Trump Leads Resurgence Of Anti-Muslim Words And Deeds
The days, months and years following the Sept.11 attacks were not good for Muslims in the U.S.
Whether they were U.S. citizens or not, whether they were university professors making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year or pumped gas for minimum wage, they were equally ostracized, harassed and called terrorists. Some were physically attacked and some were murdered. Mosques were vandalized and burned and Muslim parents feared their children would be bullied or worse in schools.
Muslims heard the taunts of “rag heads” as they were frequently blamed for the Sept. 11 attacks. Many had lived in the U.S. for many years and worked hard, raising families. Still they feared for their lives, always looking over their shoulders. Some Muslims denied their religion and changed their names to English surnames. Some stopped wearing traditional Muslim clothes to hide their identities. Muslim business owners put up large American flags to show their patriotism, but it often didn’t stem the rampant Islamophobia.
Islamophobia has never gone away and bigotry is as strong as ever in substantial pockets of America. Many Americans never stopped thirsting for revenge against fellow Muslim citizens who they blamed for the Sept. 11 attacks.
Trump has been consistently Islamophobic.
In November 2015, before he was president, trump made false claims that Arab Americans had celebrated the fall of the Twin Towers.
“There were people over in New Jersey that were watching it, a heavy Arab population, that were cheering as the buildings came down. Not good,” trump said at the time.
In March 2016, in the lead up to the election, trump said that “Islam hates us.”
“There’s something there that — there’s a tremendous hatred there. There’s a tremendous hatred. We have to get to the bottom of it. There’s an unbelievable hatred of us,” trump claimed with no basis in facts.
During his first term, trump targeted the Islamic faith and Muslims as he enacted a ban on Muslims coming to America from various nations.
The recent U.S. attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities have led to new verbal and physical attacks on Muslim citizens and lawmakers. Trump is again capitalizing on the anger and is leading his MAGA rabble against Muslims.
Now, in his second term, trump is trying to regenerate ugly anti-Muslim fervor with another proposed ban on travel to the U.S. from nations that are largely Muslim and that trump claims harbor terrorists. He also has deported American students who have spoken in favor of Palestinian independence and an end to the Israeli bombing of Gaza.
Muslim Lawmakers
In 2007, Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., was the first Muslim member elected to Congress. Ellison, who converted to Islam in1982, was in Congress for 12 years before retiring to be elected as Minnesota attorney general.
In 2018, voters elected the first Muslim women to Congress. They included Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., a native of Somalia and Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., whose parents were Palestinian. Rep. Lateefah Simon, D-Calif., was elected in November 2024. Rep. Andre Carson, D-Ind., converted to Islam as a teenager and was elected to Congress in 2008.
The latest anti-Muslim attacks have been leveled against Zohran Mamdani, a Muslim, Democratic Socialist who was a surprise winner in last week’s New York City Democratic mayoral primary. If elected in the general election, Mamdani would be the first Indian American, first South Asian American, first Muslim, and first millennial mayor of New York City.
The son of academic Mahmood Mamdani and filmmaker Mira Nair, Mamdani was born in Uganda and briefly lived in South Africa. He immigrated to the United States with his family when he was 7 and settled in New York City. Mamdani was naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 2018.
In the past, other South Asian and Muslim political figures, including former Vice President Kamala Harris and Omar and Tlaib, have been targeted with hate comments.
Since his primary victory, anti-Muslim posts have surged online, with death threats and comments that links his candidacy to the Sept. 11 attacks. The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) reported at least 127 hate-related reports against Mamdani or his campaign. Overall, CAIR reported 6,200 online posts related to Islamophobia.
Donald Trump Jr., the president’s son, was among those posting anti-Muslim comments on X, the social network site owned by trump confidant, billionaire Elon Musk. The younger trump posted that that “New York City has fallen” and that New Yorkers had “voted for” 9/11. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., a rabid trump supporter, posted an AI-generated picture of the Statue of Liberty draped in a burqa.
