Donald Trump wordlessly threw a bone to his Islamophobic followers Sunday night, by mocking President Joe Biden’s outreach to the Muslim community.
The presumptive Republican nominee posted a caption-less screenshot of a post from Biden’s X (formerly Twitter) account to his own Truth Social account.
“Jill and I wish a Happy Islamic New Year to all families who celebrate. May the arrival of the 1446 Hijri New Year bring you love, peace, and prosperity,” read Biden’s original post. Although Trump’s screenshot bore no caption, his intention was clear: to stir up his followers’ anger that the president would deign to well-wish Muslims.
Since the beginning of his first presidential campaign, Trump has used Islamophobia to attract voters. After Trump first called for a nationwide ban on Muslims entering the United States, while on the campaign trail in 2015, hate crimes against Muslims and Arabs nationwide spiked 23 percent. After he was elected, Trump implemented this overtly racist policy.
During his first election, hate crimes seemed to follow Trump wherever he went. Counties that hosted Trump rallies in 2016 saw a 226 percent increase in hate crimes, according to one study.
During the presidential debate earlier this month, Trump said Biden had “become like a Palestinian,” the second time he has publicly referred to the victims of an ongoing genocide as if it were some kind of slur. Trump urged Biden to let Israel “finish the job”—the job being a deadly military campaign that has killed more than 38,000 people, primarily women and children; displaced nearly one million refugees; and resulted in a widespread famine and humanitarian catastrophe.
Since the beginning of Israel’s military campaign, the Republican front-runner promised that if elected, he would bar immigrants who “support Hamas” from entering the United States and arrest and deport pro-Palestinian protesters.
