The Donald Trump team is reportedly turning to a former Reagan administration official known for his anti-Islam messaging for national security advice.
{mosads}The Wall Street Journal and the New York Times reported Tuesday that Frank Gaffney, radio host and founder of the Center for Security Policy, is now advising Trump’s transition team.
The reports say that Rep. Devin Nunes (Calif.) and former Rep. Peter Hoekstra (Mich.) were also brought on to replace former Rep. Mike Rogers (Mich.) and lobbyist Michael Freedman, who were fired from the campaign this week.
Gaffney had a stint in the Pentagon under President Ronald Reagan, the Washington Post reported, and was a proponent of the theory that President Obama is Muslim and not born in the U.S.
He has also argued that the government has been infiltrated by the Muslim Brotherhood.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups, describes him as “one of America’s most notorious Islamophobes.”
Trump cited a poll from Gaffney’s think tank in his December 2015 proposal to bar all Muslims from entering the United States
In an interview the day after the election, Gaffney told radio show Breitbart News Daily that one of Trump’s most important tasks will be “stopping, designating, rolling up the Muslim Brotherhood in America as the terrorist organization it is.”
“It’s going to be vital to everything else he’s trying to do. We’ve got to stop taking counsel from them, direction from them, and allowing them to operate in our midst subversively, and that’s what’s been going on for some fifty years now,” he said.
Gaffney was a national security adviser to Ted Cruz during the Texas senator’s own presidential bid.