ADEL, Iowa—Former President Donald J. Trump pledged that his administration “will implement strong ideological screening for all immigrants to the United States” in remarks on Oct. 16 in Clive, Iowa, the second of two major speeches in the Republicans’ first-in-the-nation caucus state.
“No longer will we allow dangerous lunatics, haters, bigots, and maniacs to get residency in our country. ... If you empathize with radical Islamic terrorists and extremists, you’re disqualified. ... If you want to abolish the state of Israel, you’re disqualified—if you support Hamas [or the ideology behind Hamas], you’re disqualified—and if you’re a communist, Marxist, or fascist ... you’re disqualified,” the former president said.
The prepared remarks, supplied to The Epoch Times ahead of the speech, underscore the extent to which support for Israel in its war against Hamas remains a litmus test for the Republicans contending for the presidential nomination.
The former president also said the U.S. would not “take in anyone from Gaza or Syria or Somalia or Yemen, or Libya, or anywhere else that threatens our security.”
Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) has suggested the U.S. might open up to refugees from the Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, Reps. Tom Tiffany (R-Wis.) and Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) introduced legislation to prevent the Biden administration from enabling the entry of Palestinians from that territory using the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) parole mechanism.
“Here in the U.S., we cannot and do not discount the possibility that Hamas or other foreign terrorist organizations could exploit the conflict to call on their supporters to conduct attacks on our own soil,” Mr. Wray said.
President Trump also pledged that he would resuspend refugee resettlement again, as he did in 2017, and reinstate his travel ban.
He also pledged to “proactively send ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] to pro-jihadist demonstrations to enforce our immigration laws and remove the violators from our country.”
Pro-Palestinian protests have occurred across the country as Israel, Hamas, and other state and non-state actors clash in the Middle East.
“The atrocities in Israel are a horrific reminder that immigration security is national security. The purpose of U.S. immigration law is not to protect the world–it’s to protect the United States of America,” he is expected to say.
President Trump ranged more widely during an Oct. 16 speech in Adel, Iowa, unveiling an endorsement from Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird and briefly discussing a new gag order from Judge Tanya Chutkan in the federal case accusing him of illegal interference in the 2020 presidential election.
“I’ll be the only politician in history that runs with a gag order, where I’m not allowed to criticize people. Can you believe it?” the former president told an enthusiastic crowd at a fairground on the outskirts of the city, the county seat of Dallas County, Iowa.
“We’ll see. We’ll appeal it!” President Trump added, before describing the gag order as “so unconstitutional.”
After discussing the Twitter files and the movie “2,000 Mules,” he said that he is “not supposed to be talking about things that bad people do,” before reiterating his intention to appeal.
While President Trump riffed on his gag order, another major case—namely, a lawsuit he filed in the United Kingdom against the originator of the Steele dossier, Christopher Steele—wasn’t brought up in Adel.
Ms. Bird introduced the last Republican commander-in-chief before he got on stage. She said that he would support agriculture, a vital industry in the heavily rural, Midwestern state.
“The Biden administration seems to be against farmers, right?” Ms. Bird said.
Businessman Vivek Ramaswamy was the first candidate to score a statewide official’s backing in Iowa when State Treasurer Roby Smith endorsed him in August. Neither Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) nor Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) are expected to endorse anyone. Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican, may ultimately endorse a candidate in the race, though she has so far remained neutral.
President Trump also commented on the Iraq War, which he famously criticized in the run-up to the 2016 election. In Adel, he suggested that the United States’ war in Iraq created a power vacuum that Iran quickly filled.
“Now we have one power instead of two. The two powers kept each other in check. That’s called nature,” he said.
