President Donald Trump launched an angry attack on Barack Obama after the former president hit the campaign trail in Michigan to support Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed — unloading insults, making inflammatory accusations, and urging voters to back Republican Mike Rogers instead.
Trump’s tirade landed at 12:42 a.m. Sunday on Truth Social, just hours after Obama criticized the Trump administration at a Michigan rally, accusing it of corruption, cruelty, and chaos.
Apparently, the former president’s campaign appearance struck a nerve.
“Obama was a grossly incompetent President!” Trump declared, before launching into a familiar list of grievances about Iran, Hillary Clinton, and Kamala Harris.
Trump then turned his fire on El-Sayed, attacking the Democratic candidate’s Muslim identity with inflammatory rhetoric and calling him a “Muslim Brotherhood Jihadist.” He also claimed El-Sayed hates Jews, Black people, Americans, and Trump — allegations Trump offered without evidence in the post.
The president went on to call El-Sayed a “Fake Doctor” and claimed he ran what he described as the “WORST CLINIC IN AMERICA.”
Trump provided no substantiation for that sweeping accusation in his post.
He then pivoted to praising his own record in Michigan, claiming he had revived the state’s auto industry, restored an Air Force base, and delivered more jobs than ever before. He ended with a direct endorsement of Rogers, the Republican candidate challenging El-Sayed.
“VOTE FOR MIKE ROGERS!” Trump wrote. “He will never let you down!”
The outburst came as Obama was campaigning in Michigan not only for El-Sayed but also for Democratic gubernatorial nominee Jocelyn Benson. During his remarks, Obama blasted what he described as corruption and cruelty under Trump, while warning that political leaders would use fear, lies, and division to protect a system that benefits them.
And Obama appeared to draw a direct parallel between the attacks on El-Sayed and the racist conspiracy theories Trump pushed about Obama himself.
“Whenever a movement builds to challenge that broken system, the people who benefit from the status quo will say and do anything to stop that train from coming,” Obama said. “They will use lies and they will use fear and they will use division.”
“And they may even use your name to suggest that you are dangerous and less than trustworthy and less patriotic and less American than they are,” Obama said.
Obama reminded the crowd that he had been the target of those attacks himself.
“We have seen this movie before. I starred in it. I’ve got a long form birth certificate to prove it,” he said.
His message to Michigan voters was clear: the same tactics used against him should not be allowed to define El-Sayed.
“This stuff didn’t work on me, not in Michigan. It’s not going to work on Abdul,” Obama said, emphasizing that El-Sayed was born and raised in the state.
“He is as Michigan as it gets.”
The clash puts the spotlight on a familiar feature of Trump-era politics: personal attacks and inflammatory rhetoric taking center stage in a high-stakes campaign. In this case, Trump’s response to Obama’s appearance included a direct appeal to voters to reject El-Sayed while casting doubt on his patriotism and attacking his religious identity.
Whether the strategy helps Rogers remains to be seen.
