El-Sayed Says Trump Is 'Right' About 'Two Different Americas,' but Not for the Reason Trump Meant

WASHINGTON —

Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Michigan, says President Trump got something right, just not in the way Trump meant it.

Trump posted an image on Truth Social Saturday night showing himself and first lady Melania Trump next to a photo of El-Sayed and his wife, Sarah Jukaku, who wears a hijab. The caption read "Two VERY DIFFERENT America's." Over Trump's photo was his name. Over El-Sayed's photo was his full name, Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed, according to The Hill and Guardian US Politics.

Asked about the post Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union," El-Sayed did not push back on the premise. He agreed with it.

"Yeah, he's right," El-Sayed told host Jake Tapper, according to The Hill. "One in which your overlords are two people who don't like each other but joint in the interest of making billions of dollars off of you, or two people who genuinely love each other, enjoyed some pancakes together, want to come together to build the kind of America where they can raise a family, and know that that family is going to have the good things."

He then turned the post into a question about affordability. "Donald Trump's vision is the one you're living in right now," El-Sayed said. "Can you afford your gas? Can you afford your groceries? Do you believe, when you look your kids in the eye, that they're going to have a better future than you did?"

A pattern with full names

Trump has repeatedly used El-Sayed's full name in public remarks, a habit Guardian US Politics noted resembles how Trump and other Republicans have referred to former President Obama as "Barack Hussein Obama," a practice critics have called racist. El-Sayed, who is Muslim, made the same comparison himself, telling NBC's "Meet the Press" that Trump and his party did the same thing to Obama.

During a Thursday speech, Trump called El-Sayed a communist and used an expletive to describe him, drawing loud cheers from the crowd, according to Guardian US Politics. Asked about the remark by Sky News, El-Sayed replied, "At least I don't let mine go in the middle of the Oval Office."

El-Sayed, an epidemiologist, narrowly beat Rep. Haley Stevens, a moderate Democrat, in last week's Michigan primary, a race widely viewed as a test of the party's direction. He now faces former Rep. Mike Rogers, a Republican, in a contest Democrats consider important to any hope of retaking the Senate.

Obama called El-Sayed after his primary win, telling him it was "a really good conversation about what we need to do to be able to win," El-Sayed told NBC News. Obama also called Stevens, according to Politico, and Stevens urged him to campaign for Democrats in Michigan.

El-Sayed has described himself as a capitalist rather than a socialist, distancing himself from some other progressive candidates. He told NBC it "is not radical to believe that people should be able to afford their groceries" or "that you should have healthcare in this country." Should he win in November, he could become the first Muslim U.S. senator. The White House did not immediately respond to The Hill's request for comment.