Donald Trump covered a wide range of topics in Manhattan on Saturday at the New York Young Republican Club, his speech featuring a number of anecdotes that strained credulity. One story getting a great deal of attention is Trump’s testimony that an unnamed U.S. military general once told the former president that, despite all the death and sacrifice he’d witnessed on the battlefield, the general considered Trump’s debate against Hillary Clinton the “bravest” thing he’d ever seen. The general especially admired the way Trump had stood up to the Access Hollywood tape scandal, according to Trump’s account.
With so much to consider, a number of Trump’s other statements received less attention, including one that bore the unambiguous stamp of a white nationalist Christian agenda. Trump promised the crowd that, if re-elected, he will “implement strong ideological screening of all immigrants.”
The former president provided the following details of the plan: “if you hate America, if you want to abolish Israel, if you don’t like our religion — which a lot of them don’t — if you sympathize with jihadists, then we don’t want you in our country and you are not getting in.”
— Preet Bharara (@PreetBharara) December 10, 2023
The call against jihadist sympathizers and antisemitism could be spoken from either side of the political aisle. The reference to “our religion” is thornier, however, since America is specifically designed not to have a national religion.
As the First Amendment Establishment Clause states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
Talking about white Christian nationalism, Yale professor Philip Gorski explains: “A common misunderstanding would be that it is the same thing as being a patriotic Christian. Patriotism is an adherence to the ideals of the United States, and nationalism is loyalty to your tribe and not the country.”
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