GOP frontrunner Donald Trump’s proposal to ban Muslims from entering the United States is racist, discriminatory, and a betrayal of American values. It’s also very popular among Republican voters.
Exit polls conducted by ABC News on Super Tuesday show that more than 60 percent of GOP voters in five states favor Trump’s proposed ban. In Alabama and Arkansas, that figure rises to nearly 80 percent. Trump won seven of the day’s 11 state primaries.
That kind of support is generating alarm.
“When you open the door to defining what religion isn’t sufficiently American, does anyone think it’ll stop with Muslims?” says Haroon Moghul, a fellow at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding. “Trump himself is dangerous as a candidate, but his proposals now open the door to people who are even more dangerous.”
Source: ABC News
Trump first announced his proposal to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the United States last December. In a statement issued at the time by his campaign, Trump promised a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States” until the government “can figure out what is going on.” He later reiterated this proposal in the face of public outcry, emphasizing in a speech that his policy of banning Muslims would continue “until we find out what the hell is going on.”
And his position now enjoys widespread support, even among Republicans who voted for other candidates. Many of those who supported Trump’s proposal actually voted for his main rival, Ted Cruz.
Even “establishment” candidates like Marco Rubio have gone on record describing discrimination against Muslim-Americans as a “fiction.”
And it’s not confined to the Republicans. A Fox News poll this December showed that even among Democrats there was broad support for the measure — as long as it was not identified with Trump himself. Some 45 percent of those polled favored banning Muslims when the plan was not identified as originating with Trump. When Trump’s name was mentioned however, support dropped to 25 percent.
“When people in positions of power articulate extreme opinions, they make it even easier for ideas on the margins to become respectable,” says Moghul. “In the eyes of some, policies like these could even start to look desirable.”
IT’S EVEN WORSE THAN WE THOUGHT.
What we’re seeing right now from Donald Trump is a full-on authoritarian takeover of the U.S. government.
This is not hyperbole.
Court orders are being ignored. MAGA loyalists have been put in charge of the military and federal law enforcement agencies. The Department of Government Efficiency has stripped Congress of its power of the purse. News outlets that challenge Trump have been banished or put under investigation.
Yet far too many are still covering Trump’s assault on democracy like politics as usual, with flattering headlines describing Trump as “unconventional,” “testing the boundaries,” and “aggressively flexing power.”
The Intercept has long covered authoritarian governments, billionaire oligarchs, and backsliding democracies around the world. We understand the challenge we face in Trump and the vital importance of press freedom in defending democracy.
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IT’S BEEN A DEVASTATING year for journalism — the worst in modern U.S. history.
We have a president with utter contempt for truth aggressively using the government’s full powers to dismantle the free press. Corporate news outlets have cowered, becoming accessories in Trump’s project to create a post-truth America. Right-wing billionaires have pounced, buying up media organizations and rebuilding the information environment to their liking.
In this most perilous moment for democracy, The Intercept is fighting back. But to do so effectively, we need to grow.
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I’M BEN MUESSIG, The Intercept’s editor-in-chief. It’s been a devastating year for journalism — the worst in modern U.S. history.
We have a president with utter contempt for truth aggressively using the government’s full powers to dismantle the free press. Corporate news outlets have cowered, becoming accessories in Trump’s project to create a post-truth America. Right-wing billionaires have pounced, buying up media organizations and rebuilding the information environment to their liking.
In this most perilous moment for democracy, The Intercept is fighting back. But to do so effectively, we need to grow.
That’s where you come in. Will you help us expand our reporting capacity in time to hit the ground running in 2026?
We’re independent of corporate interests. Will you help us?
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