Michigan’s Rima Fakih has made Miss USA history by being the first Arab-American to win the title.  The Lebanese immigrant said she knew by looking at Donald Trump that she had won:

“That’s the same look that he gives them when he says, ‘You’re hired,’”

According to the Los Angeles Times:

Fakih was born into a powerful Shiite family in a village in southern Lebanon that was heavily bombed during the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war. But she and her sister said the family celebrates both Muslim and Christian faiths and prefer to be referred to as Lebanese, Arabs or Arab-Americans.

She emigrated to the USA as a baby and was raised in New York where she attended a Catholic school.  In 2003 she moved to Michigan.

Her sister Rana Faqih says of the win:

We’re very proud as Lebanese Americans and as Lebanese that Rima reached this point despite all the pressures and stereotyping about Arabs and Lebanese. She made it. She fought and reached her goal,”

Update:  My bad.  Gossip Cop has reported that Rima Fakih is NOT the first Arab-American to win the Miss USA title as Julie Hayek back in 1983 was the first one. My sincere apologies for any inconvenience caused by this but I can barely form sentences on the best of days.  :)

Pictures after the break

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Photos:  Judy Eddy/WENN