What if President Trump really wants to alienate Muslims?

There's little evidence to suggest otherwise

What is the truth behind the immigration ban?
(Image credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

President Trump's executive order banning all refugees and nationals of seven Muslim countries from entering the United States has been criticized on many grounds, including the constitutional and the humanitarian. But one of the central arguments the critics make, and one the ban's supporters seem to have no answer for, is that it makes America less safe by playing into terrorists' argument that the West in general and the United States in particular are at war with Islam. By making it seem like we have a desire to exclude Muslims motivated by bigotry, we make it harder to recruit allies — both at the governmental and individual level — and we give ISIS a propaganda victory. Some of the people affected are those who literally risked their lives to help Americans in Iraq. The next time we need their help, it'll be much harder to come by.

But what if that isn't just something the Trump administration isn't concerned about, but something it is actively seeking? What if alienating the Muslim world isn't a bug of this policy (and others to come), it's a feature?

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Paul Waldman

Paul Waldman is a senior writer with The American Prospect magazine and a blogger for The Washington Post. His writing has appeared in dozens of newspapers, magazines, and web sites, and he is the author or co-author of four books on media and politics.