Donald Trump does not specifically pick out communities to demonize, his lead foreign policy adviser said in an exclusive interview published Monday by the right-wing news outlet the Daily Caller.
The wide-ranging interview is part one of two with Walid Phares, a former adviser to Mitt Romney with a controversial past, in which Phares defends Trump’s call for a “so called ‘Muslim ban’.”
TheDCNF: For many people there is great unease with Mr. Trump’s proposal of temporarily banning all Muslims from entering the U.S. Is such a ban in your opinion actually realistic and enforceable? Do you really think it will be effective in terrorism prevention?
Phares: This issue of the so-called “Muslim ban”
TheDCNF: Excuse me Dr. Phares, that’s what he himself called for, “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.”
Phares: Well, let’s understand what he meant and where he is on this issue. What he meant was, after the repetitive attacks on Europe and the U.S., it is clear that the Obama administration, the Hillary campaign and unfortunately, many of our European partners, do not have the answer or correct methodology for vetting people coming in from abroad.
Mr. Trump has looked at what specialists and very renowned researchers have been raising in congressional testimony at hearings. The issue is, if you don’t have a measure for detecting who is who, and who is a jihadist and who is not, then we will keep having more bloodshed.
Mr. Trump’s reaction with this policy was genuine and symbolic for provoking that debate on a need for a foreign policy and counter-terrorism strategy shift. He is telling the American public that he is going to change that policy. So, he suggested that our current political leaders implement a shutdown. However, the important part of the proposal is, “until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.” It is clear they have yet to figure it out, and that’s what resonated with voters who want change.
Phares says Trump’s blatantly racist and discriminatory language was meant to provoke debate. If Trump was trying to center the discussion around religion as a means of violence, then counterterrorism experts say he is having the wrong debate
“The ban would be wrong in terms of American values and strategy,” Matt Olsen, former director of the National Counterterrorism Center under President Obama, told Katie Couric last month. “I personally wouldn’t think it’s appropriate from just a strategic standpoint to support a policy that alienates the people we rely on to help us, and that is the Muslim American community.”
In the interview, the Daily Caller pushed back against Phares and asked why he is singling out a group of people based solely on their religion.
Phares: Look, Donald Trump is an inclusive businessman who has never looked at one community and said, “I’m going to demonize this community.” That’s why the charges of being a racist or an Islamophobe do not apply. He’s simply looking at the problem from a national security perspective. But lately, he has been adapting his position. The more he is informed of the subject, the more he is adapting. And he said, we are ready to discuss those issues which need to be discussed. Once he will start getting intelligence briefings, he will know more about what the problem is and how to handle it so that when he is elected, he will know how to use the vast resources of the federal government.
Phares’ perception is certainly not shared by the Latino or Muslim communities in the United States, especially after Trump did not adapt but further entrenched his proposal for a Muslim ban after the Orlando shooting.
The only solace such communities can take is that even Republicans are failing to rally behind their presidential candidate. “In the newspaper coverage of the speech, I looked to find a single Republican defending Trump’s position,” Dan Drezner wrote in the Washington Post after a foreign policy speech delivered by Trump late last month. “I failed.”