Laura Loomer, a MAGA influencer and trump advisor, last week verbally attacked Rep. Yassamin Ansari, D-Ariz., condescendingly calling her “Muslima.” Previously, Loomer posted on X to 1.7 million followers that “If you are a Christian or a Jew and you live in a city with a large Muslim population, you need to be armed.”
Loomer also advised, “If you are an assimilated Muslim who embraces the US and you are proudly American and against the Islamic regime, you also need to protect yourself. Jihadists will try to harm anyone who they view as an infidel or an apostate. We have over 2 million Iranian proxies living in our country.”
The ever crass Loomer said that “Zohran Mamdani hasn’t even been a U.S. citizen for 10 years. He is literally supported by terrorists. NYC is about to see 9/11 2.0.”
Mazi Pilip, a Republican and former Israeli Defense Forces veteran from Long Island who ran for Congress in 2024, posted on X that Mamdani would try to shut down “every single synagogue” and Jewish nonprofit in the city. “Evacuate NYC immediately,” wrote the Republican Jewish Coalition, a right wing political group.
The Republican Jewish Coalition announced its endorsement of Pilip for the February 2024 special election in New York’s Third Congressional District. The special election was to fill the seat vacated by the expulsion of disgraced Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y. The winner was Democratic House candidate Tom Suozz.
The New York Young Republican Club (NYYRC) wants the federal government to strip Mamdani of his citizenship and deport him. The 1954, Communist Control Act outlawed the Communist Party of the United States and banned communists from serving in certain roles. The act was rarely enforced.
“The Communist Control Act lets President Trump revoke Zohran Mamdani’s citizenship and promptly deport him. The time for action is now — Stephen Miller and Thomas Homan, New York is counting on you,” said a statement from the far right club. “We fully support this initiative. Communist radical Zohran Mamdani should be remigrated as soon as possible.”
Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff and architect of trump’s migrant deportation policy, claimed that Mamdani’s victory was a result of the city’s failure to control migration. Homan is Trump’s border czar.
Trump criticized Mamdani as he pulled out a page from the anti-Communist playbook of the disgraced 1950s Sen. Joe McCarthy, R-Wis. Trump branded Mamdani “a 100% Communist Lunatic” on his Truth Social website.
Trump unloaded on Mamdani along with progressive lawmakers, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, R-N.Y., who endorsed Mamdani. Trump also had childish words for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, N.Y., and Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas.
“It’s finally happened, the Democrats have crossed the line. Zohran Mamdani, a 100% Communist Lunatic, has just won the Dem Primary, and is on his way to becoming Mayor,” Trump posted. “We’ve had Radical Lefties before, but this is getting a little ridiculous. He looks TERRIBLE, his voice is grating, he’s not very smart, he’s got AOC+3, Dummies ALL, backing him, and even our Great Palestinian Senator, Cryin’ Chuck Schumer, is groveling over him. Yes, this is a big moment in the History of our Country!”
Trump’s posts came after Miller typically went low, writing on X: “NYC is the clearest warning yet of what happens to a society when it fails to control migration.”
Tlaib, Omar, Carson and Simon, members of the so-called “Squad,” decried the “vile, anti-Muslim and racists smears” from both Republican and Democratic lawmakers
“The vile, anti-Muslim, and racist smears from our colleagues on both sides of the aisle attacking Zohran Mamdani cannot be met with silence,” they posted jointly. “These hateful, Islamophobic, and racist tropes have become so entrenched and normalized in our politics. We know these attacks all too well. At a time of increased violence against elected officials, we cannot allow the attacks on Zohran Mamdani to continue. They directly contribute to the ongoing dehumanization and violence against Muslim Americans. We unequivocally reject the normalization of anti-Muslim hate and fearmongering and call on elected leaders across our country to speak out.”
Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., called for Mamdani to be deported.
“He needs to be DEPORTED,” said the far right Ogles and huge trump supporter. “Which is why I am calling for him to be subject to denaturalization proceedings.”
Ogles has used violent, abhorrent rhetoric against Muslims in the past. In 2024, he was captured on video responding “kill them all” to questions from pro-Palestinian activist regarding the war in Gaza.
