Day 1: Muslim Ban Language Dropped From Trump Website
“Get ready, Trumpsters. He doesn’t need you any more.”
President-elect Donald Trump’s proposal to ban Muslims from entering the country has disappeared from his campaign’s website.
Trump put forth the proposal to temporarily ban all members of the Islamic faith last December in the wake of terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif. He later walked back the proposal, but it remained a part of his online campaign literature.
The URL of the statement now redirects to the home page of the campaign’s website.
Google’s cache feature shows that the statement calling for the “shutdown” was on the website as recently as Monday.
And according to the Internet Archive, the link started redirecting to the home page shortly before midnight on Tuesday, just hours before The Associated Press projected the Republican nominee as the winner of the presidential race.
Multiple spokespeople for the Trump campaign did not respond when asked about the statement’s removal.
“Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on,” the statement read, citing Pew Research polls that indicate “there is great hatred towards Americans” among Muslims.
The statement also cited a poll from the Center for Security Policy that said sizable portions of Muslims agree that violence is justified under jihad and that Americans should be able to abide by Sharia law.
The Southern Poverty Law Center has called the Center for Security Policy a “conspiracy-oriented mouthpiece for the growing anti-Muslim movement in the United States.”
“Until we are able to determine and understand this problem and the dangerous threat it poses, our country cannot be the victims of horrendous attacks by people that believe only in Jihad, and have no sense of reason or respect for human life,” Trump said in the statement.
“If I win the election for President, we are going to Make America Great Again.”
Later in the campaign, Trump and his surrogates sought to walk back the Muslim ban.
The president-elect later called for a ban on immigration from countries with “a proven history of terrorism.” He has also suggested an “extreme vetting” process for anyone entering the country.
The URL works now.