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Donald Trump and Mayor Amer Ghalib
Hamtramck Mayor Amer Ghalib, a Yemeni immigrant and Muslim, surprised many last month when he endorsed Donald Trump for president. He stood out.
In many cases, Muslim and Arabs in Metro Detroit have been highly critical of the Biden administration for its unwavering support of Israel. Still, they've stopped far short of endorsing Trump.
Now, the Detroit News takes a deep dive into his social media history to get a snapshot of his past thoughts.
Reporter Louis Aguilar of the Detroit News found the mayor referred to Saddam Hussein as a "martyr" in the past, mocked Black Lives Matter protesters and didn't always support the former president. He also suppored Sen. Bernie Sanders for president in the past.
Aguilar writes:
The posts, which date back to 2017, show a future elected official not afraid to speak out on social media or label other leaders as "weak." Before he became a Trump supporter, Ghalib, who was elected mayor in 2021, once supported Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a self-declared democratic socialist who twice ran for the Democratic presidential nomination. Ghalib also claimed he convinced 20 others to back Sanders, who is Jewish, in the 2020 Michigan Democratic presidential primary.
"Prayers for the Jew. Don't let him down," Ghalib wrote, ending the sentence with three emojis of laughing faces. Ghalib, who posts often on Middle Eastern and U.S. politics, wrote the post in Arabic.
The mayor responded to the News in texts, saying some posts "were written years and years ago." He said the posts, written in Arabic, also have an "inaccurate translation" and have been taken "out of context."
The News reports that the translations of the postings were verified by Arabic-speaking people.
