Donald Trump

US Republican president-elect and billionaire businessman.

Links with counterjihad movement

Policy proposal to 'ban all Muslims'

In December 2015, Trump proposed in a speech to 'ban' the entry into the U.S to all Muslims, referring to the refugee crisis . As a justification for it, he used a survey that was created by the Center for Security Policy's Frank Gaffney, claiming to show that many US-based Muslims were willing to use violence against other Americans and that even more wanted the option to be governed by Sharia. The survey turned out to be 'bogus'.

Appoints foreign policy adviser with strong counterjihad movement links

Of the eight people appointed as advisors to 2016 candidates Donald Trump and Senator Ted Cruz, all have connections to Center for Security Policy and half hold ranking positions within the group.

• Walid Phares: Lebanese-American 'counter-terrorism expert'. Mother Jones revealed that Phares, 'was a high ranking political official in a [Christian] sectarian religious militia responsible for massacres during Lebanon's brutal, 15-year civil war.' He was a guest on an ACT! for America series in 2011 and has spoken at several events organized by the Center for Security Policy (CSP).

• Senator Jeff Sessions – described as 'one of the most outspoken anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim federal officials' by the Southern Poverty Law Center. He received the “Daring the Odds” award from the David Horowitz Freedom Center for his efforts to prevent undocumented youth from receiving temporary status in the United States in 2014. In September 2015, Sessions attacked Obama’s plan to resettle Syrian refugees in the US, stating, 'it has also been reported that 3 in 4 of those seeking relocation from the Middle East are not refugees but economic migrants from many countries.'

• Joseph E. Schmitz – Senior Fellow with the Center for Security Policy. He spent three years as the Pentagon’s Inspector General before leaving under a barrage of scrutiny. According to the Los Angeles Times, 'Schmitz slowed or blocked investigations of senior Bush administration officials, spent taxpayer money on pet projects and accepted gifts that may have violated ethics guidelines.' He is a co-author of two CSP reports: 'Shariah: The Threat to America,' and 'The Secure Freedom Strategy: A Plan for Victory Over the Global Jihad Movement.'

Other advisors

Kris Kobach: Only a few days after Trump was elected in 2016, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, considered for the post of attorney general at the time, said in an interview that Trump’s policy advisers had discussed drafting a proposal for his consideration to reinstate a registry for immigrants from Muslim countries. Kobach was reported as a key member of Trump's transition team, and had already helped design the registry program, known as the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System, while serving in George W. Bush’s Department of Justice after the September 11 attacks. But the program was abandoned in 2011 after it was deemed redundant by Homeland Security and denounced by civil rights groups for unfairly targeting immigrants from Muslim-majority nations. Trump himself said he supports 'extreme vetting' of Muslims entering the United States as a national security measure, and that once he took office, he would remove immigrants with criminal records who are in the country illegally.. Kobach also said the new administration could push ahead rapidly on construction of a U.S.-Mexico border wall without seeking immediate congressional approval, and that they would attempt to overturn Barack Obama’s 2012 executive action that has granted temporary deportation relief and work permits to more than 700,000 undocumented people.

Kobach already has a history of drafting laws and pursuing legal actions to crack down on illegal immigration. He helped draft an Arizona law that required state and local officials to check the immigration status of individuals stopped by police in 2010, before parts of it were deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. In Kansas, 2013, he pushed a law requiring voters to provide proof-of-citizenship documents, such as birth certificates or U.S. passports. A U.S. appeals court blocked that law after challenges from civil rights groups. Regarding his views, he believes that illegal immigrants in some cases should be deported before a conviction if they have been charged with a violent crime.

Affiliations

• Frank Gaffney