Hasan Piker told millions of followers that America deserved 9/11.
Abdul El-Sayed stood on stage with him anyway – and won the Michigan Democrat Senate primary.
Now El-Sayed is daring Donald Trump to make him famous, and every Republican in the country is praying he gets his wish.
The Man Behind the Taunt
El-Sayed spent the entire primary season making his radical alliances a feature, not a bug.
He appeared repeatedly at campaign events alongside Piker – the far-left Twitch streamer who said in 2019 that "America deserved 9/11, dude."
When Fox News pressed him on it, El-Sayed waved it off as "cancel culture."
El-Sayed wants to abolish ICE entirely.
https://twitter.com/RNCResearch/status/2089366005562696043?s=20
He wants Medicare-for-All.
He wants free college tuition.
He co-wrote the book – literally – on replacing America's private healthcare system with a government-run alternative.
And now he's on a Sunday morning show telling the President of the United States: "Come at us, bro."
Rogers Leads, But the Real Prize Is November
The first Fox News poll taken after Michigan's Democrat primary found Mike Rogers leading El-Sayed 51% to 47%.
Rogers has Trump's endorsement and spent decades in Congress.
El-Sayed has Bernie Sanders, AOC, and a streamer who justified Hamas.
That four-point lead sounds comfortable until you remember Rogers lost Michigan's 2024 Senate race by 19,000 votes.
Michigan is a genuine swing state – and El-Sayed is betting that turning himself into the anti-Trump candidate will bring out the coalition that barely beat Rogers last cycle.
He said it out loud on television: "He's going to turn me into the main character of the midterms, which I'm totally cool with."
That's not arrogance talking.
That's a strategy.
Why Republicans Should Welcome It
Democrats think the "make it about Trump" strategy is a magic wand – and they keep waving it at candidates who have no business holding it.
It worked in 2018 because suburban moderates were genuinely uneasy about Trump's first term and Democrats gave them someone safe to vote for.
El-Sayed is not that.
He is a candidate who wants to abolish the agency keeping fentanyl and child traffickers out of your neighborhood, campaigned alongside a man who said America deserved to be attacked, and whose father-in-law sits on the founding committee of an organization the federal government has linked to the Muslim Brotherhood.
You cannot run "I'm the anti-Trump candidate" when your own record looks like a counterterrorism briefing.
The RNC's Natalie Baldassarre put it plainly: "El-Sayed is a jihadi jester, and his record of supporting far-left policies, bootlicking terrorists, killing puppies, and cozying up to radicals who think America deserved 9/11 will be on full display."
Every Democrat running in a purple district is going to face one question this fall: Do you support the Michigan nominee?
El-Sayed just handed Republicans the rope and asked them to use it.
Trump didn't need an invitation to engage – he already posted a Truth Social comparison between himself and Melania versus El-Sayed and his wife with the caption "Two VERY DIFFERENT Americas."
El-Sayed called that an attack on his wife and dared Trump to keep going.
That's the tell.
A candidate with a winning message runs on his record – El-Sayed is auditioning for a role in someone else's show and calling it a strategy.
Republicans currently hold a 53-47 Senate majority and Democrats need Michigan badly.
They picked the one candidate whose background arms every Republican opponent in every swing district in the country.
Come at us, bro.
They already are.
Sources:
- CJ Womack, "El-Sayed taunts Trump, claims he's going to make him 'main character of the midterms,'" Fox News, August 17, 2026.
- "El-Sayed Shrugs Off Hasan Piker's 9/11 Comments," Daily Wire, August 2026.
- "Michigan Democrat defends appearing with Hasan Piker, distances himself from podcaster's controversial remarks," Fox News, April 7, 2026.
- "El-Sayed disavows Hasan Piker's controversial 9/11 comments," Washington Examiner, August 2026.
- "FOX NEWS POLL: A Senate battle looms in Michigan," Fox News, August 2026.