Who are Assyrians and why did Trump mention them in Arizona? [Video]

PHOENIX —  It was Donald Trump’s mispronunciation that first caught attention.

“Also, we have many Asur-Asians in our room,” Trump said at a weekend rally in Prescott Valley, Arizona. “We have some incredible people in our room.”

Asur-Asians?

It turns out the former president was trying to shout out a small group of Assyrians supporting his campaign. They’d been given prominent seats right behind him, donning red “Assyrians for Trump” shirts as he spoke in a packed arena 90 minutes north of Phoenix.

Assyrians, a Christian indigenous group tracing their ancestry to ancient Mesopotamia in the modern Middle East, are a tiny minority community in the United States, but they happen to have significant communities in two of the seven swing states that will decide the Nov. 5 election, Michigan and Arizona. That could give …