Disappointment and anger in the Arab-American community about Trumps Middle Eastern policy-but no regrets of voting choices

Clothing seller Hanan Mirza feels « sad and disappointed. » Restaurant manager Amin Mahmoud is ‘displeased’. Local politician Mo Baydoun is ‘completely fed up’. The heart of mosque director Alice Alaouie is ‘broken’. Student Jena is ‘fear of death’. Donald Trump has ‘misled’ Arab Americans, said accountant Daifalla Asoufy. « The community is extremely frustrated, » says businesswoman Faye Nemer. « We are still processing it. We don’t want to believe that we have been lied to. »

These residents of Dearborn and Dearborn Heights, largely Islamic suburban of Detroit, contributed to Trumps victory over Kamala Harris in November. By voting for him, choosing the hopeless candidate of the green party, or by leaving all the boxes with presidential candidates on the BLANCO ballot. Trump cleverly responded to the anger that prevailed here about Joe Bidens unconditional support for Israel, of which Harris did not take a distance. He promised « peace and stability in the Middle East. »

In the meantime, everyone in Dearborn is dissatisfied with the most softest and at the most fiercest about what Trump, now seventy days ago in the White House, does. The half file in Gaza has already died. More than 900 Palestinians were killed. Lebanon is still being attacked. The president sends extra weapons to Israel and promotes the ethnic cleansing of Gaza with a Ai-video About ‘The Rivièra of the Middle East’. Foreign students and teachers with valid visas are picked up and the US is deported due to peaceful protest. The import duty struggle is already felt here in the heart of the car industry, on the border with Canada.

And yet.

Yet nobody here says that if there were elections again, she would make a different choice. Trump is granted more time to prove himself. « He is doing good things in the domestic area, » says the Lebanese-American Nemer (39), who not only voted for Trump, but also participated in his campaign. « I am convinced that Harris would be an even greater disaster, » says Trump voter Mahmoud (45), with Palestinian roots.

Trump does good things in the domestic area

Independent municipal councilor Baydoun (35) is furious with both large parties and therefore voted blank. « But you have to give Trump that he rewards the people who supported him. » Two mayors, from Dearborn Heights and the nearby Hamtramck, who supported Trump, were selected by the president to become an ambassador in Tunisia and Kuwait respectively. « That’s huge For our community, « says Baydoun.

« I have emptied the boxes at the top of the ballot, » says Asoufy (68), in his cozy accounting firm near the local Ford factory. He thinks Trump is « a racist. » He is also worried about his customers and friends who work here in the car and steel industry. He himself started, when he came from Yemen to Detroit as a sixteen -year -old, on the assembly line at Chrysler.

Even before an import rate of 25 percent was announced on cars and parts last Wednesday, the local steel factory announced that more than half of the nearly 1,200 employees are fired. « But if I had to choose a gun against my head today between the two most important candidates, I voted Trump, » said Asoufy. « In terms of family values, the Republican party is closer to us. » The battle for abortion and trans-rights also drove him away from the Democrats.

Reflection

In this northern state there is no trace of spring and because of the Ramadan it is extinct during the day on the streets and in the shops. In the evening Dearborn Heights comes back to life. Jena (21) is waiting in a crowded and hip restaurant for sunset. « For the Middle East it doesn’t matter at all whether a Republican or a Democrat is in power. In that respect, there is no sense, » she says. The daughter of Lebanese parents cast her first vote ever to the green candidate Jill Stein. She doesn’t regret, but doesn’t know if she « takes the trouble » next time.

As soon as an app tells her that fasting is over, she draws a date in two and puts half in her mouth, with a sip of so sweet, pink lemonade à seven dollars. Jena prefers to keep her last name « in this uncertain time » for herself. She is frightened of how peers with a valid residence permit are picked up on the street and deported. More than three hundred Visa would have been withdrawn Due to participation in pro-Palestinian protests. « I was planning to go to family in Lebanon in the summer, but despite my American passport, I don’t think I dare. What if they no longer let in on the way back? What is left of our freedom of expression? »

What is left of our freedom of expression?

It is one of the last days of the Islamic monthly month, a period of reflection and togetherness. After the iftar meal, a large mosque full of hundreds of young people who come to listen to the English-language sermon flows. Those who are already entitled to vote opted for Trump or stayed at home, but they are not here tonight to talk about politics. Alaouie (41), who helped set up this prayer house with an emerald green floor covering seven years ago, chose Stein. But the wife of Lebanese descent understands the Trump voters. « We wanted change and hoped that he would lead with compassion. Instead, we see more suffering everywhere. »

Iconic

To win Michigan, Trump came to Dearborn three days before the elections, the heart of the community of 300,000 Arab Americans in this key state. « An iconic, historical visit, » says Nemer. With Trump she is in the photo in a halalcafé where he signed a ‘peace stick’. « Even before his inauguration there was a ceasefire thanks to him. But since he is in power, his foreign policy has been dramatic again. »

Just like others, she does not want to blame Trump. The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is firmer in the saddle as long as the bloody battle continues. There is a point of Zionist lobby clubs and the powerful arms industry. Nemer: « But from Trump we expected that he would not care. »

This is not only important for her because of the peace in the Middle East. Until the last elections she always voted for Democrats, but Trump arose the plan to go into politics as a republican. « But now the party makes exactly the same mistake as the Democrats always made: come by once every four years for the Arab-American voice and then drop us hard-betray, » says Nemer, who leads a interest group for Arab-American companies.

She doubts whether the Senate agree With the appointment of the two ambassadors from the community. And Trumps permanent interest in voters here. In retrospect, he also won Michigan, with 81,000 votes difference, without Dearborn and the surrounding area. « I have put my reputation at Trump and I am now looked at by some with the neck. »

Discharged voice

Hanan Mirza (45) also has that feeling. Just before the elections sought NRC her in her clothing store Full of modest hijabs and festive but chaste glitter dresses. She said she would vote for Jill Stein, but at the last minute her 19-year-old daughter convinced her that « that would be a shipped voice, » and chose Trump. More from aversion to the Democrats than from love for him. My family in Lebanon declares me crazy: how could you vote for that man? « She says with some shyness. » But I had to choose between evil and worse. « 

Especially the visit of Netanyahu to the White House, as the first foreign government leader, has caused her abdominal pain. “He arrived with one golden beeper« -A reference after the way in which Israel succeeded in exploding the beepers of Hezbollah members. » Together they celebrated the death of dozens of people, including children. An action through which thousands of bystanders lost hands and eyes, « says Mirza. In addition, she is « terribly shocked » how many people trump expands. « He said he would only go after illegal immigrants. »

But she thinks it is too early to see Trump as the bigger evil, or her voice as a mistake. « He has done more in two months than many other presidents in a year. Maybe the good things will come. I give him a year before I regret. »

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