Philadelphia investor Rabiul Chowdhury, who chaired the Abandon Harris campaign in Pennsylvania and co-founded Muslims for Trump, said that Trump won the 2024 presidential race “because of us and we're not happy with his secretary of state pick and others”, Reuters reported on Saturday.
American strategists are of the opinion that support by the Muslim community played a crucial role in Trump's victories in the swing state of Michigan and potentially other battleground states. However, the president-elect has selected Republican Senator Marco Rubio, who is a strong advocate for the Tel Aviv regime, as his secretary of state.
Rubio had earlier expressed his opposition to a ceasefire in Gaza, asserting that the Israeli regime should eliminate "every element" of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas.
Trump’s pick for US ambassador to Israel is another source of Muslim discontent as well. Mike Huckabee, a former governor of Arkansas and a committed pro-Zionist conservative, has shown his all-out support for Israel’s annexation of the West Bank and has labeled a two-state solution in Palestine as "unworkable."
Trump also appointed Republican Representative Elise Stefanik as US ambassador to the United Nations. Stefanik has been critical of the UN over its denunciation of civilian casualties in Gaza, describing the world body as a "cesspool of antisemitism".
Executive director of the American Muslim Engagement and Empowerment Network (AMEEN) Rexhinaldo Nazarko noted that Muslim voters had hoped for cabinet officials who would promote peace, but there appears to be no indication of that direction. Nazarko complained: "We are very disappointed."
Both Trump and his team had previously assured Arab American and Muslim voters that he would be a candidate for peace, committed to immediately ending conflicts in the West Asia region and beyond, but realities on the ground show different attitude by the US president-elect and his administration picks.
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