Trump Goes Viral With Second Mohammed Joke In Two Weeks

President Donald Trump reached for the name “Mohammed” again at a Georgia campaign rally, this time folding it into a joke about Middle Eastern names.

Speaking Friday to supporters inside a hangar at Dalton Municipal Airport, the president told the crowd that anyone unsure of a name from the region could guess and usually land it, according to Reuters.

“You know, I took a lot of heat for calling him Mohammed,” Trump said. “I don’t care. I’m the president of the United States. I can call you whatever the hell I want. I can call you whatever I want, Mohammed.”

President Trump on calling U.S. Senate Candidate Abdul El-Sayed (D-MI) ‘Mohammed’: "I don’t care, I’m the President of the United States. I can call you whatever the hell I want." https://t.co/6SG6LMSDdz

Muslim advocacy groups have long accused the president of demeaning their communities, and a report this year from the Council on American-Islamic Relations linked rising anti-Muslim sentiment partly to his immigration enforcement, according to Reuters. (RELATED: Don’t Count Out A Republican Overperformance In November)

Nine days earlier, Trump had aimed the same name at Michigan’s Democratic Senate nominee the night before a debate, according to the Associated Press (AP). He called the candidate “Mohammed El-Sayed” and branded him a “RADICAL Extremist, Terrorist Sympathizer” who “goes back to the days of the Jihad,” according to a post on Truth Social.

Abdul El-Sayed, whose first name is Abdulrahman, answered the next morning. “He knows my name is Abdul. He says it everyday,” El-Sayed wrote on X. The candidate is a Muslim physician born in Michigan to Egyptian immigrant parents, according to The Hill.

He knows my name is Abdul. He says it everyday. But he’s not just attacking me. He’s attacking all of us. He thinks so low of us. He thinks he can use my name and my faith to distract us from the suffering his policies are inflicting on us at the pump, at the grocery store, and at the doctor’s office. He thinks we don’t know any better. It’s time for change.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called the president’s language bigoted, according to The Hill.

El-Sayed faces Republican Mike Rogers, who carries Trump’s endorsement, for the seat being vacated by retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters, according to AP. The two held a contentious first debate Oct. 8 in Grand Rapids and will meet again Oct. 21. El-Sayed has trailed in advertising money by close to two-to-one.