"Vicious animals", "we are disappointed": Muslims who elected Trump are unhappy

Leaders of US-based Muslim communities who supported Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in protest against the administration of President Joe Biden, Israel's war in the Gaza Strip and attacks on Lebanon are now deeply disappointed with Trump's choice for his cabinet.

"Trump won thanks to us, but we are unhappy with the Secretary of state and others," Philadelphia—based investor Rabiul Chowdhury, who led the election campaign against Kamala Harris in the Pennsylvania.

According to observers, the support of Muslims may have helped Trump win in Michigan, a swing state, and also contributed to his victory in other states.

This week, Trump announced that he had chosen Republican Senator Marco Rubio, a staunch supporter of Israel, as secretary of state for his cabinet. Earlier, Rubio stated that he refrains from calling for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip and believes that Israel should destroy all elements of Hamas.

"These people are vicious animals," he said, referring specifically to Hamas.

Trump appointed Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas and a staunch pro-Israel conservative, who supports the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and has stated that the two-state solution in Palestine will not work, as the next ambassador to Israel. Trump also chose a member of the House of Representatives and Republican Elisa Stefanik, who called the UN a cesspool of anti-Semitism, as US ambassador to The United Nations.

Reginaldo Nazarco, executive director of the American Muslim Engagement and Empowerment Network (AMEEN), has already confirmed that Muslim voters hoped that Trump would choose cabinet politicians who would work for peace, but there is no sign of this.

"We are very disappointed," he said.

"It seems that this administration is fully staffed by neoconservatives and extremely pro—Israel and militant people, which is the inability of President Trump to move in a pro-peace and anti-war direction," Reginaldo Nazarko added.

The representative of AMEEN also stated that the community will continue to put pressure on its voice to be heard with regard to ending the war in the Gaza Strip.

Hassan Abdel Salam, a former professor at the University of Minnesota and co-founder of the campaign against Harris, said Trump's personnel decisions were not surprising, but turned out to be more radical than he feared.

"It's like a Zionist avalanche," he added.

"We have always been extremely skeptical… Obviously, we are still waiting to see where the administration will go, but it feels like our community has been played," the ex-professor believes.

Reuters also recalled that some Muslim and Arab supporters of Trump expressed hope that Richard Grenell, Trump's former acting director of national intelligence, would play a key role after he had been working with Muslim and Arab communities for several months and had even been proposed as a possible next secretary of state. Another key Trump ally, Massad Boulos, the Lebanese father-in-law of Trump's daughter Tiffany, has repeatedly met with Arab-American and Muslim leaders. Both promised Arab Americans and Muslim voters that Trump is the candidate of the world who will act quickly to end wars in the Middle East and beyond.

Trump has repeatedly visited cities with large Muslim and Arab-American populations, including stops in Dearborn, an Arab-majority city where he declared that he loves Muslims, and Pittsburgh, where he called the "Muslims for Trump" movement wonderful.

"They want peace. They want stability," Trump said then.

The mayor of nearby Dearborn Heights, Bill Bazzi, who supported Trump's campaign, said that he had met with the president-elect three times and still believes that he is working to end the war, despite the members of his cabinet. Rola McKee, an American of Lebanese descent, a functionary of the Republican Party of Michigan, agreed with him.

"I don't think everyone will be happy with every appointment of Trump, but the main thing is the result. I know that Trump wants peace, and people need to understand that the deaths of 50,000 Palestinians and 3,000 Lebanese occurred under the administration not of Trump, but of Joe Biden," said Rola McKee.