New York Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) says Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump’s suggestion that Muslim-Americans belong in a database is “like ISIS propaganda.”
“Donald Trump [is] a blowhard,” he said Friday on “Len Berman and Todd Schnitt in the Morning” on WOR 710 in New York.
{mosads}“He is saying things — bluntly — that play right into ISIS’s [the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria] hands,” de Blasio added. “Donald Trump, a leading candidate for president, says, ‘let’s shut down mosques.’ It’s like ISIS propaganda that they couldn’t even [have bought] themselves.”
De Blasio said Trump’s positions on Islam are distorting how American values are seen overseas.
“ISIS wants to portray to the 1.6 billion Muslims around the world that the West hates them, that America hates them and wants to take over their lands,” he said.
“We respect all religions. It’s part of our founding documents.”
Trump said Thursday he would create a database to track the nation’s Muslim population.
“I would certainly implement that,” he said, adding he would legally require registration. “[The database] would stop people from coming in illegally,” the outspoken billionaire added.
Trump also expressed openness toward requiring religious identification for U.S. Muslims, increasing mosque surveillance and warrantless searches earlier this week.
“Certain things will be done that we never thought would happen in this country in terms of information and learning about the enemy,” he said.
The GOP presidential candidate praised the New York Police Department’s controversial surveillance program for monitoring the city’s Muslims after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
De Blasio said Friday that the initiative, which ended in 2014, increased tension in the city.
“We’re alienating the very people we need to be allies in this fight,” he said. “That’s why it didn’t work.”
Trump struck back against de Blasio with his Twitter account later Friday evening.
“Can you believe the worst mayor in the U.S., and probably the worst mayor in the history of New York City, Bill de Blasio, just called me a blowhard?” he asked.
“Bill de Blasio should focus on running New York City and all of the problems he has caused with his ineptitude, and not be so focused on me,” Trump tweeted.