Arab-American Hamtramck mayor endorses Trump for president

FOX 2 (WJBK) - "I'm still - until now on documents - I’m still a Democrat," said Amer Ghalieb.
 
But that’s not stopping Ghalib, the Hamtramck mayor, from throwing his support behind former President Donald Trump in his bid to get back to the White House.

And his decision is making national headlines. 

"There’s a lot of issues that made me on a personal level, take this decision," he said.

Ghalib says he spent about 20 minutes talking with POTUS 45 about those issues, including foreign policy during his campaign stop in Flint last week. 

"The war on Gaza was one of them," Ghalib said. "We talked about that, and he expressed that his goal is to end the chaos in the Middle East and elsewhere.

"And he explained to me that during his presidency there were no new wars. He only inherited the Isis war from the previous administration."

The first Muslim mayor of Hamtramck says his conservative views are supported by a growing number of Arab-Americans, with about 40 percent of the city’s population being of Middle Eastern origin.

He says issues like Hamtramck banning certain flags including Gay Pride flags on city property and Arab-Americans pushing for LGBTQ-themed books to be taken out of Dearborn Schools - are proof of the political shift. 

"When you talk to people here that’s their main concern - family values and faith and those are priorities for most people," he said.

Former Mayor Karen Majewski says Hamtramck has been traditionally Democratic and feels the current mayor’s pick for president goes against the values of a city with the highest percentage of immigrants in the state.

"It’s still shocking I think to a lot of Hamtramckicans," she said.  "The endorsement of a candidate who is clearly committed to stirring up anti-immigrant rhetoric, anti-immigrant sentiment and even violence is something that most Hamtramck residents find offensive and frightening and it makes them angry, frankly."