El-Sayed Agrees With Trump on 'Two Very Different' Americas

Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Michigan, embraced President Trump's suggestion that the two men represent "VERY DIFFERENT" versions of the United States, using the moment to attack the president over inequality and household costs.

In a Saturday night post on his Truth Social platform, Trump shared an image of himself and the first lady, Melania Trump, beside a photo of El-Sayed, who is Muslim, and his wife, Sarah Jukaku, who wears a hijab. "Two VERY DIFFERENT America's [sic]," the caption read.

"Yeah, he's right," El-Sayed told CNN when asked about the post on Sunday.

"One in which your overlords are two people who don't like each other, but join in the interest of making billions of dollars off of you — or two people who genuinely love each other, enjoyed some pancakes together, want to come together to build the kind of America where they can raise a family and know that that family is going to have the good things," he said. "Donald Trump's vision is the one you're living in right now. Can you afford your gas? Can you afford your groceries?"

El-Sayed, an epidemiologist, won Michigan's Democratic Senate primary this week, setting up a general election contest against former Rep. Mike Rogers, a Republican, in a swing state widely seen as central to Democratic hopes of retaking the Senate. If he wins in November, El-Sayed could become the first Muslim U.S. senator.

During a speech Thursday, Trump called El-Sayed a communist and said he was "full of shit," drawing loud cheers. Asked about the remark, El-Sayed told Sky News: "At least I don't let mine go in the middle of the Oval Office."

Unlike some other new Democratic candidates, El-Sayed, who ran to the left of his primary opponent, is not a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and has said he is a capitalist who wants capitalism to work better.

Former President Barack Obama spoke with El-Sayed after the primary, an early sign of support. "It was a really good conversation about what we need to do to be able to win, and obviously this is somebody who knows a lot about winning Michigan," El-Sayed told NBC News. Obama also called Rep. Haley Stevens, the moderate Democrat El-Sayed defeated, Politico reported; Stevens said she urged him to "come to Michigan and campaign for the Democrats."

Republicans have called El-Sayed "the most radical Senate candidate in America," and Trump has repeatedly used his full name, Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed. El-Sayed noted that Republicans, and Trump, did the same to Obama by emphasizing his middle name.

"At the end of the day it's not radical to believe that people should be able to afford their groceries," he told NBC's "Meet the Press." "It's not radical to believe that you should have healthcare in this country."