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The niece of the late terrorist leader Osama bin Laden has said that her support for US President Donald Trump has earned her more public disdain than her familial link to the al-Qaeda founder, even destroying friendships.

While Noor bin Ladin – who spells her surname differently from her deceased uncle – said the public response to a pro-Trump column she penned last month has been “overwhelmingly wonderful,”  she noted that, in her private life, her support for Trump has ruined relationships and resulted in scorn from those she considered friends.

“I have lost a few so-called friends for backing Donald Trump over the past five years,” she wrote in an article for the Spectator this week. “Coming out publicly was a step too far for some, and the vitriol I received for stating my political beliefs revealed unflattering sides to certain characters.”

From a sociological standpoint, it is quite interesting that in some elitist circles being pro-Trump has caused me more grief than carrying the name bin Ladin.

Published last month, Bin Ladin’s column offered a strong endorsement for a second Trump term, while echoing Trumpian language to warn of efforts by “globalists, [the] Deep State,” and “the swamp” to erode “basic individual rights and freedoms” enshrined in the US Constitution.

Her Thursday article reiterated that support, hailing Trump’s more aggressive policies toward China and Iran, as well as his strengthening of ties with Israel, adding that he nonetheless managed to “[keep] America out of new wars.” She also expressed shock over a wave of “gleeful comments devoid of compassion” on social media following Trump’s coronavirus diagnosis, observing that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un “showed more sympathy than many of the president’s detractors.”

Though she was born and currently resides in Switzerland, bin Ladin is an occasional visitor to the US and a close observer of American conservative politics, frequently seen donning a red MAGA hat. She has declared Fox’s Tucker Carlson as her favorite news pundit, and has taken swipes at Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar and other lawmakers in the progressive Democrat ‘Squad,’ saying they “actively hate” the United States.

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