Trump misnames Muslim senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed ‘Mohammed’

US President Donald Trump misnamed Muslim candidate for the US Senate Abdul El-Sayed on Thursday, calling him Mohammed and baselessly accusing him of being a “Terrorist Sympathiser”.

El-Sayed, an Arab American running for a Michigan senate seat that could decide which party wins the US upper chamber in knife-edge midterm polls next month, fired back, saying “he knows my name”.

Left-wing insurgent candidate El-Sayed accused Trump of “using my name and faith to distract us from the suffering his politics are inflicting on us”.

Like many Muslim men, El-Sayed’s middle name is Mohamed but he does not use it publicly.

Trump and his supporters have fixated on El-Sayed, accusing him and his family of ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and the al-Qaeda jihadist group.

Trump on Thursday said on social media El-Sayed, locked in a knife-edge race with Republican Mike Rogers, was the “best friend” of “America Hating Hasan Piker,” the left-wing influencer who campaigned for El-Sayed.

The Michigan Senate seat is considered essential to Democratic hopes of regaining the Senate, where the party hopes to retain the two Michigan seats while wresting four other seats in the chamber from Republicans.

The midwestern state backed Trump in the 2024 presidential election, even as Democrat Elissa Slotkin narrowly defeated Rogers for the other Senate seat.

El-Sayed was backed by progressive leaders including Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Elizabeth Warren, as well as the United Auto Workers union.

His platform includes healthcare for all, higher taxes on billionaires, ending unconditional US military aid to Israel and reducing the role of corporate money in elections.