Trump backs staunchly anti-Muslim Florida lawmaker to run for US Congress 

United States President-elect Donald Trump is encouraging a Florida legislator who celebrated the killing of an American citizen by the Israeli military to run for Congress.

Trump said in a social media post on Sunday that if State Senator Randy Fine decides to seek a congressional seat in Florida, the state lawmaker would have his “Complete and Total Endorsement”.

Fine, who has a long history of anti-Muslim statements, sparked outrage earlier this year when he appeared to praise the killing of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, a US activist who was fatally shot by the Israeli military in the occupied West Bank.

“Throw rocks, get shot. One less #MuslimTerror ist. #FireAway,” Fine wrote in a social media post in September.

Eygi was taking part in a peaceful protest when she was shot. Both Israel and the outgoing administration of US President Joe Biden have dismissed her killing as an accident.

Fine’s post – which X (formerly Twitter) found to be in violation of its violent speech policy – is part of a long list of inflammatory, anti-Palestinian and Islamophobic comments by the state legislator.

“Fine is a friend to no one except fascism,” Rasha Mubarak, a Palestinian-American activist from Florida, told Al Jazeera.

“Trump’s endorsement signals a deepening alignment with the violent, fascist elements within the capitalist class, whose interests are served by sowing division and perpetuating the dominance of imperialism.”

Fine often proclaims that the US has a “Muslim problem”. In 2021, when told by a social media user that Palestinians were being forced out of their homes by Israel, he responded with: “#BlowThemUp”.

According to the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), he also sent a private message to a Florida resident saying: “​​Go blow yourself up!”

Two years earlier, Fine referred to Jews who support Palestinian rights as “Judenrat” – Nazi collaborators.

Last year, Fine argued that fear of Muslims is justified.

“While many Muslims are not terrorists, they are the radicals, not the mainstream,” he wrote in a post on X. “Now is the time to speak truth, not bathe in political correctness that will kill us.”

Fine’s office did not immediately respond to Al Jazeera’s response for comment.

Over the years, CAIR has called on Florida lawmakers to censure and penalise Fine, including over his recent comments on Eygi’s killing.

“We struggle to think of another time in modern American history when an elected official openly celebrated the murder of an American by a foreign government and encouraged more such killing,” CAIR’s deputy executive director, Edward Ahmed Mitchell, said in May.

“Randy Fine has made it clear where his priorities lie, and it is not with the American people. We urge the Florida House of Representatives to censure him for this hateful, un-American rant.”

Despite celebrating the killing of an American woman by a foreign military, Trump described Fine as an “America First Patriot”.

He called on him to run for the seat of Congressman Mike Waltz, who will leave his seat to serve in the White House as national security adviser.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis will call for a special election to fill the vacancy next year.

Fine, who previously served in Florida’s House of Representatives and was recently elected to the state’s Senate, has not announced his candidacy, but he welcomed Trump’s statement.

“It would be the honor of my life to be one of your footsoldiers,” he wrote, addressing the incoming president. “Your confidence is overwhelming and I will have news to share soon!”

Trump himself has regularly spread anti-Muslim rhetoric, including saying that the Quran, Islam’s holy book, teaches a “very negative vibe” and proclaiming that “Islam hates us”.

He also imposed a travel ban on several Muslim-majority countries during his first term as president.

But this year, the former president softened his tone as he courted Arab and Muslim voters, promising to bring “peace” to the Middle East.

Trump’s endorsement of Fine as well as some of his staunchly pro-Israel cabinet picks highlights the depth of his alliance with far-right forces.