Trump leans into Islamophobia and conspiracy in last-ditch campaign rallies

United States President Donald Trump has doubled down on Islamophobic rhetoric and conspiracy theories about the Democratic Party at campaign events in Iowa and Kansas, days before the US votes in crucial midterm elections that will decide who controls Congress during Trump’s last two years as president.

The president repeated his claim that Abdul El-Sayed, a Democratic US Senate hopeful from Michigan, is a “jihadist” at both rallies on Sunday, and joked that if he gets elected, the Senate will have to install metal detectors to scan him before he enters the building.

“We’ll have a hundred senators, and most of them will go directly [into the Senate]… We’re gonna have to get a special metal detector for Abdul,” Trump said, drawing laughter from the crowd.

He also repeated unfounded claims that El-Sayed is a member of the transnational Muslim Brotherhood, branches of which the US has deemed foreign “terrorist” organisations.

At both events, Trump repeatedly urged his supporters to make sure they go out and vote, asking them to “pretend I’m on the ballot”, as he sought to energise Republican voters ahead of what polling suggests could be a bruising election for the party.

The two rallies were cancelled last week but were suddenly rescheduled. They will be Trump’s final travelling events before the election.

Both speeches were interrupted multiple times by hecklers.

In Iowa, the president said he would “love” Democratic Representative Haley Stevens, who lost to Abdul El-Sayed in the primaries, to switch parties, after she endorsed El-Sayed’s Republican opponent, Mike Rogers.

At both rallies, he took aim at US Representative for Minnesota Ilhan Omar, whom Trump claims, without evidence, was previously married to her brother and had children with him.

In Kansas, Trump attacked the Democratic Senate hopeful Adam Hamilton, a church pastor, for his support for trans rights, and called him a “stiff” who reads his sermons from teleprompters.

The US-Israel war on Iran, the cost of living, immigration, perceived media bias against him, and the administration of former President Joe Biden also featured heavily in Trump’s two speeches.

Two critical races

While Iowa and Kansas are represented mostly by Republican lawmakers, polling suggests Democrats could flip both states.

Kansas has five federal congressional seats up for election in the midterms: one Senate seat and all four House seats. The state last elected a Democratic senator in 1932.

In Iowa, the Senate race is too close to call, but polling suggests that two Iowan state representative seats up for grabs are leaning Democrat.

The US will vote in the midterm elections on November 3.