Hugo Stiglitz
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- Jun 14, 2016
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Heās already won the support of the Ku Klux Klanās onetime leader David Duke and the Nation of Islamās Louis Farrakhan, along with other extremists. Will Donald Trump also get the endorsement of the Islamic State?
The real estate mogulās polarizing persona and broad, withering attacks on Muslims make him the natural presidential choice for the jihadist group that embraces a similar black-and-white worldview, national security and terrorism experts interviewed by Vocativ said. And with repeated vows to crush ISIS, Trump might be the candidate most likely to lead U.S. troops into a war against the militants, fulfilling their apocalyptic vision.
āYouād have to be blind not to see that Trump is appealing to ISIS,ā said Patrick Skinner, a terrorism analyst and former CIA case officer. āHeās the perfect candidate for them.ā
ISIS militants and their sympathizers have not been publicly outspoken about the U.S. presidential campaign. The terror groupās online forums and social media channels reveal little chatter about Trump, Hillary Clinton and the other contenders. Nor has official ISIS propaganda focused on the race.
Still, as Trump steamrolls ahead toward to the GOP nominationāfueled, in part, by panicky Republican votersāconcerns among analysts about an unholy alliance between the reality television star and ISIS grow. Even the Donald seems to recognize the outsized role that the terror group has played in his success. After winning five of six primaries on March 15, including Florida and Illinois, Trump proudly told a crowd of supporters that the Paris attacks marked the turning point in his campaign.
After ISIS claimed credit for the deadly shootings in Paris that killed more than 130 people and wounded hundreds, Trump called for a ban on Muslim immigrants, controversial interrogation tactics and a muscular intervention against the Islamist militants in Syria and Iraqāand it resonated. His tough talk continued on Tuesday when, within hours of the bombings in Brussels, he doubled down on use of water boarding during an interview on the Today Show.
Terrorism experts accused Trump of playing right into the hands of ISIS. āGood God, theyāre probably cutting videos of this right now,ā Malcolm Nance, a national security analyst and former Navy intelligence official, said on MSNBC. āDonald Trump right now is validating the cartoonish view that they tell their operativesā¦that America is a racist nation, xenophobic, anti-Muslim, and that thatās why you must carry out terrorist attacks against them.ā
Trumpās anti-Muslim rhetoric bolsters a deliberate effort by ISIS to eliminate what it calls the āgray zoneā of moderate Islam, ultimately turning more tolerant Muslims against the West, said Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, a senior fellow with the right-leaning Foundation for Defense of Democracies. That alone could earn the terror groupās tacit support. āFrom ISILās perspective, Trump is the candidate that could destroy the gray zone,ā Gartenstein-Ross told Vocativ, using a another name for ISIS. āI am certain thatās part of their strategic thinking.ā
There are other ways in which President Trump would be a boon for ISIS, experts told Vocativ. With his bluster and his hair-trigger temperament, many believe he may also be the militantsā best shot at drawing American troops into ground war in Syria and Iraq, fulfilling one of the groupās longstanding prophecies of a holy war with West. Given ISISā ongoing setbacksāwhich include territorial losses, commanders killed in airstrikes, and a crackdown on social media activity āan invasion by the U.S. could revive morale and trigger a recruiting bonanza, Skinner said.
āThese guys are getting their butts kicked and they survive on apocalyptic end times,ā he said. āThatās the battle they want. Itās such an obvious āgetā for them.ā/quote]
Why Trump Is The "Perfect" Presidential Choice For ISIS
This actually make a lot of sense, unfortunately.