U.S. President Donald Trump wears a 'Make America Great Again' (MAGA) hat as he attends the commencement ceremony at West Point Military Academy in West Point, New York, U.S., May 24, 2025. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
Arab-American voters who cast a ballot for Donald Trump are outraged that the president signed off on a new travel ban to the United States that includes much of the Middle East, reported ABC News this week.
Countries on the ban list include Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen. Trump officials describe it as necessary to “protect [our] citizens from aliens who intend to commit terrorist attacks, threaten our national security, espouse hateful ideology, or otherwise exploit the immigration laws for malevolent purposes.”
But some Arab activists who threw their lot in with Trump don't see it that way.
"The ban on travel from certain countries that took effect Monday — reminiscent of President Donald Trump's first-term restrictions that became known to many as the 'Muslim ban' — is once again souring relationships among Arab American voters in the key battleground state of Michigan, a group that Trump sought to make inroads with during the 2024 election," said the report.
In particular, the story noted, Yemeni-Americans from Dearborn were blindsided by that country's inclusion.
Wali Altahif, an activist from the area who fights on behalf of Yemeni immigrants, had a blunt response to Trump.
“This is the reward to the community that defied everybody else? That said, 'No, we’re going to support you, we going to vote for you'?” He further blasted the travel ban as “selective discrimination” and “collective punishment.”
This comes after the Trump administration came under fire for stripping deportation protections from Afghan interpreters who helped U.S. troops.
Trump managed to achieve significant gains from Arab-American voters who were frustrated with the lack of action from the U.S. on pressuring Israel to stop tactics in their war against Hamas in Gaza that were killing and displacing civilian families — only to turn around and enthusiastically endorse Israel's war, undoing the few U.S. checks on Israeli arms shipments that the Biden administration put in place.