Spokesman for president-elect’s transition team said he ‘never advocated for any registry or system that tracks individuals based on their religion’, which is false

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

A spokesman for the Trump transition team has claimed that Donald Trump “never advocated” for a registry tracking individuals based on their religion, despite video evidence showing Trump doing exactly that.

Jason Miller, the communications director for the transition team, released a statement on Thursday in response to reports that the incoming administration has been considering a register for Muslims arriving in the US:

President-elect Trump has never advocated for any registry or system that tracks individuals based on their religion, and to imply otherwise is completely false.

The national registry of foreign visitors from countries with high terrorism activity that was in place during the Bush and Obama administrations gave intelligence and law enforcement communities additional tools to keep our country safe, but the president-elect plans on releasing his own vetting policies after he is sworn in.

Unfortunately for Miller, his statement is directly contradicted by this video of Trump at a campaign event in Newton, Iowa, in November 2015.

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In the video, asked by a reporter for NBC News if he would implement a database of Muslims, Trump responded: “I would certainly implement that. Absolutely.”

Asked if Muslims would be legally obligated to sign in to the database, Trump responded: “They have to be.” He also said: “There should be a lot of systems, beyond databases, we should have a lot of systems.”

The clip was widely reported at the time and drew condemnation from the Council on Islamic-American Relations and Trump’s political opponents, including Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton.



Trump was then asked by NBC News what the difference was between a Muslim registry and the registration of Jews by Nazis in Germany. “You tell me,” he responded. “You tell me.”

Asked again, he responded, “Why don’t you tell me.” Pressed by the reporter, he responded again, “You tell me,” before moving on to sign autographs for supporters.

It is unclear whether he was being sarcastic or genuinely did not have an answer to the question.

Representatives for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for clarification.

Kris Kobach, the Kansas secretary of state and an anti-immigration hardliner advising Trump’s transition team, said earlier this week that the president-elect’s policy advisers were considering instating a Muslim immigrant registry.

Michael Keegan, president of the pressure group People for the American Way, said: “The internment of Japanese Americans during the second world war is an ugly stain on our nation’s history. Republicans at every level should rush to condemn any hint that we’d repeat that mistake by targeting Muslims or any other minority group. To be clear: Donald Trump’s campaign promise to create a registry of Muslims is unconstitutional and un-American.”