From the Liveblog of
Sunday, October 29, 2023
Trump pledges to reimpose Muslim ‘travel ban’
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleDonald Trump uses a speech to a Republican Jewish convention on Saturday to promise the reimposition of a controversial travel ban that targeted a slew of mostly Muslim countries if he gets re-elected.
“We will keep radical Islamic terrorists the hell out of our country,” Trump tells the audience attending the annual summit of the Republican Jewish Coalition.
“You remember the travel ban? On day one I will restore our travel ban.”
At the start of his presidency in 2017, Trump imposed sweeping restrictions on the entry of travelers from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Yemen and, initially, Iraq and Sudan. The order was quickly challenged in court as discriminatory against a religious group, but the bans, along with Trump’s hardline anti-immigration agenda, were popular with his base.
US President Joe Biden reversed the ban in his first week in office in 2021.
Trump told the event, held in Las Vegas, that he would “defend our friend and ally in the State of Israel like nobody has ever.”
The war between Israel and Hamas following its October 7 shock onslaught is “a fight between civilization and savagery, between decency and depravity, and between good and evil,” said Trump, who received the warmest response from attendees, as he took aim at the Biden administration and avoided criticizing his rivals.
The Times of Israel Community.