Trump promised peace in the Middle East. In Dearborn, Michigan, it feels farther away

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: AP

Updated 6:15 AM EDT, April 15, 2026


DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) — Eighteen months after the nation’s largest Arab American community helped propel Donald Trump to a second term as president, the prayers have not stopped. In Dearborn, just outside of Detroit, families wait restlessly for word from relatives abroad, hoping they are safe, and mourning those already lost. What began as anguish over the war in Gaza has widened. In a city with a large Lebanese American population, the expanding conflict in Lebanon has made the crisis even more personal.

That anxiety is colliding with pressures at home, including heightened immigration enforcement, a strained economy and rising tensions after a recent attack on a synagogue. “The community now sees that it could have got worse — and it did get worse,” said Nabih Ayad, founder of the Arab American Civil Rights League. “But the community was just so desperate.” The national spotlight that once fixed on Dearborn during the 2024 election has faded. The mass protests have quieted. But inside mosques, at vigils and around family tables, conversations reveal a city still reeling, and one beginning to reckon with what comes next.

A community reckoning

Last week, Ayad joined other Arab American leaders for a meeting with The Associated Press. Many of them had been deeply involved in conversations with both Democrat Kamala Harris’ and Trump’s campaigns as each courted their vote during the last presidential race. “We get this all the time by media, okay? It’s basically, ‘How’d that decision go? How’d that work out for you?’” Ayad said.

Among the nearly dozen leaders — ranging from county commissioner to state lawmakers to business owners — there was wide agreement that life had not improved since Trump was sworn into office.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/dearborn-michigan-lebanese-americans-iran-war-trump-ec2282be4ddd13ae5c8a5e7c25037f6b

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All those "Uncommitteds" chanting "GENOCIDE JOE!!1!!!!1!" and "KILLER KAMALA!111!!!!1"

Sucks to be you. WELCOME TO AMERICA.

[Happy Hoosier]

1. Turns out that...

cuttings one's nose off to spite one's fate is a terrible idea. Imagine that.

But of course, they will never actually take responsibility for a shitty decision. People seem allergic to acknowledging they made a mistake.

[travelingthrulife]

2. If you believed that Trump has any interest in peace anywhere you are a fool.

[mountain grammy]

3. It is impossible for me

To forgive anyone who voted for him. I’ll die mad as Stephanie Miller says.

[LisaM]

4. What bothered me the most was the lack of discernment

between the kind of person Biden and Harris are, and the kind of person Trump is. It's difficult for me to fathom how anyone can make any kind of moral equivalency.

Biden did not cause the situation that unfolded after October 7th. It was thrust into his lap like the white rabbit in Alice in Wonderland.

And to me, it was always pretty clear that the orchestrated protests naming him Genocide Joe (followed by Killer Kamala) were a way to turn the election. I am sure that plenty of the participants didn't go out to protest just to get Trump elected, but that was a byproduct. It is hard for me to feel a whole lot of sympathy now that the Dearborn community is experiencing some buyer's remorse (though I will try). But I just cannot understand how they couldn't appraise the character difference between Harris and Trump. It's not as if they are marginally different. The gap is wider than the Grand Canyon.

[Ray Bruns]

6. Trump told them what they wanted to hear.

[LisaM]

7. And for reasons unknown, they believed him.

I am from Michigan but live in Seattle now. We had a former city council member named Kshama Sawant who took it upon herself (after creating a fair amount of discord in Seattle and ripping her constituency apart) to go to the Muslim communities in Michigan to ensure that Harris lost. I cannot imagine what really motivated her to do that. It was maddening. She (Sawant) is an educated person. She saw the damage Trump did in his first term. She knew exactly who he was and can't possibly have believed anything he said. Yet she still went out and undermined Harris.

I always believe there are darker forces at work somewhere, but I still don't get the willful misunderstanding.

[SamuelTheThird]

9. Reasons not totally unknown

Many are religious conservatives

[pimpbot]

15. and many think women are below men

Any excuse not to vote for a woman.

[Aristus]

5. Muslims voting a second term for the guy who instituted a ban on Muslim immigration

in his first term is a special kind of stupid. One shakes one’s head sadly…

[Eko]

8. Wouldnt hurt to listen to these people instead.

Children sat on steps draped in American flags, holding photos of children killed in the war. Nearby, speakers took turns describing a conflict that has stretched across presidencies with little sign of easing.

“What we have witnessed is not just another headline. It is not distant. It is not abstract,” Suehaila Amen, a Lebanese American, said at the vigil.

“We are a community in mourning,” she said, “and we have been mourning for a long, long time.”

From the link.

[BumRushDaShow]

14. I read the book "A Peace to End All Peace"

after hearing the author David Fromkin on WABC in NY on the "Bachelor and Alexander" show when Fromkin was on a book tour in the early '90s.

That whole mess in that area has been going on for a LONG LONG time - all an artifact of the European colonization, partitioning and breakup of the Ottoman empire and their own colonies around the world after WW1 & WWII.

And sadly what is being described by them is way worse on the continent of Africa.

What they are experiencing is by no means "unique". Most of the Lebanese being attacked are Christians but again, the destructive random borders generated by Europeans (in that case, France) ended up being a flashpoint with the creation of Israel.

Those who have come here to the U.S. need to LISTEN to those who came BEFORE them who TRIED to WARN them of the fickleness of this country. They are lucky that THEIR ANCESTORS didn't come here this way like mine did -

[democratsruletheday]

10. fuck Dearborn, and I say that

as a Michigander. They overwhelmingly voted for Trumpler and now they're paying a dear price.

[Skittles]

13. we're ALL paying a dear price

because of STUPID FUCKING ASSHOLES like them

[fujiyamasan]

11. I heard if you go to Dearborn now

There’s not a face to be found.

[Solly Mack]

12. Tiffany Trump's FIL played a role in courting Arab Americans for Trump.

Trump allies hope his daughter Tiffany’s father-in-law can help flip Arab American votes in Michigan