“You know what? I think we should kill them all if that makes you feel better.” Ogles said in the video. “Everybody in Hamas.”
Ogles called on Attorney General Pam Bondi to denaturalize Mamdani by using a chapter in the U.S. Code that outlines the revocation of citizenship for individuals who willfully misrepresent or conceal material support for terrorism and rap lyrics.
“According to public reports, including a June 21, 2025 New York Post article, Mr. Mamdani expressed open solidarity with individuals convicted of terrorism-related offenses prior to becoming a U.S. citizen. Specifically, he rapped: ‘Free the Holy Land Five / My guys,’” Ogles wrote in the letter.
Ogles also posted on X “Bye bye, little muhammad! If you lied on your N-400 naturalization forms, you’re going home.”
Zohran “little muhammad” Mamdani is an antisemitic, socialist, communist who will destroy the great City of New York. He needs to be DEPORTED. Which is why I am calling for him to be subject to denaturalization proceedings,” Ogles posted.
Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., previously the acting U.S. ambassador to the U.N., who is considering a gubernatorial bid, called Mamdani an “antisemitic, jihadist, Communist candidate.”
Charlie Kirk, the co-founder of the far right, group Turning Point USA, also referred to the Sept. 11 attacks to demean Mamdani.
“24 years ago a group of Muslims killed 2,753 people on 9/11. Now a Muslim Socialist is on pace to run New York City,” Kirk posted and on a podcast called Mamdani an “anti-Western manifestation” of forces that want to destabilize the United States.
New York City GOP Councilwoman Vickie Paladino responded on May 3, 2024, to campus protests against Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip. Paladino called college students “monsters” who must be “slayed” in New York City.
In her latest anti-Muslim tirade, Paladino called Mamdani, “a radical leftist who actually hates everything about the country and is here specifically to undermine everything we’ve ever been about.”
Paladino has been a strident opponent of migrant shelters, squatter houses, vaccine mandates and pro-Palestinian protesters.
Muslim lawmakers have been physically and verbally assaulted, often led by trump.
Squad Attacked
On July 14, 2019, trump tweeted that The Squad should “go back” to the “places from which they came.” Two days later, the House of Representatives voted to condemn trump’s “racist comments.”
At a July 17 campaign rally in North Carolina, Trump continued his hate-laced tirade, picking up on the 1960s conservative mantra, “Love (the U.S.) it or leave it.”
“They never have anything good to say. That’s why I say, ‘Hey if you don’t like it, let ’em leave, let ’em leave’” and “I think in some cases they hate our country.” Trump falsely claimed that Omar, had praised al-Qaeda and “smeared” American soldiers who had fought in the Battle of Mogadishu.
The crowd reacted by chanting, “Send her back, Send her back” leading trump to later describe the rabble as “incredible people, incredible patriots” and accused Omar of racism and antisemitism.
On February 4, 2014, Omar was attacked and injured by multiple attendees during a Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL) caucus for Minnesota’s House of Representatives District 60B. She sustained a concussion in the attack.
In February 2019, the FBI arrested United States Coast Guard Lieutenant Christopher Paul Hasson for allegedly plotting to assassinate Omar and other political figures. According to prosecutors, Hasson is a self-described “long time White Nationalist” and former skinhead who wanted to use violence to “establish a white homeland.”
On April 7, 2019, Patrick Carlineo Jr., was arrested for calling Omar’s office and threatening to assault and murder her. He reportedly told investigators that he did not want Muslims in the government.
In April 2019, Omar said that she had received more death threats after trump made comments about her and 9/11. In September 2019, she charged that trump was putting her life in danger by retweeting a tweet falsely claiming she had “partied on the anniversary of 9/11.”
Two Republican candidates for congressional office have called for Omar’s execution. In November 2019, Danielle Stella, Omar’s Republican opponent for Congress, was banned from Twitter for suggesting that Omar be hanged for treason if found guilty of passing information to Iran. In December 2019, George Buck, another Republican running for Congress, also suggested that Omar be hanged for treason. Neither candidate won their primary election.