The campaign for Michigan Senate Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed is drawing criticism for a recent attack on White House aide Natalie Harp, which followed a similar criticism of Second Lady Usha Vance.
On Thursday, El-Sayed's campaign posted a doctored image on X, formerly Twitter. The image altered the official White House webpage for First Lady Melania Trump, replacing her name with Natalie Harp's. This post was made in the context of President Donald Trump renaming Lake Ontario to Lake America during a trade dispute with Canada.
The campaign's post asked, "If we’re just renaming everything now… When are we making this official?"
Conservatives on social media quickly condemned the post. GOP communicator Matt Whitlock called it a "weak, phoned-in effort" and questioned the campaign's focus, stating, "Weird how much time this campaign spends talking about other people‘s wives. When Abdul’s not talking about (and clearly thinking a lot about) the vice president and his wife, apparently he’s thinking about President Trump and his wife?"
Journalist James David Dickson commented, "That boy Abdul is drowning, and his team keeps throwing him bricks." The conservative advocacy group Michigan Forward also criticized the post, calling it "gross."
Political commentator Melik Abdul labeled the action "a lil more sexism and misogyny from the Left."
Harp, a long-time Trump supporter, joined the second Trump administration as an aide after crediting the "right to try" order during his first term for saving her life following a battle with bone cancer. Recently, she has been the subject of increased media attention and online speculation regarding her relationship with President Trump.
This incident follows another controversial post from El-Sayed's campaign the previous weekend. In response to Vice President JD Vance's comments about El-Sayed's candidacy, the campaign invoked Second Lady Usha Vance, who is of Indian descent. El-Sayed wrote on X, "So do we think JD is taking Usha with him back in time to meet Papaw, or no…"
Fox News Digital reached out to El-Sayed’s campaign for comment.