‘Only way you deal with bullies’: El-Sayed makes case for taking on Trump, shares strategy with Dems
Abdul El-Sayed absolutely destroys Donald Trump. Q: You recently called President Trump the dumbest effing guy who ever was president. AES: True. Q: You've also said Democrats should drop the decorum and treat the president as the unserious fool that he is. AES: True. Q: Why are you taking that approach? AES: Because he's a bully alongside being a narcissist. And the only way you deal with bullies is to stand up to them. Bullies don't bully you because they necessarily care for the thing you have. They bully you because they like to bully you because it makes them feel strong. And the way you take on a bully is to bully back. Because then they learn that this does not make them feel strong. It makes them feel weak and they don't like to feel weak. So they back off. And the more you let a bully get away with bullying, the more they signal to everybody else that this person cannot be stood up to. And so I think it's important for us to stand up to him.
— Reggie B. (@reggiebblue) November 12, 2026
WASHINGTON, DC: Democratic Senator-elect from Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed defended, defended his blunt approach to fighting back against President Donald Trump’s alleged bullying, arguing that Democrats should stop worrying about decorum and stand up to the president.
Abdul El-Sayed will become the first Muslim American elected to the US Senate after securing a decisive victory in an intensely contested and controversy-marked midterm race. El-Sayed defeated Trump-backed Republican Mike Rogers by a significant margin, despite some Democrats rallying behind Rogers instead of El-Sayed.
El-Sayed shares strategy with Dems to deal with Trump’s bullying
Michigan Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed appeared on NPR’s video podcast Newsmakers, released on Thursday, November 12, where he talked about a range of subjects, including his way to deal with the president’s alleged bullying.
El-Sayed stood by his description of Trump as the “dumbest effing guy who ever was president.”
In his series of blistering attacks against President Trump, El-Sayed called him a “bully” and advised Democrats to treat him as an “unserious fool” and stop giving him “decorum.”
Host Leila Fadel reframed El-Sayed’s past remarks about the president’s behavior into questions and asked if he had said that “Democrats should drop the decorum and treat the president as the unserious fool that he is.”
To which El-Sayed replied in the affirmative, saying, “True.”
The host then asked why El-Sayed was taking this approach, to which he replied that Trump was a “bully” and a “narcissist” and that this was how one should deal with “bullies.”
“Because he's a bully alongside being a narcissist. And the only way you deal with bullies is to stand up to them.”
Further continuing his argument, El-Sayed added, “And the way you take on a bully is to bully back. Because then they learn that this does not make them feel strong. It makes them feel weak and they don't like to feel weak. So they back off.”
El-Sayed says Americans ‘temporarily’ put trust in Democrats
During the same Podcast interview, Abdul El-Sayed said had "temporarily" put their trust and hope in Democrats during the midterm elections. He then argued that if Democrats don't act boldly when they take control of Congress, he is concerned they will lose that trust.
El-Sayed further said that Americans think Democrats need new leadership.
"I deeply appreciate Senator Schumer," El-Sayed told the podcast Newsmakers.
"But this is about leadership from the American public, and if all we do is kind of go back to what we've been doing in a moment where we've been given a mandate, I worry that we may not earn our mandate."
El-Sayed said he wants Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., to challenge Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., during the December leadership elections.
