Politics
Trump’s Arab American backers hail Gaza deal but worry it won’t hold
Lifelong Democrat Samra’a Luqman became a vocal backer of Donald Trump in 2024, helping to rally support for him among the pivotal Arab American community in Dearborn, Michigan, in the hope that he could end the Gaza war.
Now, after Trump helped to broker a ceasefire deal, Luqman feels thrilled and a bit vindicated after months of backlash from neighbours angry over Trump’s support for Israel.
“It’s almost an ‘I told you so moment,'” said Luqman, who is Yemeni American. “No other president would have been able to force Bibi to approve the ceasefire,” she said, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Luqman and other Arab American Trump supporters who spoke to Reuters expressed guarded optimism about the recently announced agreement, but said they worried that Israel could violate the ceasefire, as it has done in the past in Gaza and Lebanon.
“We’re all holding our breath,” said Mike Hacham, a Lebanese American political consultant and Dearborn resident who campaigned hard for Trump in 2024. “I gotta give credit where credit is due … but this isn’t a peace deal. It’s just the end of a bloody war and those lives that were lost on the Israeli side and the Palestinian side aren’t going to be brought back.”
Guarded optimism over Gaza but mistrust of Israel
Israeli airstrikes in Qatar and other Arab nations in recent months fueled deep mistrust of Israel among Michigan’s more than 300,000 people of Arab heritage. But the agreement is the biggest step yet to end two years of war that Palestinian health authorities have said killed more than 67,000 people in Gaza.
In addition to a ceasefire, the deal calls for releasing the last 20 of 250 hostages seized by Hamas when it started the war with the October 7, 2023, attacks that killed more than 1,200 people, according to the Israeli government.
It comes after months of deepening frustration among Arab Americans over what they see as Trump’s failure to rein in Netanyahu and end the war. Trump’s renewed ban on travel from several majority-Muslim countries and crackdowns on freedom of speech targeting pro-Palestinian protesters have also unnerved many, according to more than a dozen Arab American voters who backed Trump in Michigan last year and spoke to Reuters in recent weeks.
Many of those interviewed also felt disappointed that their community’s support — thousands of votes that helped to push Trump to victory in Michigan — did not translate into more senior high-profile posts for Arab Americans and Muslims in his administration. It remains unclear whether the ceasefire deal will sway sceptical voters as Trump’s Republicans face competitive congressional and gubernatorial elections in Michigan next year, as well as the 2028 presidential election.
Hacham said Trump would be hailed as a “champion of peace” after brokering the Gaza ceasefire, but added that Arab American voters could turn against him and other Republicans if it fails.
“We are willing to abandon the Republicans and move back to the Democrats,” Hacham said. “We’ve shown Donald Trump that we have the power to swing whichever way we want.”
Anger over Gaza fueled switch to Trump
Trump won Michigan by more than 80,000 votes in 2024, reversing his 154,000-count loss to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020. An October 2024 Arab American Institute poll had shown Trump favoured by 42% of Arab Americans nationwide versus 41% for Kamala Harris — down 18 percentage points from Biden’s share in 2020.
In addition to anger over the Gaza war, Trump’s 2024 campaign tapped into concerns raised by some conservative community members about Democrats’ defence of transgender rights, Luqman said. She expected those voters probably would stick with Republicans. But a larger group of Arab Americans voted for Trump in 2024 “out of spite” at Democrats, and their continued support for the Republican Party likely depends on what happens with Gaza, Luqman said.
“I don’t think they’ve found their political home with the Republicans just yet,” she said, adding that Trump’s pressure on Netanyahu could “solidify support for JD Vance in the next election and for the midterms for any Republicans that run.”
Imam Belal Alzuhairi joined Trump on stage in Michigan just days before the 2024 election, alongside 22 other clerics, convinced that he offered the best chance for peace, but he said many Yemeni Americans later grew disenchanted after Trump reimposed a travel ban on many Muslim countries.
“Now, a lot of people are very upset. They are fearing for themselves and their families. There’s a mistrust after the travel ban,” he said.
After facing personal backlash for his endorsement, the Yemeni American cleric says he is pulling out of “soul-consuming” politics to focus on religion and his family.
