Op-Ed: Zainab Zeb Khan: Trump’s Gulf visit shows why more Muslims are considering the GOP
President Donald Trump’s recent visit to the Middle East — marked by high-level meetings in Saudi Arabia and Qatar and bold talk of massive changes in Gaza — offered more than a glimpse into his foreign policy vision. It was a reminder of how his unconventional, deal-oriented approach to global affairs resonates not only overseas, but increasingly at home — especially with American Muslims.
That might surprise some. For years, media narratives have portrayed Muslim Americans as instinctively opposed to Trump and the GOP. But that caricature has never matched the real conversations happening in homes, mosques, and community centers across the country. And now we have data to back it up.
New polling commissioned by the Muslim American Leadership Alliance (MALA) and conducted by J.L. Partners shows a community in flux. Muslim Americans today are politically diverse: roughly one-third identify as Democrats, one-third as Republicans, and one-third as independents. And 38 percent say they plan to vote Republican in the 2026 midterms — a striking number for a group long presumed to march in lockstep with the left. This isn’t a one-off fluke; it’s a broader realignment, shaped by the same instincts that defined Trump’s presidency and now his renewed diplomatic efforts abroad.
Why is it happening? It starts with the issues. When asked what matters most to them, Muslim Americans ranked inflation, the economy, and border security at the top — well ahead of race, gender, or even foreign policy. These are the very areas where Trump’s America First agenda has stood out, both in rhetoric and in action. His call to eliminate taxes on tips — an idea that resonates with working-class voters across backgrounds—earned widespread approval in our survey. So did his efforts to control illegal immigration, increase energy production, and reduce the influence of ideological agendas in public life.
Even on Middle East policy, Muslim views are more nuanced than critics would have you believe. During his trip, Trump doubled down on his proposal to transform Gaza into a peaceful, prosperous territory — what he called a “Riviera of the Middle East.” While some may scoff at the ambition, more than a quarter of Muslim Americans polled said they supported the plan, and a slim majority said Trump’s approach was more likely to achieve peace than the Biden administration’s.
In this way, the former president’s Middle East diplomacy is more than a foreign affairs footnote — it’s a continuation of the same instincts that have made him surprisingly appealing to a growing share of Muslim voters: pragmatism, boldness, and a willingness to challenge failed orthodoxies.
This shift isn’t about party loyalty. It’s about the emergence of a Muslim electorate that refuses to be boxed in by progressive groupthink. Muslim Americans are becoming more vocal about their discomfort with cultural radicalism. A large majority oppose gender ideology in schools, support stricter immigration enforcement, and prioritize free speech over political correctness. In this landscape, Trump doesn’t need to chase identity politics. He just needs to keep doing what he’s already doing: leading on issues that matter.
For too long, American Muslim establishment organizations like the Council for American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) have claimed to speak for the whole community while advancing an ideological agenda that many everyday Muslim Americans don’t share. These groups shout about Palestine but say little about economic mobility, family formation, or the failure of city governments to deliver basic public safety. According to MALA’s polling, nearly 40 percent of Muslim Americans think advocacy groups talk too much about Palestine and not enough about domestic concerns facing the community.
Trump’s Middle East trip won’t be remembered for handshakes or headline-grabbing proposals alone. It may come to mark a deeper pivot — an inflection point in the political imagination of American Muslims. We are not a monolith. We are not locked into one party. And more and more of us are beginning to see the Republican Party — not in spite of Trump, but because of him — as a place where our concerns are heard and our values respected.
Zainab Zeb Khan is the President and Founder of the Muslim American Leadership Alliance (MALA).
