Trump weighs in on Islamophobia, conspiracy at last-chance campaign rallies | News 2026 US midterm elections

Trump attacks Muslim politicians Abdul El-Sayed and Ilhan Omar during his last two campaign rallies.

US President Donald Trump has doubled down on Islamophobic rhetoric and conspiracy theories against the Democratic Party during his election campaigns in Iowa and Kansas, days before crucial midterm elections that will decide who controls Congress in the final two years of Trump’s presidency.

The president reiterated his assertion that Abdul El-Sayed, a Michigan Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, was a “jihadist” at both Sunday rallies, and joked that if he is elected, the Senate will have to install metal detectors to scan him before he enters the building.

“We’ll have about 100 senators, and most of them will go straight (to the Senate)… We’re going to have to get a special metal detector for Abdul,” Trump said, drawing laughter from the crowd.

He also reiterated unfounded claims that El-Sayed is a member of the transnational Muslim Brotherhood, branches whose foreign organizations the United States considers “terrorist.”

At both events, Trump repeatedly urged his supporters to make sure they went out to vote, asking them to “act like I’m on the ballot,” as he sought to energize Republican voters ahead of what polls suggest will be a bruising election for the party.

Both gatherings were canceled last week but were suddenly postponed. These will be Trump’s last trips before the election.

Both speeches were interrupted several times by hecklers.

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

At both rallies, he took aim at U.S. Representative for Minnesota Ilhan Omar, who Trump claimed, without evidence, was previously married to his brother and had children with him.

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

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

Two critical races

While Iowa and Kansas are represented primarily by Republican lawmakers, polls suggest 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 polls suggest two Iowa state representative seats up for grabs lean Democratic.

The United States will vote in the midterm elections on November 3.