Trump administration moves to tamp down frustration
Special envoy Richard Grenell, a Michigan native tapped by Trump to lead his outreach to Arab American and Muslim voters, returned to the Detroit area last month for his first in-person meetings with community leaders since November. His mission? To tamp down the mounting frustration and prevent Arab Americans from swinging to the Democratic Party, as they did after Republican President George W Bush’s invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Alzuhairi, Luqman and a dozen others grilled Grenell at a coffeehouse in Dearborn over the travel ban and US arms sales to Israel. At a separate session, he was asked why the administration is not doing more to help Christians in Iraq.
Grenell, former acting director of intelligence during Trump’s first term, told Reuters the dialogue was important.
“I continue to believe that the Arab and Muslim communities in Michigan are the key to winning the state,” Grenell said. “I know these leaders well and they want and deserve access to political decision makers.”
Although Grenell faced tough questions from Arab American leaders during four events in the Detroit area, he said he would remain closely engaged, and emphasised Trump’s commitment to peace around the world.
“You can’t show up right before an election and expect to be a credible voice for any community,” he told Reuters.
Ali Aljahmi, a 20-year-old Yemeni American who helped to galvanise young Arab Americans for Trump with a video viewed nearly 1 million times on X, credited him for coming to Dearborn twice during the 2024 campaign. But it’s too soon to predict the next election, said Aljahmi, whose family operates four restaurants in the Detroit area.
“Trump promised a lot,” he said. “Okay, you came and showed your face, but I still think it’s a mixture. Three years from now, we’ll see what they’re doing.”
DHAKA: The Bangladesh army on Saturday said that arrest warrants issued against senior officers had affected troop morale ahead of elections, but pledged to uphold justice amid rising tensions.
On Wednesday, Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) issued warrants for two dozen military officers over their alleged role in enforced disappearances during ousted premier Sheikh Hasina’s rule.
The tribunal is prosecuting former senior figures connected to Hasina’s ousted government and her now-banned Awami League party.
The warrants followed an inquiry commission’s verification of more than 250 cases of disappearances, allegedly carried out by security forces, spanning the 15 years that Hasina’s Awami League was in power.
Major General Md Hakimuzzaman, the army’s adjutant general, acknowledged the impact of the tribunal’s move.
“I can’t deny that the arrest warrants against military officers are affecting us, but we will remain steadfast in ensuring justice,” Hakimuzzaman told reporters in Dhaka.
The interim government, led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, has formed the commission to investigate cases of disappearances and has received around 1,700 complaints so far.
Hakimuzzaman said 15 serving officers had been taken into custody following the warrants.
“They are detached from their families and are being held in high-security detention with guards and other necessary arrangements,” he said.
The officers are expected to appear before the ICT on October 22.
“There are certain issues that need to be resolved soon, and we will seek answers from the appropriate authority,” Hakimuzzaman added.
This marks the first time such a large number of senior-ranking former and serving security officials are likely to face civilian trials in Bangladesh.
- Air force facility in Idaho to house F-15 fighter jets and pilots.
- Signing just another example of US-Qatar partnership: Hegseth.
- Hegseth thanks Qatar for its “substantial role” in Hamas-Israel deal
WASHINGTON: US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Friday that Qatar will be allowed to build an air force facility at Mountain Home Air Base in Idaho that will house F-15 fighter jets and pilots.
The announcement comes soon after President Donald Trump signed an executive order vowing to defend the Gulf Arab state against attacks, following Israeli air strikes targeting Hamas leaders in the Qatari capital Doha.
“We’re signing a letter of acceptance to build a Qatari Emiri Air Force facility at the Mountain Home Air Base in Idaho,” Hegseth said at the Pentagon, with Qatari Defence Minister Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani at his side.
“The location will host a contingent of Qatari F-15s and pilots to enhance our combined training” as well as “increase lethality, interoperability,” he said.
“It’s just another example of our partnership. And I hope you know, your excellency, that you can count on us.”
The Idaho base currently also hosts a fighter jet squadron from Singapore, according to its website.
Hegseth also thanked Qatar for its “substantial role” as a mediator in the talks that led to a truce and hostage-prisoner swap deal between Israel and Hamas, and its assistance in securing the release of a US citizen from Afghanistan.
The Qatari minister hailed the “strong, enduring partnership” and “deep defence relationship” shared by the two countries.
The Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar is Washington´s largest military facility in the Middle East.
