin a new ceasefire effort to halt the 20-month-old conflict and secure the release of Israeli and foreign hostages still being held by Hamas.
Interest in resolving the Gaza conflict has heightened following US and Israeli bombings of Iran’s nuclear facilities.
There has also been rising concern over how aid is being distributed to Gazans in the ruined enclave. Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed over the past month in the vicinity of areas where food was being handed out, local hospitals and officials have said.
A Hamas official told Reuters the group had informed the mediators it was ready to resume ceasefire talks, but reaffirmed the group’s outstanding demands that any deal must end the war and secure an Israeli withdrawal from the coastal territory.
Hamas has said it is willing to free remaining hostages in Gaza, 20 of whom are believed to still be alive, only in a deal that will end the war. Israel says it can only end the war if Hamas is disarmed and dismantled. Hamas refuses to lay down its arms.
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Russia Launches Largest Drone Attack Yet Against Ukraine, Kills F-16 Pilot

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks during a joint press conference with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine June 10, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko
i24 News – Ukraine’s Air Force said that Russia launched 537 drones and missiles against targets throughout Ukraine overnight between Saturday and Sunday, in what what described as the largest attack of the war.
Poland activated aerial defenses and scrambled jets as the six-hour onslaught continued. One Ukrainian F-16 pilot was killed as Kyiv attempted to intercept the missiles and drones, with 475 shot down.
“Tragically, while repelling the attack, our F-16 pilot, Maksym Ustymenko, died. Today, he destroyed seven aerial targets,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
“Ustymenko did everything possible, but his jet was damaged and started losing altitude,” the air force said, as quoted in Politico. “He died like a hero!”
The cities of Cherkasy, Lviv, Poltava, Kharkiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv, and Kyiv were targeted.
The Russia attack came after Ukraine attacked the Kirovske airfield in the Crimean Peninsula, targeting air defenses, drones, and even destroying several helicopters and an air defense system.
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