Trump calls El-Sayed ‘Abdul Ramadan,’ then says ‘we can’t have these people in the United States’

Donald Trump flew to Lubbock to talk about a Texas Senate race. Then a protester was removed, and he ended up in Michigan.

Once law enforcement had cleared the protester out, Trump picked his thread back up. “I’ve never seen anybody,” he said, then allowed one possible exception: “the guy up in Michigan. I call him Mohamed. He goes by Abdul. Abdul Ramadan.” He added that he’d since found out “his middle name is Mohamed.” A few seconds later: “These are people — we can’t have these people in the United States.”

He didn’t say who “these people” were; the next names out of his mouth were Talarico’s and, again, El-Sayed’s. He wasn’t sure whether James Talarico, the Texas Democrat he’d actually come to campaign against, needs the same treatment. For the Michigan candidate, the plan is “the metal detector test before he’s allowed to sit every day.” Then: “We have people that should not be running for politics in this country.”

Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Michigan, was born in Michigan. His full name is Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed. Ramadan is the Muslim holy month, not his name. This is the third rally in six days where Trump has gone after him: a “jihadist” in Sioux City, a metal detector in Port Huron, and now a new name in Lubbock.