LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Donald Trump is set to visit Dearborn, Michigan — the nation’s largest Arab-majority city — on Friday, according to a local business owner who first insisted the former president call for peace in Lebanon before hosting him.
Metro Detroit is home to nation's largest concentration of Arab Americans, with a large chunk of them living in Dearborn. The city — which President Joe Biden won by a 3-to-1 margin — has been roiled by political turmoil, with many upset with the Biden administration's handling of the Israel-Hamas war.
While Vice President Kamala Harris has been working through surrogates to ease community tensions, Trump’s visit will mark the first by either candidate, according to a local leader, Osama Siblani. Earlier this year, Harris met with the city's Democratic mayor, Abdullah Hammoud, though their discussion took place outside Dearborn.
Sam Abbas, the owner of The Great Commoner in Dearborn, told The Associated Press that Trump was set to visit his restaurant.
“We expect some remarks around ending the war and bringing peace to the Middle East,” said Abbas. “I’m not here to get political. I’m not here to tell people which way I’m voting. I am simply here because our family is being slaughtered and we just want to end the war. Stop the bombing.”
Israel invaded Gaza after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack and last month launched an invasion of Lebanon to suppress Hezbollah, the militia that has continuously launched rockets into Israeli territory. At least 43,000 people have died in Gaza, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which does not distinguish in its death toll between combatants and civilians.
The Trump campaign declined to comment on the visit. It follows Trump’s rally in Michigan last week, when he brought local Muslims up onstage with him. Trump has also received endorsements from two Democratic mayors of Muslim-majority cities.
While many Democratic leaders in the community have not endorsed Harris, they are still deeply negative toward Trump and say his endorsements don’t reflect a majority of the community. They also remember his call for a “total and complete shutdown” on Muslims entering the country and his travel restrictions on visitors from Muslim-majority countries. And some point out that Trump has suggested he would give Israel even more leeway to attack its rivals in the region.
Even so, Democrats worry that traditionally loyal voters may shift to Trump or third-party candidates like Jill Stein — or skip the top of the ballot altogether. This could prove pivotal in Michigan, a state both parties see as a toss-up.
Abbas said Trump allies had reached out to him several weeks ago about hosting Trump in Dearborn. Before hosting Trump, Abbas said he wanted to see a statement from Trump that he said showed Trump “has the intentions of ending the war and helping us rebuild Lebanon and helping the displaced and the injured.”
That statement came Wednesday, when Trump posted on X that he wanted to “stop the suffering and destruction in Lebanon.”
“I will preserve the equal partnership among all Lebanese communities,” Trump said on X. “Your friends and family in Lebanon deserve to live in peace, prosperity, and harmony with their neighbors, and that can only happen with peace and stability in the Middle East.”
Once Trump put out the statement, Abbas said he agreed to host the event. He expects close to 100 people from the community.
“He’s coming to us to basically tell us, look, I did what you guys asked. My intentions, my true intentions are to bring peace and to end the war,” said Abbas.
Associated Press writer Jill Colvin in New York contributed to this report.
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump, right, looks on as local Muslim leaders speak during a campaign rally at the Suburban Collection Showplace, Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024, in Novi, Mich. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A Nevada jury decided Thursday that a man should serve life in state prison with no chance of parole for breaking into a room at a Las Vegas Strip hotel-casino and killing two Vietnamese tour leaders in 2018.
Julius Damiano Deangilo Trotter, 37, was spared a death sentence by the same state court jury that found him guilty on Tuesday of murder, burglary and robbery in the stabbings of Sang Boi Nghia and Khoung Ba Le Nguyen at the Circus Circus hotel.
Defense attorney Lisa Rasmussen said afterward that Trotter and his legal team appreciated the jury decision, but that Trotter will appeal his conviction and sentence “as a normal part of the criminal justice system.”
“I think everyone is grateful that Mr. Trotter was given a life sentence," Rasmussen told The Associated Press. “The jury took the death penalty off the table themselves.”
Jurors issued their decision after testimony from Trotter, his relatives and family members of Nghia and Nguyen, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. Trotter was seen mouthing “thank you” to the jury after the verdict was read, the newspaper reported. Clark County District Court Judge Michelle Leavitt scheduled Trotter's sentencing Jan. 15. He remains jailed in Las Vegas.
Trotter told jurors on Wednesday that he wanted to be “a positive impact on the people around me, as far as my family, my kids, my mother, my brother and sisters, and so on.”
Nghia, 38, was a mother of three who operated a tour business with her husband in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Nguyen, 30, was one of her employees. Their bodies were found after they did not show up for a tour group trip.
Police said hotel employees later determined the room lock didn’t secure properly, and said it appeared Trotter found it unlocked while walking the hotel hallway and trying door handles.
Trotter was arrested about a week after the killings with his girlfriend, Itaska Dean, following a police chase in Chino, California.
Rasmussen acknowledged that Trotter had a prior criminal record — he was serving five years’ probation at the time of the killings after a felony conviction for resisting a police officer with a weapon. But the attorney said Trotter also had the support of a loving family.
Dean pleaded guilty in California to evading arrest. She was not charged with a crime in the slayings of Nghia and Nguyen, and testified during Trotter's trial.
Trotter also testified, denying he killed Nghia and Nguyen. But police and prosecutors said he was found with items belonging to Nghia and Nguyen including a purse, wallets, a cellphone, jewelry and Vietnamese cash.
The last person put to death in Nevada prison was Daryl Mack in April 2006, for a 1988 rape and murder in Reno. Mack asked for his lethal injection to be carried out.
FILE - Bong Le, mother of a stabbing victim Khuong Nguyen, reacts to the guilty verdict in defendant Julius Trotter's murder trial, Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2024, at the Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas. Comforting Le is Hung Quang Nguyen, husband of a stabbing victim Sang Nghia, second left, and Tuan Trinh. At rear is interpreter Jimmy Tong Nguyen. Trotter was sentenced Thursday, Oct. 31, to serve life in state prison with no chance of parole. (K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP)
FILE - Defendant Julius Trotter, a previously convicted felon who is charged with breaking into a room at a Las Vegas Strip hotel-casino and robbing and killing two Vietnamese tour leaders in June 2018, waits in the courtroom for the verdict in his murder trial, Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2024, at the Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas. Trotter was sentenced Thursday, Oct. 31, to serve life in state prison with no chance of parole. (K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP, File)
Bong Le, mother of a stabbing victim Khuong Nguyen, reacts to the guilty verdict in defendant Julius Trotter's murder trial, Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2024, at the Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas. Comforting Le is Hung Quang Nguyen, husband of a stabbing victim Sang Nghia, second left, and Tuan Trinh. At rear is interpreter Jimmy Tong Nguyen. ( (K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP)
Defendant Julius Trotter, a previously convicted felon who is charged with breaking into a room at a Las Vegas Strip hotel-casino and robbing and killing two Vietnamese tour leaders in June 2018, waits in the courtroom for the verdict in his murder trial, Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2024, at the Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas. (K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP)
