(This story was updated to add more information and change the headline.)
Former President Donald Trump’s comments Thursday that the "whole country will end up being like Detroit" if rival for the presidency Vice President Kamala Harris is elected, made headlines — and a T-shirt slogan.
But while some of Trump’s other remarks to the Detroit Economic Club , mainly that his younger daughter Tiffany is pregnant, also made some news, it also was a subtle reminder that in a close race in Michigan, the Arab American vote matters.
Trump's proud-dad announcement that he has an 11th grandchild on the way highlighted, for those who know, a family connection that the presidential candidate hopes translates into some votes among Arab Americans in Michigan, a demographic Harris also is courting.
Some Harris supporters, however, have expressed concern that in a close race, the vice president could lose if she doesn’t take a more vocal stand against escalating violence in the Middle East and Israel’s fight against Iran and Iran-backed groups such as Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, it could cost her votes.
Tiffany Trump — the former president’s fourth child who has largely stayed out of the political spotlight — is married to Michael Boulos , who was born in Lebanon, and Boulos’ father, Massad Boulos, has been leading an effort to generate Trump support among Arab Americans, especially Democrats.
The pregnancy also means that Trump, who also met Thursday with some Islamic clerics from metro Detroit, is expecting a Lebanese American grandchild.
All three — Tiffany, her husband and her father-in-law — as well as Trump's daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, were to meet Friday at the Renaissance Center Marriott in Detroit with other political figures for an event hosted by the American Mideast Alliance for Trump.
Last month, Hamtramck Mayor Amer Ghalib, an immigrant from Yemen, endorsed Donald Trump for president.
Hamtramck has the highest percentage of immigrants in Michigan and an all-Muslim city council, which could turn Hamtramck, which has historically voted for Democrats, including President Joe Biden in 2020, into a base of support for Trump. Ghalib met with Lara Trump on Friday in Detroit.
And in May, both Michael and Massad Boulos , along with dozens of other Arab American and Middle Eastern leaders in Michigan, met with a former Donald Trump administration official, Richard Grenell, to discuss their frustrations with Biden at an Italian restaurant in Troy.
Trump met in Detroit on Wednesday with Sheikh Belal Alzuhairy of the Islamic Center of Detroit and with Sheikh Saleh Ibrahim of the Iman Islamic Complex, in Detroit, which has a large Yemeni American congregation. Both are faith leaders in their Detroit mosques. Other Yemeni American groups and leaders have recently endorsed Trump, including Yemerican PAC, Yemeni American Political Action Committee (YAPAC) of Hamtramck & Detroit, and Dearborn community leader Samraa (Sam) Luqman.
Trump has drawn controversy for remarks he made last week at a rally in Pennsylvania where he said some immigrants from Yemen were terrorists. Ghalib said Friday on his Facebook page that Trump apologized for his remarks and said he respects Yemeni Americans.
Ghalib told the Free Press that Trump recorded a video for him that Ghalib posted on Facebook thanking people for supporting him.
"Mayor Ghalib, it was great to be with you and I look forward to seeing you again soon," Trump said in the video Ghalib posted. "I just want to thank you for all your support. You've been fantastic. ... The people of Yemen and all of the people that we're talking about, we're going to get the world solved and the problems solved."
Trump's other daughter, Ivanka, converted to Judaism after getting together with husband Jared Kushner.
More: Naked, 43-foot Trump sculpture goes up in Detroit, turning heads, sparking laughter
As recently as this week, Harris said on CBS that diplomacy with Israel should be ongoing.
And Harris — whose husband, Doug Emhoff, is also the first Jewish spouse of an American vice president and has stressed his Jewish identity on the presidential campaign trail — is trying to politically balance the concerns of pro-Israel voters and Arab American groups.
The Harris campaign has also attempted to reach out to the Arab American and Muslim communities. Among the efforts, Harris met with leaders of the two groups earlier this month in Flint, and leaders of the "Uncommitted" movement greeted the vice president and running mate Tim Walz before they appeared at an August rally in Romulus. The campaign has also started two WhatsApp channels — Muslims for Harris-Walz and Arab Americans for Harris-Walz — to message members of those communities.
As for Trump’s comments on Thursday, entrepreneurs wasted no time turning his Detroit putdown into a red T-shirt, that parodied his slogan "Make America Great Again." It sells online for $26 and says, instead, " Make American Detroit Again ."
Boulos, the Arab News has reported , is "using his connections" and meeting with Arab American leaders in Michigan who are disenchanted with Biden and Harris. And the Associated Press noted Boulos has been "trying to convince a politically influential community" that "Trump is a better option."
Still, how much that will help is unclear given what Trump also has said recently and over the years, claiming to be more pro-Israel than Biden and Harris and making various comments that his critics have blasted as Islamophobic .
Contact Frank Witsil: 313-222-5022 or fwitsil@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Donald Trump announces he's expecting a Lebanese American grandchild
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