Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for Michigan’s US Senate seat, has challenged President Donald Trump to take a lie-detector test after Trump suggested he should undergo metal-detector screening before entering the Senate. The response escalates an increasingly personal campaign ahead of the 3 November election.
Speaking on Thursday, 29 October, El-Sayed offered to pass through a metal detector every day if Trump agreed to take a polygraph test once.
“I’ve got nothing to hide; you’ve got so much to hide,” he said.
A pointed counter-challenge
El-Sayed said his first questions would concern Jeffrey Epstein and whether Trump had won the 2020 presidential election. The references brought Trump’s past association with Epstein and his repeated claims about the election into the exchange.
Joe Biden won the 2020 election, receiving 306 electoral votes to Trump’s 232, according to the certified results recorded by the US National Archives.
El-Sayed’s proposed exchange used Trump’s security-screening remark to raise questions about the president’s own credibility, turning an attack on the candidate into a challenge directed back at the White House.
Religion becomes a campaign flashpoint
Trump made the metal-detector remark during a rally in Port Huron, Michigan, on Sunday, 25 October. He also called El-Sayed a “jihadist” and questioned his loyalty to the United States.
El-Sayed, a physician and former Detroit health official, has repeatedly rejected allegations linking him to extremist groups. The Associated Press reported that there is no evidence of an affiliation between him and the Muslim Brotherhood, which Trump has alleged.
The president’s comments drew criticism from Bishara Bahbah, a founder of Arab Americans for Trump, who described the remarks as racist and unacceptable.
Michigan race carries national stakes
El-Sayed faces Republican Mike Rogers in a contest that could help determine control of the Senate. If elected, he would become the country’s first Muslim senator.
At Thursday’s Kalamazoo rally, where Senator Elissa Slotkin also appeared, El-Sayed argued that voters’ concerns centred on groceries, fuel and healthcare. He accused Republicans of using his religion to divert attention from those issues, placing the confrontation with Trump alongside his broader campaign message about living costs.
NewsHub Finance | Politics | 30 October 2026
Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for Michigan’s US Senate seat, has challenged President Donald Trump to take a lie-detector test after Trump suggested he should undergo metal-detector screening before entering the Senate. The response escalates an increasingly personal campaign ahead of the 3 November election.
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