HAMTRAMCK, Mich. (WXYZ) — Hamtramck Mayor Amer Ghalib made international headlines after he endorsed former President Donald Trump over the weekend.
Ghalib posted on social media his endorsement, days after Ghalib met with Trump in Flint.
Hamtramck, a city within the City of Detroit that has around 28,000 residents, is reportedly the first city in the U.S. to have an all-Muslim city council and mayor.
On Monday, Ghalib spoke to 7 News Detroit Anchor Carolyn Clifford about why he endorsed Trump.
Watch her interview with Ghalib in the video below
He said that Trump's campaign has visited multiple times and Ghalib requested that he meet Trump in person to consider an endorsement.
He also said that he was disappointed about the foreign policy of the Bien administration, and after voting uncommitted in the primary, they didn't make any efforts to get his support.
"President Trump and I may not agree on everything, but I know he is a man of principles," Ghalib wrote in the post on Facebook announcing the endorsement.
Ghalib also told us that he thinks almost 90% of his constituents support his decision to endorse Trump.
"I was very careful in my statement because we do not agree on everything. I know that and it's very hard for him to, you know, to do everything we want," Ghalib told us. "I understand he has to balance between his relationships with other groups, but we have high hope that he will end the chaos in the Middle East, like he said, and you know, and end the wars everywhere around the world, that's his goal."
According to Ghalib, "there are many" reasons why he won't vote for Vice President Kamala Harris.
"There's so much support, not only from Hamtramck, but also other cities in Wayne County, and even some people outside of the state are expressing their support for my decision. It's going to be the beginning of a new era," Ghalib said.
He said that he knows his decision doesn't reflect all of the Muslim and Arab-American community, but he has been getting phone calls from people who were undecided or didn't feel good supporting Harris, and that they supported Ghalib.
"I expect my decision will have a major effect on so many voters," Ghalib said.
"Does it bother you at all when you hear the former president, Donald Trump, speak in the manner that he does about immigrants coming into this country?" Carolyn asked.
"You know, about the illegal immigrants, I think there's some valid reason for him to talk about that. About restricting the legal immigration, I may disagree with him about that. I know that Yemen was in the ban before, which is the country I came from. I hope that he will consider that the Yemeni people. The Yemeni neighborhoods in the United States are some of the safest, the crime rates are some of the lowest," he said.
