By Andrea Shalal
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. Muslim leader who backed Republican Donald Trump to protest the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s war on Gaza and attacks on Lebanon has been deeply disappointed by his cabinet picks, he told Reuters.
“Trump won because of us and we don’t like the secretary of state of choice and so on,” said Rabiul Chowdhury, a Philadelphia investor who led the Abandon Harris campaign in Pennsylvania and founded Muslims for Trump.
Muslim support for Trump helped him win Michigan and may even consider winning other swing states, strategists believe.
Trump chose Republican Senator Marco Rubio, a staunch supporter of Israel, for Secretary of State.
Earlier this year, Rubio said he would not call for a cease-fire in Gaza, and that he believed Israel must destroy “every element” of Hamas. “These people are vicious animals,” he added.
Trump also nominated Mike Huckabee, a former governor of Arkansas and a pro-Israel conservative who supports Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and called a two-state solution in Palestine “unworkable”, as the next ambassador to Israel.
He has nominated Republican Representative Elise Stefanik, who has called the UN a “cesspool of antisemitism” for condemning death in Gaza, to be the US ambassador to the UN.
Rexhinaldo Nazarko, executive director of the American Muslim Engagement and Empowerment Network (AMEEN), said Muslim voters expected Trump to appoint cabinet officials who work for peace, and there are no signs of that.
“We are very disappointed,” he said.
“It seems that this administration has been packed entirely with neoconservatives and very pro-Israel, pro-war people, who have failed on the side of President Trump, for the pro-peace and anti-war movement.”
Nazarko said the public will continue to press for their voices to be heard on ending the war in Gaza. “At least we’re on the map.”
Hassan Abdel Salam, a former professor at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities and co-founder of the Abandon Harris campaign, which supports Green Party candidate Jill Stein, said Trump’s staff plan is not surprising, but has proven more extreme than he has. afraid.
“It’s like going into Zionist overdrive,” he said. “We’ve always been very skeptical…Obviously, we’re still waiting to see where the administration is going to go, but it looks like our community is playing.”
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Some of Trump’s Muslim and Arab supporters say Richard Grenell, Trump’s former acting director of national intelligence, will play a key role after months of outreach to America’s Muslim and Arab communities, and has even been introduced as the next secretary of state. in the event.
Another key Trump ally, Massad Boulos, the Lebanese father-in-law of Trump’s daughter Tiffany, has repeatedly met with Arab American and Muslim leaders.
Both promised Arab American and Muslim voters that Trump was the candidate of peace who would act quickly to end wars in the Middle East and beyond. No one reached out immediately.
Trump made several visits to cities with large Arab American and Muslim populations, including a stop in Dearborn, a city with a majority of Arabs, where he said he loves Muslims, and Pittsburgh, where Muslims called Trump “a beautiful movement. They want peace. They want stability. “
Bill Bazzi, the mayor of the Dearborn Heights neighborhood, who endorsed Trump, said he had met the president-elect three times and still believed he would be able to end the war, despite cabinet appointments.
Rola Makki, a Lebanese American, vice chair of Muslim outreach for the Michigan Republican Party, agreed.
“I don’t think everyone is going to be happy with every appointment that Trump makes, but the results are what matter,” he said.
“I know that Trump wants peace, and what people need to know is that there are 50,000 Palestinians who died and 3,000 Lebanese who died, and that happened during the current administration.”
