Dearborn results: Voters in largest Arab American city back Trump in US presidential elections

Voters in Michigan's Dearborn, the largest majority Arab-American city in the United States, appear to have overwhelmingly supported Donald Trump in a clear protest against the Biden administration's handling of Israel's war on Gaza.

The final count in Michigan, where vice president and Democratic candidate Kamala Harris was likely to win, has yet to be called.

But early reports show 47 percent of Dearborn voters backing Trump, with 27 percent of votes going to Harris and 21 percent to Green Party candidate Jill Stein.

"The Muslim Vote may cost her Michigan - a determinative swing state. It all came down to Gaza," Khaled Beydoun, a law professor at the University of Detroit Mercy, posted on X early on Wednesday.

"For the many Arabs and Muslims who endorsed Kamala Harris after she ignored us on Gaza, perhaps tonight serves a lesson that a token 'seat at the table' isn't worth being connected to a genocide."

Commentator and Zeteo editor-in-chief Mehdi Hasan said it was "insane" that Democrats had ignored the sentiment among voters in Michigan.

"If they lose [Michigan] because of this, sheesh," he posted to X. "Also Insane: Arab American voters in Dearborn could have just voted Stein as a protest but went... over to anti-Arab Trump in big numbers? SHEESH."

At the Lava Java Hookah Lounge, where Arab Americans for Trump held an election night party, the room was ecstatic early on Wednesday morning as key swing state Pennsylvania was called for the former US president who edged closer to victory.

"I am excited," Nabeel Hamameh, a Palestinian American attending the event, told Middle East Eye.

"The country needs a change, and I think Trump is the person to make that change."

While many of the city's voters in Tuesday's election will be first-time Trump supporters, Hamameh has always been a Republican and said he believes the former president will "probably be more respected worldwide".

"I think he's got a better relationship with leaders internationally, and I think he will definitely do a better job in reining in the Israeli terror,” he said.