Al Qaeda group uses Donald Trump footage in recruitment video

Donald Trump
(Image credit: Darren McCollester/Getty Images)

Footage of Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump is reportedly featured in a terrorist recruiting video for Al-Shabab, a Somali group affiliated with al Qaeda. The video released Friday, which The New York Times reports jihadist propaganda experts have confirmed as authentic, characterizes the U.S. as harboring a "malignant hatred" of Islam.

"So remember this, so listen, Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what the hell is going on," Trump says in the clip used.

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Julie Kliegman

Julie Kliegman is a freelance writer based in New York. Her work has appeared in BuzzFeed, Vox, Mental Floss, Paste, the Tampa Bay Times and PolitiFact. Her cats can do somersaults.