Hamtramck Mayor Amer Ghalib said he met with former President Donald Trump in Flint on Tuesday for a private 20-minute meeting and Trump asked the Muslim politician for his support.
The Republican presidential candidate campaigned at the Dort Financial Center in Flint on Tuesday night, and Ghalib said he and Trump met at the event center before Trump addressed the crowd.
“He knew a lot about me before the meeting,” Ghalib said in a text message to The Detroit News on Wednesday.
“We talked about a variety of topics, including the debates, the latest poll results, the election statistics in Michigan and Wayne County, the concerns of Arab Americans and especially Yemeni Americans. We also talked about the situation in Yemen,” Ghalib added.
Ghalib is an immigrant from Yemen. In 2021, he ousted incumbent Mayor Karen Majewski. He and other Muslim candidates for city council won that election in Hamtramck, a roughly 1-square-mile city of 28,000 people surrounded by Detroit. U.S. Census data shows that more than 40% of Hamtramck’s population is now foreign-born, including native Yemenis.
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Trump asked Ghalib for his support over Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in the November 5 presidential election, the mayor said.
“He asked me if I could support him and ask people to vote for him? I told him, ‘I’m here to talk about it and how we can make it happen,'” Ghalib said. “Then I gave him an official letter with some details about our concerns and invited him to come to Hamtramck if possible.”
Ghalib said he could discuss further details in a video or future social media posts. He said the meeting with Trump was “arranged by members of his campaign team who are very close to him.”
Last year, Ghalib was part of a group of Hamtramck residents who met with controversial conservative activist Michael Flynn, a former Army general and Trump’s first national security adviser. In 2017, Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with the Russian ambassador. He was later pardoned by then-President Trump. Flynn visited Hamtramck last year.
