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Twenty-five years after the Sept. 11 attacks, 9/11 is again being used as a political weapon in the U.S.,this time in the 2026 midterms. Spanish-language social media content reviewed by DDIA this week shows some Republican politicians and partisan media invoking the attacks to portray Muslim and progressive Democratic candidates as anti-American, sympathetic to terrorism, or part of a broader Islamist threat. Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed has emerged as the clearest target of the attacks.

At the Republican midterm convention in Dallas, president Donald Trump and other GOP leaders repeatedly linked him to the claim supposedly said by El-Sayed that Americans “deserved 9/11” or that 3,000 people “deserved to die.” Conservative Spanish-language outlet La Derecha Diario amplified the attack on X and Instagram, falsely framing El-Sayed as evidence of the “advance of Islamism” inside the Democratic Party. 

In a 2021 post (for the 20-year anniversary of the attacks), El-Sayed mourned the nearly 3,000 people killed and thousands injured in the attacks while also remembering those killed in the wars that followed, but Republicans were up for a clear distortion.

Sen. Ted Cruz, for example, took one step further, invoking the fall of the Twin Towers to warn voters of what he called a “red-green alliance” between communists and Islamists, expanding the acts beyond El-Sayed. Cruz portrayed figures like the Democrat candidate as part of a political movement hostile to Christians, Jews, capitalism, the Constitution and the United States.

And this hate speech can have a serious impact. At least one person, a man from Fort Worth, TX,was charged with threatening to kill Talarico. His arrest was amplified by a Spanish-language BlueSky account posting from the Dallas convention.

It is relevant to note that right-leaning journalist Tucker Carlson has publicly positioned himself against the religious attacks, driving some online engagement that deserves further observation. An initial analysis of 30 comments left under a Florida-based right-leaning UniVistaTV Facebook post about the topic revealed that roughly 77% directly criticized Carlson for defending El-Sayed, calling him “crazy,” a “traitor,” a “Judas” or accusing him of abandoning Republicans. About 27% of the comments alleged that Carlson might have been paid, bought or otherwise financially compromised. The journalist is not the only influencer drifting away from Trump.

Methodology: DDIA collected and analyzed social media and messaging apps raw data using NewsWhip and Open Measures. The data collection used to back this newsletter took place between Sep 7-15, 2026. All searches were conducted in Spanish and English.