Trump’s close relationship with the leaders of Qatar has raised eyebrows, especially over its gift to the US president of a Boeing 747 to be used as Air Force One.
Though the Idaho facility for Qatar had apparently been in the works since the last administration of Democrat Joe Biden, the deal prompted some hand-wringing on social media, including from far-right activist Laura Loomer, usually a Trump ally.
“Never thought I’d see Republicans give terror financing Muslims from Qatar a MILITARY BASE on US soil so they can murder Americans,” Loomer wrote on X.
Hegseth, who never said it was a base, later wrote on the platform: “Qatar will not have their own base in the United States — nor anything like a base. We control the existing base, like we do with all partners.”
OSLO: Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado won the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for fighting dictatorship in the country and dedicated the award in part to US President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly insisted he deserved it.
Machado, a 58-year-old industrial engineer who lives in hiding, was blocked in 2024 by Venezuela’s courts from running for president and thus challenging President Nicolas Maduro, who has been in power since 2013.
“Oh my God … I have no words,” Machado told the secretary of the award body, Kristian Berg Harpviken, in a phone call which the Nobel Committee posted on social media.
“I thank you so much, but I hope you understand this is a movement, this is an achievement of a whole society. I am just one person. I certainly do not deserve it,” she added.
Laureate praises Trump’s ‘decisive support for our cause’
She later said, in an X post in English: “I dedicate the prize to the suffering people of Venezuela and to President Trump for his decisive support of our cause!”
Trump is a fierce critic of Maduro and the US is one of a number of countries that does not recognise his government’s legitimacy.
The White House had earlier criticised the Norwegian Nobel Committee’s decision to focus on Venezuela just days after Trump announced a breakthrough in talks to halt the fighting in Gaza between Israel and Hamas.
“President Trump will continue making peace deals, ending wars, and saving lives… The Nobel Committee proved they place politics over peace,” White House spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a post on X.
Maduro, whose 12 years in office have been marked by deep economic and social crisis, was sworn in for a third term in January this year, despite a six-month-long election dispute, international calls for him to stand aside and an increase in the US reward offered for his capture.
“When authoritarians seize power, it is crucial to recognise courageous defenders of freedom who rise and resist,” the Nobel Committee said in its citation.
Marco Rubio, now Trump’s secretary of state, nominated Machado for the Peace Prize together with a group of US members of Congress in August 2024, when he was still a senator.
Will she be able to attend ceremony?
It was not immediately clear whether she would be able to attend the award ceremony in Oslo on December 10, the anniversary of the death of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, who founded the awards in his 1895 will.
Should she not attend, she would join the list of Peace Prize laureates prevented from doing so in the award’s 124-year history, including Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov in 1975, Poland’s Lech Walesa in 1983 and Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi in 1991.
Machado is the first Venezuelan to win the Nobel Peace Prize and the sixth from Latin America. Her three adult children are living abroad for safety reasons.
The United Nations human rights office welcomed the award to Machado as a recognition of “the clear aspirations of the people of Venezuela for free and fair elections”.
The head of the award committee, Joergen Watne Frydnes, said he hoped it would spur the Venezuelan opposition’s work.
“We hope that the entire opposition will have renewed energy to continue the work for a peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy,” Frydnes told Reuters after the announcement.
US has been strong supporter of Venezuelan opposition
The lead-up to this year’s prize announcement was dominated by Trump’s repeated public statements that he deserved to win the award.
“The democratic opposition of Venezuela is something that the US has been eager to support. So, in that sense, it would be hard for anyone to constitute this as an insult to Trump,” said Halvard Leira, research director at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs.
The United States has struck several vessels allegedly carrying drugs off the coast of Venezuela in recent weeks.
Trump has determined that the US is engaged in “a non-international armed conflict” with drug cartels, according to a document notifying Congress of its legal justification for deadly US strikes on boats off Venezuela.
Machado has publicly supported the US military operation, telling Fox Noticias last month the operation was “aimed at saving lives” in both nations.
Gaza deal too late for Trump, this year
Frydnes, the Nobel committee leader, declined to say what it would take for Trump or others to win the prize in the future, or if efforts to end the fighting in Gaza could lead to an award in 2026.
“It’s not our task to tell other people or other countries what to do, our task is to give out the peace prize…. So we’ll have to see next year,” Frydnes said.
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