"I feel like it": Trump explains why he calls Abdul El-Sayed "Mohammed"

President Donald Trump doubled down on calling Michigan’s Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed “Mohammed,” telling a White House Columbus Day event that he does so because he feels like it.

Speaking at a Columbus Day celebration at the White House on Friday, where a 13-foot Christopher Columbus statue was unveiled, Trump again turned to the Michigan Senate race. “I call him Mohammed El-Fayed. Some people call him Abdul. I call him Mohammed. Somebody said, ‘Why?’ I said, ‘I feel like it,’” he said.

The remarks came two days after Trump called El-Sayed “Mohammed El-Sayed” in a Truth Social post that also labeled him a “radical extremist” and “terrorist sympathizer,” a post Arab American leaders in Michigan denounced as racist. El-Sayed, whose full name is Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed, has gone by Abdul since kindergarten.

Abdul El-Sayed at a campaign event (file photo)

“He knows my name”

“He knows my name is Abdul. He says it every day. But he’s not just attacking me. He’s attacking all of us,” El-Sayed said after the earlier post, accusing Trump of using his name and faith to distract from rising costs. Critics compared the tactic to Trump’s past emphasis on former President Barack Obama’s middle name, Hussein. El-Sayed faces former Republican Rep. Mike Rogers in November.