March 28,2025
President Donald Trump hosted the annual Iftar dinner at the White House March 27, where he thanked the “hundreds of thousands of Muslim-Americans who supported” him in the 2024 presidential election.
“I want to extend a very special thanks to the hundreds of thousands of Muslim Americans who supported us in record numbers in the 2024 presidential election. It was incredible. We started a little slow with you, but we came along,” Trump said. “The Muslim community was there for us in November, and while I’m president, I will be there for you. I think you know that.”
“You have someone in the White House who loves you,” he said.
His positive remarks towards Muslims are a significant change from his campaign in 2016 when he once said: “I think Islam hates us.”
Hamtramck Mayor Amer Ghalib and Dearborn Heights Mayor Bill Bazzi, who endorsed Trump last year and were picked by the president to be ambassadors to Kuwait and Tunisia, attended the dinner along with several other Muslims, and administration officials, including Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who is a Hindu.
Trump used the occasion to highlight the Abraham Accords, the normalization agreements between Israel and several Arab states brokered during his first term. He said his administration intends to expand the agreements, which have been largely stagnant in recent years.
“Every day, we’re keeping our promises to the Muslim community,” Trump said. “We’re building on the historic Abraham Accords — which everybody said were impossible. Biden did nothing to move them forward, but we’re going to pick up where we left off. People are already talking about it. It should’ve been done long ago.”
The president said his goal is to achieve a brighter, more hopeful future for all. “All we want is peace.”
He said nothing about Iran.
Trump said his views on transgender issues are in sync with the Muslim community. Over the past three years, there has been a backlash among conservatives in Dearborn and Hamtramck, Michigan, against LGBTQ+ books and symbols.
“We’re stopping schools from indoctrinating children with transgender ideology, something which people of this room are not happy about,” Trump said. “I know that for a fact, and it’s a shame what’s happened, but we’re turning it around and turning it around at levels that nobody can even believe. I signed an order — and I think very importantly, also in particular for people in this room — we’re keeping men out of women’s sports.”
