How Trump can pull us back from the abyss of terrorism

“We stand with our European allies, but we will not walk in their footsteps and repeat their mistakes.” That is the message the president must convey to the American people in light of the growing Islamic insurgency in the West.

Like the story of the frog in gradually boiling water, we become acclimated to the most potent and dangerous absurdities foisted upon us by the political elite. No other generation of western leaders would have allowed the Islamic insurgency to fester within their own countries for this long and still remain willfully blind to the existential threat within their midst. Yet here we are, in the aftermath of the third major terror attack in England, and none of the western leaders are willing to confront the truth. President Trump has come the closest to telling the truth, but unless he shows leadership beyond Twitter and hires staff and appoints cabinet members who share his values, the discernable policy outcomes of this administration will remain materially the same.

It’s time we recognize that the problem confronting Europe – one that is also rapidly growing in America – is not terrorism. It’s not Islamic terrorism, either. Terrorism is a tactic and the violent outcome of the problem. The source of the problem is a subversive culture of Islamic supremacism that rejects western civilization and is endemic to many (but not all) Muslims, not just a few. It is from this root that the deadly tactic of Islamic terror is cultivated. But if we tolerate the intolerant supremacist mindset and continue our suicidal immigration policies, we are merely chasing our tail combatting the ubiquitous and unstoppable terrorism that flows from cultivating this culture on our soil.

The problem we face in the West is not ISIS. That group has only been around for a few years and does not have a military capable of striking the West. What it does have, like other terror groups or freelance jihadis, is the ability to inspire Muslims with supremacist proclivities living in the West to attack their home countries. But why are they so easily inspired, and why are so many of them admitted into western countries to begin with?

This problem didn’t begin with ISIS; it’s been festering for several decades. At its core, this is an immigration problem, and second, it’s a problem of the Muslim Brotherhood/Saudi Arabia/Turkey funding of Islamic insurrection on western soil. In fact, according to the U.K. Telegraph, one of the London Bridge terrorists was radicalized by watching videos of Imam Ahmad Musa Jibril, who lives not in Raqqa but in…Dearborn, Michigan!

According to British intelligence, the U.K. is now home to 23,000 jihadis. This is no longer an issue of a few foreign terrorist organizations penetrating our shores in order to commit 9/11-style isolated attacks. This is a long-term homegrown problem in which western countries have imported the Middle East and all its problems. It will only metastasize over time.

Lest you think this problem is limited to Europe, remember that former FBI Director James Comey testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee last month that there were 2,000-plus “violent extremist investigations” under way and that about 300 of them were refugees! One can only imagine the true depth of the problem, which we would understand better if we had an FBI that wasn’t willfully blind to this reality. The Minneapolis Somali community alone has become an enclave of supremacist ideology. Last year, U.S. Attorney Andrew Lugar warned that there is “a terror-recruiting problem in Minnesota” among the Somali youth and that it does not stem from overseas but “may be their best friend right here in town.” Similarly, a federal judge warned earlier this month, “This community needs to understand there is a jihadist cell in this community. Its tentacles spread out.”

The president must lay this case before the American people in a series of prime-time speeches and demand action from Congress while promising to do everything he can administratively. He must follow up on his campaign promises not to focus on nation-building overseas, but on the homeland security problems right on our shores. We could drop a nuclear bomb on Raqqa tomorrow or continue our involvement in the endless Islamic sectarian civil wars in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, and Somalia, but it won’t make us any safer if we continue to import the values of those countries to our shores and then allow the Saudis, Erdogan, and the Muslim Brotherhood to fan the flames of Islamic supremacism on our shores. Those are the “boots on the ground” we should be discussing.

To that end, Trump should lay out the following initiatives:

• Immigration pause: Stop calling it a “travel ban,” which connotes restrictions on Americans. Call it what it is – a partial pause in immigration. Trump must make the case that we are importing record numbers of immigrants and students from the Middle East – as many as 160,000 a year. He needs to make the case that assimilation can only be successful if we focus on Americanizing those already here first.


