While running for president,
Trump said something that would define his campaign.
Donald J. Trump is calling
for a total and complete shutdown
of Muslims entering the United States,
until our country's representatives
can figure out what the hell is going on.
Once he took office, he enacted a version of that.
A weekend of protests over President Trump's immigration crackdown ...
It's not a Muslim ban,
but we are totally prepared to work it out very nicely.
And still, in the 2016 election, roughly 17 percent of American Muslims supported Donald Trump.
That number was slightly higher in Michigan,
which is home to one of the largest Muslim-American communities in the United States.
Michigan is also one of the key states that secured Trump's 2016 victory.
He won it narrowly, by less than 1 percent of the vote.
We went to Detroit to talk to three Muslim-Americans about why they voted
the way they did and how they're feeling about Trump now, in the wake of the travel ban.
First, Nedal Tamer, who fled Lebanon's civil war when he was 20.
He immigrated to the Detroit area, and he began buying, renovating and selling houses,
and as Detroit's economy has been growing over the past two years, his business has, too.
And he credits President Trump with the city's revival.
But Nedal's support is not purely economic.
He also thinks Trump's travel ban is positive for Muslim-Americans.
We want to remind the, uh, Muslim community during
September 11 what happened to us.
People looked to us totally differently.
You felt that?
We felt it.
If anybody create any problem from the refugee,
how we're gonna look to each other as Muslim community here?
We have to agree with the president
for our own safety.
So part of it is that you think it's very important for a
Muslim-American like yourself to support the president's
ban because if you didn't, people might see you—
—If any huge, uh, terrorist attack happened like September 11—
—You'd be blamed.
Maybe.
So did — did you like Trump as soon as he started running?
He should be held, I say it before, as a trophy of the American dream.
When you want to look to the American dream,
you look to President Trump,
to his lifestyle, to his, uh, uh, businesses.
That's a good image for America.
There are many Muslim-American leaders who have made the argument that President Trump has
been very bad for the Muslim community in the United States because the travel
ban was seen as targeting, you know, an entire religion.
It's not targeting every Muslim country.
He said six countries.
We have over, uh, over 60 nations.
Still, Muslims come to this country.
The president, he said where is we can't identify these people.
You have to have background clearance.
You've got to take time, and
there is no court system now.
There is no government.
How are you gonna have the information, the right information about
the people they bringing over here if there is no government over there?
I'm just struggling because this would be someone
who was doing what you did,
leaving a country with a history of war
to follow a dream to the United States.
How do you defend the president's travel
ban, you know, if you're talking to someone like that?
At this time, there wasn't a threat to United States.
There is no September 11.
Uh, there is no, uh, terrorist.
President Trump is dealing with a different time.
It's dealing with a different,
totally different situation now.
Next, we went across town to Hamtramck
to talk to Akil Alhalemi, a Yemeni-American.
During the election, he thought the ban was just campaign rhetoric, but after
Trump took office and included Yemen in the travel ban, Akil began to regret his vote.
Trump won the state of Michigan by, like, less than a percentage [point] of the vote, um,
and you — you supported him.
Does that give you a feeling of responsibility, like you
have to do more now to stop him?
I do. And I'm trying now to push a lot
of peoples to go to register to vote.
We trying to — just last month, we—
our target was to register a hund— a thousand people, new thousand people,
to register them to vote.
Do you tell them that you voted for Trump when you're doing all these things?
I do. I do.
I voted. I supported Trump, but that was a mistake.
I thought of Trump as also kind of change.
I see in him as a different person, like his policy, his remarks, his attitude.
He speaks his mind.
His campaign was a little bit odd as he was saying it, you know, uh, on the media like,
'I'm not let the Muslims come to this country,' but I thought this is just, you
know, part of his campaign, you know.
What if someone said to you, "Akil, he — why
didn't you believe him when he said that during the campaign?"
Myself, I'm against radical Muslims.
Islam is not as they reflect it or as they present it.
Islam is a beautiful religion,
and I believe all religions came with a one mission.
It's to make us a better humans, a better life.
Those people who take advantage of
religions and turn it into hell, no.
So I thought he has the same mentality, but it
turns to be the opposite.
He banned everybody.
Have — do you know people who have
been affected by that personally, by the ban?
A lot. This is a main current
issue of the Yemeni community.
Like, the Yemeni people, there is a 30-23 million
people and hunger and poverty,
three years of airstrikes from the led coalition war.
We came here to have a better life,
to fled the war.
We need support, not a ban, Mr. Trump.
Finally, we spoke to Ahmed Aldaheri,
a truck driver in Dearborn, Mich.
who immigrated to the U.S. from Yemen in 2000.
He supported Donald Trump
until he saw the effects of the travel ban.
That's when he started to feel that he and the president
had different visions of America.
When I see he's like as a businessman, he start from nothing,
then he built himself,
I said 'OK, this guy, he will do something.'
When he was campaigning, I mean, he
brought up the idea of, you know,
a so-called Muslim ban, some people called it.
I think he used terms like that.
Be honest with you, I thought he used those words only
to get some more votes from some people.
They going to agree about his idea.
You thought he was just—
It was political talk and he wasn't serious.
—Joking.
Exactly, I thought he's not gonna do it.
But I still feel bad for people, for friends, for cousins.
Do not hold like a child 3 or 4 years old,
keep him away from his mom.
You think the Trump administration went overboard in—
—Too much man, OK.
Do you ever feel a sense of responsibility,
like I helped put this guy in the White House?
Of course.
Next time, me, I'm not gonna vote for him,
and he lose a lot of people they was support him.
Why did he lose you?
I don't like his way to run the whole country.
Two years ago, I went to New York City.
I see something amazing.
I see the American.
I see the African-American.
I see the Chinese. I see the Indian.
I see all the nation, all the nationality.
They are in New York City.
That's what's making it amazing.
It's a great country.
We went to this island between
New Jersey and New York.
When I looked to the Statue of Liberty,
I was, like, feeling, like, proud of this country,
be honest with you.
This is the freedom.
This is, this is America.
But after what's going on, if I go there, I'm
going to ask the Statue of Liberty,
"Did you hear about the ban?"
And I wish the Statue of Liberty can answer me.
I will ask her, "What do you think?"
And we will wait for the answer.