{"id":617,"date":"2024-11-11T11:12:36","date_gmt":"2024-11-11T11:12:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/the-problem-with-trumps-pitch-to-muslim-and-arab-american-voters\/"},"modified":"2024-11-11T11:12:36","modified_gmt":"2024-11-11T11:12:36","slug":"the-problem-with-trumps-pitch-to-muslim-and-arab-american-voters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/the-problem-with-trumps-pitch-to-muslim-and-arab-american-voters\/","title":{"rendered":"The problem with Trump\u2019s pitch to Muslim and Arab American voters"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Donald Trump wants to win an election, which means he\u2019s reaching out to voters who might be skeptical of him, his record and his vision. It\u2019s an enormous challenge: The Republican president effectively has to target communities by saying, \u201cVote for me despite everything you already know about me.\u201d<\/p>\n

With this in mind, Trump is targeting Black voters, hoping they overlook his lengthy history of racism<\/a>. He\u2019s targeting Latino voters, hoping they overlook the dehumanizing language<\/a> he has used to condemn Latino immigrants, as well as his plans for militarized mass deportations and detention camps<\/a> in a possible second term.<\/p>\n

The GOP candidate\u2019s outreach to Muslim and Arab American voters is every bit as difficult. The New York Times reported<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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[I]n a tight election, Mr. Trump and his campaign have been trying to win the support of Arab American and Muslim voters who may be disaffected with Democrats over President Biden\u2019s handling of the war in Gaza and the party\u2019s positions on social issues. Their support is seen as especially important in Michigan, a key battleground state with many Arab American and Muslim voters.<\/p>\n

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A day before the Times\u2019 report was published, The Washington Post published a related article<\/a>, noting that Trump has \u201cexpressed support for Israel\u2019s offensives against Hamas and Hezbollah in a recent call with the country\u2019s prime minister \u2014 a position that could complicate his campaign\u2019s outreach to Arab Americans claiming he opposes the war.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cComplicate\u201d probably understates matters.<\/p>\n

It is no secret that many Muslim and Arab American voters reject the Biden administration\u2019s position toward Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s ongoing military offensive. Common sense suggests that many of those same voters might be willing to give the GOP ticket a second look.<\/p>\n

But while no community ever finds it satisfying to be told, \u201cWell, the other guys are worse,\u201d the fact remains that from the perspective of many Muslim and Arab American voters, Trump isn\u2019t exactly closer to their views when it comes to developments in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

On the contrary, according to the Post\u2019s report<\/a>, which cited six sources, Trump told Netanyahu in one call this month, \u201cDo what you have to do.\u201d In public<\/a>, the Republican has gone even further, suggesting that Biden is making a mistake by \u201ctrying to hold him [Netanyahu] back<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

In other words, while many Muslim and Arab American voters want to see the White House take steps to curtail Netanyahu, Trump wants the opposite.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Republican candidate has also begun using \u201cPalestinian\u201d as a slur<\/a>; he has condemned pro-Palestinian protests<\/a>; and he has rejected the idea<\/a> of bringing Gaza residents to the United States as refugees.<\/p>\n

In case that weren\u2019t quite enough, Trump hasn\u2019t just bragged about his Muslim ban<\/a>, he has announced plans to expand it<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Given all of this, is it realistic to think the GOP nominee can make inroads with Muslim and Arab American voters? We\u2019ll find out next week.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Steve Benen<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of\u00a0MaddowBlog\u00a0and an BLN political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Donald Trump wants to win an election, which means he\u2019s reaching out to voters who might be skeptical of him, his record and his vision. It\u2019s an enormous challenge: The Republican president effectively has to target communities by saying, \u201cVote for me despite everything you already know about me.\u201d With this in mind, Trump is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":618,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","category-trump"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}