Trump Says He Wouldn’t Rule Out A Database, ID System For Muslims

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a news conference before a scheduled campaign rally, Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2015, in Worcester, Mass. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said in an interview with Yahoo! News published Thursday that he’d consider registering Muslims living in the United States in a database or giving them special identification cards.

Trump said earlier this week that the U.S. would have to “strongly consider” shutting down mosques. His comment came after the French interior minister suggested closing radical mosques in France following a string of terror attacks Friday in Paris that left at least 129 people dead.

When Yahoo! News asked Trump if he would advocate for increased surveillance of American Muslims, the real estate mogul said the U.S. would have to do “things that we never did before.” When pressed whether that would include registering Muslims in a database or issuing them special identification that specified their religion, Trump didn’t rule it out.

“We’re going to have to — we’re going to have to look at a lot of things very closely,” Trump said. “We’re going to have to look at the mosques. We’re going to have to look very, very carefully.”

Latest Livewire
Comments
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Associate Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: