Lifelong Democrat Samra’a Luqman became a vocal backer of Donald Trump in 2024, helping to rally support for him among the pivotal Arab American community in Dearborn, Michigan, in the hope that he could end the Gaza fighting. Now, after Trump helped to broker a ceasefire deal, Luqman feels thrilled and a bit vindicated after months of backlash from neighbours angry over Trump’s support for Israel.

“It’s almost an ‘I told you so moment,’” said Luqman, who is Yemeni American. “No other president would have been able to force Bibi to approve the ceasefire,” she said, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Luqman and other Arab American Trump supporters who spoke to Reuters expressed guarded optimism about the recently announced agreement, but said they worried that Israel could violate the ceasefire, as it has done in the past in Gaza and Lebanon.

“We’re all holding our breath,” said Mike Hacham, a Lebanese American political consultant and Dearborn resident who campaigned hard for Trump in 2024. “I gotta give credit where credit is due … but this isn’t a peace deal. It’s just the end of a bloody war and those lives that were lost on the Israeli side and the Palestinian side aren’t going to be brought back.”

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