Trump vows to restore Muslim ban saying he won’t take refugees from ‘infested countries’

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

Donald Trump has said he won’t take refugees from “infested countries” and promised to restore the controversial “Muslim travel ban” from his first term as president.

Trump made the disturbing pledge while speaking on Thursday at a Washington event focused on combating antisemitism, as he tries to court more Jewish voters in the upcoming election on November 5.

“We will deport the foreign Jihad sympathizers and Hamas supporters from our midst,” the former president promised.

“We will get them out of our country. I will ban refugee resettlement from terror-infested areas like the Gaza Strip and we will seal our border.”

He added: “We will bring back the travel ban — you remember the famous travel ban.

“We didn’t take people from certain areas of the world because I didn’t want to have people ripping down and burning our shopping centers and killing people.”

The travel ban, issued in January 2017, restricted entry into the US for certain foreign people. It was nicknamed the “Muslim ban” by Trump as well as his aides and critics because a majority of those affected by the executive actions came from predominantly Muslim countries. One of the first actions taken by President Joe Biden when he assumed office in January 2021 was issuing a proclamation revoking the travel ban.

In his speech on Thursday evening, Trump described some of the places included in the ban — such as Iran, Yemen, Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Sudan — as “very vicious, violent parts of the world.”

Trump, citing an unnamed poll, then claimed “Jewish people would have a lot to do with” him losing the forthcoming election.

The poll, he said, showed 60 percent of Jewish Americans favored Kamala Harris in the forthcoming election.

He continued that Israel’s very existence hinges on his election, telling the audience that, “Israel, in my opinion, within a period of two to three years, will cease to exist. It’s going to be wiped out.”

Trump seemed to spiral at this point, saying he hoped the news would energize Jewish Americans, “because there’s no way that I should be getting 40 percent of the vote.”

“I’m the one that’s protecting you,” he said, adding that pro-Palestine marches would also be banned in the US. “These are the people that are going to destroy you and you have 60 per cent of the Jewish people essentially voting for them. If I do win, Israel will be safe and secure.”

Harris, whose husband is Jewish, has promised that she will “always stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself and she will always ensure Israel has the ability to defend itself,” and asserts she will also work to ensure “the suffering in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security, freedom, and self-determination.”