April 25, 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.
This was a dramatic change from his first term when he held Muslim-Americans at arms length and treated them as pariahs. But he found support from Muslims in last year’s elections because so many Muslims were furious with President Joe Biden for giving Israel virtual free rein in its Gaza war.
In his first term, Trump started off on his first day with his infamous “Muslim ban” on visas. In his second term, he hasn’t yet issued any order banning visas to citizens of Muslimmajority countries, though he has received a report urging that visas not be issued to citizens of yet-to-be-named countries.
At the iftar, Trump said, “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.
But he hasn’t taken any actions to restrain Israel’s military activities in Gaza. In fact, he has sold Israel weapons that even Biden wouldn’t sell it.
Trump’s positive remarks toward Muslims are a significant change from his campaign in 2016 when he once said: “I think Islam hates us.”
From Michigan, Hamtramck Mayor Amer Ghalib and Dearborn Heights Mayor Bill Bazzi, who endorsed Trump last year were picked by the president to be ambassadors to Kuwait and Tunisia. They attended the iftar 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.”
