While leaders urged voters to block Trump’s second term and avoid voting for third-party candidates in swing states, the Movement Without Commitment refused to support Harris.

Alevi described the disapproval as “something we have to do.”

Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud told the National Public Radio podcast Code Switch that “the last thing I want to see is a Trump presidency” but failed to endorse Harris.

He said voters in his community “will try to vote their moral conscience, whatever that means.” “Everyone defines it in their own way. I’m not here to define that to anyone.

Trump lobbies leaders

Despite this, political strategist Adrian Hemond said that it is “absolutely not true” to say that Trump won Dearborn just as a protest, and argued that Trump worked hard for the people’s votes.

“Dearborn is a great example of how voters were persuaded to vote for Donald Trump,” he said.

In the final week of the campaign, Trump visited a Dearborn cafe, the first Republican presidential candidate to visit the city since 2000. He repeatedly invited imams and other figures of society to his events.

Trump was also supported by Dearborn Heights Mayor Bill Bazzi and Hamtramck Mayor Amer Ghalib, both Arab Americans.

Trump won the nearby city of Dearborn Heights but narrowly lost the Detroit enclave of Hamtramck, where the Muslim-majority city council was evenly split between supporting him and Harris.

Trump promised that peace would be achieved in the Middle East, without going into any details.