By While Joe Biden has done everything he can to bring the radical, anti-Israel left back into the fold, another group of voters concerned with the policy in the Middle East have also begun to abandon the president.
Last week, the Trump administration looked to take advantage of the current chaos in the Middle East by sending one of the president’s closest advisers to Michigan to meet with Arab American donors and activists who have grown to despise the president’s current handling of American-Arab relations.
Biden’s broken promises and obsession with young activists may end up costing him.
On Tuesday, a group of Arab American donors and activists from around the country plan to convene in Oakland Hills, Mich., for a private dinner initiated by Trump’s former ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell, several of the invitees told me. Grenell, who declined comment, is not a formal member of the Trump campaign. But Trump has recently referred to him as “my envoy,” and he is seen as a contender for a top national security position if Trump prevails in November. Tiffany Trump’s husband, Michael Boulos, and his father, Massad Boulos — a Lebanese business tycoon — will also attend. The dinner is one of many being organized by Trump’s associates with Arab American leaders in several battleground states, reported The Washington Post.
Grenell reached out to Michigan physician Yahya Basha, a Syrian American community leader and donor to several Muslim advocacy organizations, to help arrange and host the meeting, Basha told me in an interview. Basha, who has cultivated ties with both Democratic and Republican administrations over the years, told me he has not yet chosen his 2024 candidate.
“It’s too early to say Trump is the one. That’s the reason we are hosting an event for his representative, to see how he views the community and what kinds of things he will do,” he said. “With [the Biden] administration, I was hopeful for a better policy, but unfortunately the delivery was lacking.”
Basha is most critical of the Biden administration’s policies with regard to enforcing sanctions on the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Other invitees have their own gripes with Biden’s Middle East policies, especially on Gaza and Iran. But all I spoke with said they feel betrayed and neglected by Biden, who made promises to them when running for president in 2020.
One attendee said, for example, “We are going to organize and we are going to do whatever we can financially to support Trump. What has the Biden administration done for Muslim Americans on any level? The answer is zero.”
A recent article by The New York Times revealed that while the radical, pro-Hamas activists will never forgive him, Biden’s disastrous policies in the Middle East have also cost him regular Middle Eastern voters.
In February’s Michigan primary, 94 percent of Muslim voters voted “uncommitted, according to some exit polls.
A New York Times-Siena College poll released last week indicated Trump held a large lead against Biden among Arab and Muslim voters. 57 percent if those voters in the five battleground states surveyed said they support the former president. The numbers are a drastic change from four years ago when Biden won the same group by nearly 20 percent.
Trump is one of the most successful Middle Eastern policy president in decades. In 2020, the president helped broker The Abraham Accords, a landmark in Middle Eastern diplomacy, normalizing relations between Israel and several Arab states, including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco.
Led by Kushner, the accords signified a historic realignment in regional politics, emphasizing peace and cooperation over longstanding enmity. The agreements entail diplomatic recognition, enhanced trade ties, and security collaboration. Named after the patriarch Abraham, a figure revered in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, the accords highlight a common cultural heritage.
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