Blue Collar Joe Biden is in a whole lot of trouble if he has to reassure the labor unions that he still loves them, and is dodging a very loud Arab Muslim community at the same time.

Michigan is a battleground state, and one that Biden won in the 2020 election. This time around, the numbers are much tighter. The last two Morning Consult polls in Michigan show Trump up 5 and 6 points, which is not good news for Team Biden. Old Joe has already sided with/sold out to the labor unions, being the first sitting president to ever walk a picket line last September. The UAW has officially given Biden their endorsement, surprising exactly no one. However, Donald Trump met with the head of the Teamsters Union. Given the pinch that the average American worker is feeling due to inflation and the economy, there are no guarantees that Biden will walk away with a majority of the union vote this November.

Which means it’s time for Biden to start kissing some union butt in Michigan – which is what he did. The problem in Michigan, though, are the very angry protestors who want to give Joe a piece of their minds.

Top Michigan Democrats have pressed Biden for months to spend more time campaigning in their state, but officials have been worried about his visit being overshadowed or interrupted by demonstrators. On Thursday, Biden officials took steps to keep his visit more secretive than usual. They did not publicize the location of his events, and the president’s motorcade avoided protesters by using side streets.

But the visit was not entirely free of confrontation. While Biden was holding a political meeting at a restaurant, a group of protesters chanted “Shame on you,” “Genocide Joe” and “How many kids did you kill today?” The last phrase echoed chants that were aimed at President Lyndon B. Johnson during the Vietnam War.

“President Biden met today with some of the 130,0000 (sic) UAW Michigan workers who endorsed him last week — and to assure them he’ll continue fighting against Donald Trump’s historically anti-worker agenda that closed factories, shipped jobs overseas, and handed the super-rich tax giveaways,” Lauren Hitt, a spokesperson for Biden’s campaign, said in a statement. “The President’s fight for higher wages and lower costs for middle class families is central to this election.”

She added: “Voters can expect to see the President make many trips to Michigan between now and Election Day, and we look forward to reaching voters across the state.”

Still, the trip highlighted Biden’s dilemma when it comes to Michigan. It is a swing state critical to his reelection hopes, and he will have to court its voters and make regular visits to capture its electoral votes. But the anger of its Arab community means every visit is likely to be accompanied by protests and demonstrations.

Remember, Michigan is Rashida Tlaib (D-Hamas) territory. And some of those community leaders are looking to prove a point.

In Michigan, which has one of the nation’s largest Arab American and Muslim populations, with about 300,000 people who claim ancestry from the Middle East or North Africa, the war in Gaza has consumed the community. Many have turned on the president as a result of his unwavering support for Israel and what they see as a lack of empathy for the Palestinians, leaders and residents say. Some Michigan Arabs and Muslims have launched an “Abandon Biden” campaign, part of a broader national effort encouraging members of their community not to vote for Biden.

The Biden campaign did not answer questions about why the president did not engage with members of the Arab American or Muslim communities during his visit Thursday.

Democrats have long taken the Muslim Arab vote for granted. Are they really mad enough to defect from Biden?

Biden won 64 percent of the Muslim vote in 2020, and Trump won 35 percent, according to exit polling by The Associated Press.

But Biden’s support among Arab American voters plunged to just 17 percent in October, just after the war started, with 25 percent in a poll conducted by the Arab American Institute saying they weren’t sure who they would vote for if the election were held then.

Some activists in Michigan reportedly declined to meet last week with Biden’s campaign manager, Julie Chavez Rodriguez, when she visited the state.

It’s not like the Arab communities will actually go vote for Donald Trump, who was arguably the most pro-Israel president the country has ever had. If Michigan’s Arab community is truly in thrall to Hamas and Rashida Tlaib, then they will likely vote for a third party candidate like Cornel West, or just not vote for president at all. Is that enough to tip the state to Donald Trump? Team Biden is definitely worried about it.

Biden is already wobbly on Israel, and is now trying to figure out a way to recognize a Palestinian state… which has no government that has held a recent election, or any way of governing itself. Apparently, Secretary of State Blinken is looking into it, but nothing would happen until the war is over. Does Team Biden really think this, plus an executive order of financial sanctions and visa bans against four people in the West Bank, is really going to placate the Arab American voters of Michigan, or the Hamas apologists on college campuses everywhere? I find that unlikely, but the media has bigger concerns on their mind than digging into the complexities of the voting public in Michigan. They’re REALLY examining the pressing questions of the 2024 campaign season.

What will be the Biden campaign rally intro music?

Bruce? REM? Kygo? …. fight song?!?!?https://t.co/0oMXWqS4rH

— Sam Stein (@samstein) February 1, 2024

If Joe misses a step on a flight of stairs again, I think they have to go with Queen’s “Another One Bites The Dust.” Or maybe those chanting protestors will end up being the soundtrack of the Biden campaign. It would certainly serve him right.

Featured image: original Victory Girls art by Darleen Click