• Kick the courts out of immigration: What about the courts? Trump must call upon Congress to exercise Article III, Sec. II powers over the courts to strip them of any ill-gotten power to unilaterally violate our national sovereignty. He must also explain how the courts have no ability to set the refugee cap, even by their own admission. To further push back against the courts, Trump should demand that Congress cut off all funding for refugee resettlement (and use the savings for the wall as well). Despite calling it a “dumb idea” on the campaign trail, Trump has agreed to bring in up to 1,250 refugees from Australia, refugees whom even the liberal Aussies rejected! He must find consistency on this issue.


• Build the fence: The president should remind the American people that just last year 30,000 Middle Easterners were caught crossing the southern border – and those were the ones detected. Trump should speak about the effectiveness of a border wall with data and examples. He must also remind the American people that this is the law of the land, not some radical new idea. He should promote Cruz’s El Chapo Act to pay for the wall by freezing assets of drug cartels and by cutting off refundable tax credits for illegals.


• Implement visa tracking: Since 1996, Congress has passed numerous laws calling for an exit-entry visa tracking system, yet failed to provide funding for it. DHS just reported that only one percent of visa overstays are caught. In 2014, ABC News reported that DHS has lost track of 58,000 foreign students who have overstayed their visas, of which 6,000 presented a “heightened concern.” This is a clear and present danger in this era, and it would be indefensible for Democrats to block a legislative remedy.


• Cut off aid to the PLO: Where did vehicular and stabbing jihad begin? With the Palestinians, of course. In Israel, PLO terrorists are rewarded by Mahmoud Abbas for doing exactly what was done in London over the weekend. Yet we’re subsidizing them with our taxpayer funding, and Trump himself is treating Abbas as a legitimate state leader instead of a terrorist. It’s not too late to become consistent on this issue and demand that Congress pass the Taylor Force Act, named after a Texan killed in Israel by a Palestinian stabber, in order to cut off aid to Abbas.


• Cut off Saudi/Turkey/and Muslim Brotherhood influence: Trump should designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group, the subject of an executive order sitting on his desk that he has thus far declined to sign. He should also push Rep. Dave Brat’s bill prohibiting foreign governments from funding religion in this country when they lack freedom of religion in their countries. This poisonous subversion on our soil is more dangerous than any ISIS cell in Syria.


• National right to carry: The hallmark of all these attacks in Europe is that the terrorists are the only ones with weapons. They are able to mow down innocent people with impunity. Trump must make the case that America will be different and we will defend ourselves. There is no better time to push for the already popular idea of having concealed-carry reciprocity between the states.


• Deport hostile non-citizen immigrants: Non-citizens have free speech rights in the sense that they cannot be imprisoned for hateful (but non-treasonous) speech. But they can and must be deported. Any non-citizen attempting to incite hatred or violence against America should live somewhere they feel comfortable. Under current law, “any immigrant who is or has been a member of or affiliated with the communist or other totalitarian party (or subdivision or affiliate thereof), domestic or foreign, is inadmissible." [212(a)(3)(D)(iv).] Congress must apply this to Islamic supremacists. Any non-citizen imam who is preaching hatred doesn’t need to be here. Moreover, even those who are citizens must be warned that when their hatred reaches the level of incitement during a time of war, we have always treated such behavior as treason. This certainly requires complete due process, but we can’t disregard the fact that wars have consequences. If we are in a state of war that is getting our soldiers killed in Yemen and Somalia, we are in a state of war that should prevent people on our shores from preaching support for our enemies. This, rather than the entire Russia investigation issue, should be the main focus in the search for a new FBI director.

Finally, what we need from the president is leadership. Sending out a few tweets is not enough. He needs to be consistent, relentless, and specific and see his policies all the way through. He must get his entire administration on the same page and fire those who are unwilling to go along with his agenda. His united team should then demand of congressional Republicans very specific legislation along the lines of the aforementioned principles. Then the president must sell them to the American people in a series of televised addresses. He could go over the heads of the media by broadcasting a Facebook Live from the Oval Office and giving high-profile addresses across the country. He should ask Speaker Ryan for another invitation to speak before Congress. His last speech before Congress won him universal accolades, even from the media

Stay principled, stay consistent, and stay on message. That is leadership. We will never get such leadership from McConnell and Ryan. That is why Trump was elected. Now is his moment to shine.