Republican and Democratic senators slammed the Trump administration’s nominee to be U.S. ambassador to Kuwait on Thursday over his social media history regarding Jews and the Holocaust, his kind words about former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and his record as mayor of Hamtramck, Mich.
A Yemeni-born, former Democrat who campaigned for U.S. President Donald Trump in 2024, Amer Ghalib faced repeated questions about whether he supports Israel’s existence as a Jewish state at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
“Do you agree or do you disagree with President Trump’s view that Israel is and should be the national home of the Jewish people?” said Sen. Dave McCormick (R-Pa.). “Just say ‘yes’ or ‘no.’”
“I think at this point, we have a peace plan that everybody in the region agrees on,” Ghalib said.
It took McCormick and Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Ct.) asking the question six times for Ghalib to say that he believes that Israel “can be a home for the Jews and the Arabs and the Muslims and the Christians as well.”
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), the panel’s ranking member, quoted Ghalib as saying that reports of rape and sexual violence that Hamas committed on Oct. 7 were “a campaign of lies and deception” and that there wasn’t “any evidence to support that these crimes occurred against victims.”
“When you met with my staff before this hearing, you didn’t deny that you said those statements, which, if that’s true, I appreciate that at least you were honest about it,” she said.
“But you reiterated that you believe there was no evidence of sexual violence against victims of Oct. 7,” she said. “You called Saddam Hussein a ‘martyr’ after Iran fired missiles at American troops in Iraq and liked a tweet that compared Jews to monkeys.”
Ghalib defended his history of “liking” inflammatory Facebook posts by claiming that he had a “bad habit” of acknowledging every reply to his posts with a “like,” regardless of whether he agreed with its content.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) expressed skepticism about that explanation.
“Did you say a word of disagreement, or was your only public statement a ‘like,’ which is the universal method of saying you like something and agree with it?” Cruz asked.
Ghalib claimed that he did reply to the comment about Jews being monkeys by writing “you can say this in your country, but not in this country.” He added that the original poster was “mentally challenged.”
He said that his comments about Saddam Hussein were in the context of an Iranian ballistic missile attack on U.S. forces in Iraq in January, 2020.
“I was angry that our military bases were attacked without a response, and in a moment of anger, I complimented Saddam because he kept Iran in check,” Ghalib said. “Probably that’s the only positive thing he did in his life.”
Cruz produced another post from Ghalib expressing support for members of the Muslim Brotherhood imprisoned in Egypt. That post also complimented the Iraqi dictator, who invaded Kuwait in 1990.
“They die to be etched on the pages of history, stained in positions that inspire generations and make millions of Brotherhood fans exposed to a global demonic campaign and unprecedented demonic media infliction,” Cruz quoted from an English translation of Ghalib’s post. “I have only seen such situations in the martyr Saddam Hussein and his companions.”
Ghalib declined repeatedly to say if he continues to believe that Hussein is a “martyr.”
“I can say ‘no.’ It wouldn’t matter,” Ghalib said. “He’s in God’s hands. He will get the treatment he deserves.”
The Hamtramck mayor was one of the leaders of Michigan’s “uncommitted” campaign that sought to nominate unpledged delegates during the 2024 Democratic primary in protest against President Joe Biden’s support for Israel in the war against Hamas.
Ghalib, who was elected in 2021 as the first Muslim mayor of the small city just outside Detroit, ultimately endorsed Trump in the 2024 general election. Trump nominated him to be U.S. ambassador to Kuwait in March.
At his confirmation hearing on Thursday, Ghalib denied responsibility for the Hamtramck City Council’s resolution endorsing the movement to boycott Israel. He said that the resolution was “drafted by a Jewish attorney.”
“It’s a city manager system in our city government,” Ghalib said. “I only vote if there is a tie. It wasn’t my idea. It wasn’t my initiative.”
According to Ghalib, Jewish Voice for Peace, the far-left anti-Israel activist group, approached the City Council and convinced it to vote unanimously for the resolution, which made Hamtramck the first city in the United States to officially boycott Israel.
Senators also quizzed Ghalib on social media posts seeming to indicate that he supported the Houthis hijacking the shipping vessel Galaxy Leader in 2023 and that he opposed the Abraham Accords normalizing relations between Israel and several Arab countries in 2020.
Sens. Cruz, Murphy and Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) all said explicitly that they would oppose Ghalib’s nomination.
“Mr. Ghalib, there may well be positions within the Trump administration that you are qualified to perform in that are unrelated to these issues that you have such passionate beliefs about,” Cruz said. “What I do not understand is how you could possibly serve as United States ambassador for President Trump in the Middle East.”
