President Donald Trump has dragged the marriage of a Democratic Senate hopeful into a political feud. The attack came in a weekend Truth Social post. It contrasted his own relationship with that of Michigan nominee Abdul El-Sayed and his wife, Dr. Sarah Jukaku.
Donald Trump post puts Abdul El-Sayed and Sarah Jukaku’s marriage at the center of his feud
Donald Trump posted a split-photo on Truth Social that placed his photo with Melania Trump next to El-Sayed’s with his wife, Dr. Sarah Jukaku. He captioned the post “Two VERY DIFFERENT America’s” and identified El-Sayed by his full legal name, “Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed.” The wording mirrors his past strategy of emphasizing Barack Obama’s middle name to suggest otherness.
The attack landed just days after El-Sayed defeated establishment-backed Rep. Haley Stevens in Michigan’s Democratic primary. A general election win would make him America’s first Muslim senator. Furthermore, El-Sayed accepted Trump’s framing on Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union but redirected the blow.
He agreed the two marriages represented “two very different Americas” and then described the Trumps as “two people who don’t like each other” united mainly by making “billions of dollars off of you.” El-Sayed defined his own marriage to Jukaku as one rooted in affection and time spent sharing “some pancakes together.”
“Sarah and I like each other,” El-Sayed told the network. “I don’t know about the first lady and the president, but from what I’ve heard, it’s a bit of a rocky road.” El-Sayed met Jukaku at the University of Michigan and proposed to her while she was still a freshman. She works as a psychiatrist and is the daughter of Indian immigrants. El-Sayed writes about her influence in his book Healing Politics: A Doctor’s Journey into the Heart of Our Political Epidemic, crediting her with teaching him to “dance” with his emotions. The couple has two daughters, Emmalee and Serene.
All in all, the Truth Social post escalates a broader MAGA backlash against the former public health official.
