Just after ABC News’s Cecilia Vega asked White House press secretary Sean Spicer Monday about Donald Trump’s campaign proposal of a ban on Muslim people traveling to the United States, many went looking for the statement on Trump’s website—and they came up empty-handed.
It appears that statement—as well as the entire “Statements” section, the “Announcements” section, “Endorsements” section and “Ads” section—has been scrubbed from Trump’s campaign site.
That change was noted by Vega as well as several other reporters on Twitter following the press briefing.
Minutes after we asked the WH why the President's campaign website still calls for a Muslim ban, it appears the statement was deleted https://t.co/BBX9oiIczx
— Cecilia Vega (@CeciliaVega) May 8, 2017
Over 2 years since the post went up, it appears the Trump Muslim ban was just deleted off the site pic.twitter.com/YUKOQQXwhd
— Steve Kopack (@SteveKopack) May 8, 2017
The page of the Trump campaign website that had Trump's December 2015 Muslim ban press release on it is now blank https://t.co/FEyidFPkGS pic.twitter.com/24EpfKFggD
— Anthony Zurcher (@awzurcher) May 8, 2017
Usually you see pages disappear. The Trump Muslim ban announcement page is still there, just with no text anymore. https://t.co/kFOP7K603v pic.twitter.com/CVvyE8D6vE
— Steven Rich (@dataeditor) May 8, 2017
It’s not clear why the posts were deleted in masse or if it was done intentionally. The White House did not immediately respond to TPM’s request for clarification.
The statement was brought up during the press briefing because despite the statement’s call “for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives and figure out what is going on,” the Trump administration is now denying that Trump’s executive order banning travel from several predominantly Muslim nations is a Muslim ban. Spicer said during the briefing Monday that the administration’s stance has been the same since day one, and that it is a ban on nations, not on religion.
Trump’s revised executive order, which would temporarily ban travel from six Muslim-majority countries entering the United States, is currently being argued in the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals and Trump’s campaign statement has become a major talking point.
