One lucky Muslim comedian found himself sitting next to Eric Trump in first class yesterday, for a six and a half hour flight to Glasgow. Trump’s father, US president-elect Donald Trump, has called for a ban on travel to the US by Muslims, and his surrogates have discussed implementing a national registry of Muslim citizens.
Mohammad “Mo” Amer, who is best-known for his work with comedy troupe “Allah made me funny,” described Trump’s seat next to him as a gift from god. He had booked the Dec. 1 flight last minute, and received an unexpected seat upgrade.
Amer immediately took a selfie with Trump, posting it to his social media accounts with the caption: “Sometimes God just sends you the material.”
In a telephone interview with Quartz, Amer said he immediately introduced himself to Trump as a Muslim-American comedian and referenced rumors of a potential nationwide Muslim registry:
I looked at him immediately and said ‘look man, FYI I’m not doing that shit.’ He’s like ‘what?’ I said, ‘I’m not going to get a Muslim ID number, bullshit I’m not doing it.
“That’s not gonna happen,” Trump replied, according to Amer. He added, “Come on man, you can’t believe everything that you read.”
Amer quickly posted on Facebook: “Good news guys Muslims will not have to check in and get IDs. That’s what I was told.”
Amer says he and Trump went on to chat about comedy and politics. According to Amer, Trump asked him to “take it easy” with the jokes about his family, while Amer responded that it was his job to comment on absurdities in the world around him.
“He told me to take it easy on [the Trumps],” recalls Amer. “He told me to tell [Dave] Chappelle to take it easy on them,” referring to the fellow comedian’s scathing Saturday Night Live monologue about Trump last month.
“I was like, you can’t do that, that’s not what we do,” says Amer. “It’s our job essentially to scrutinize the king.”
Amer was headed to Scotland to launch his Human Appeal Comedy Charity Tour. He says Trump was traveling for his father’s golf business.
Amer described the president-elect’s son as ”nonchalant” and “very disconnected” from concerns about stereotyping and racism that Donald Trump’s campaign has fueled among US minorities. He was, however, impressed with his seatmate’s sweater, which featured an embroidered Trump crest. “Wouldn’t you? If you had a crest of your family?” he says. “I don’t want to scrutinize that too much, but if I had a dope-ass logo, I’d pimp that too.”