Stan Van Gundy Likens Trump's Travel Ban To Hitler's Treatment Of Jews
DETROIT (CBS Detroit) Stan Van Gundy is never afraid to speak his mind, and on Monday the Pistons coach strongly rebuked Donald Trump's travel ban that has sparked protests across the country.
"This stuff is real and it's scary and I think everybody should speak up. This isn't about a person in office or anything else, it's about a policy that is antithetical to what we're supposed to be about here in America," Van Gundy told reporters in Boston, where the Pistons are set to take on the Celtics.
The President signed an executive order over the weekend banning travel to the U.S. from seven predominantly Muslim countries.
"We're getting into the days of now we're judging people by their religion. We're trying to keep Muslims out. None of those seven nations have been responsible for an American death, but we're barring everybody. It's just playing to people's fears and prejudices and everything else, and we're getting back to the days of putting the Japanese in relocation camps and Hitler registering the Jews. That's where we're headed, and it's just fear-mongering and playing to a certain base of people that have some built-in prejudices that aren't fair," Van Gundy said.
Part of Trump's action included a 120-day suspension of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program.
"There's no reasonable reason to do it. If they haven't been responsible for a single American fatality, how is doing it making us safer? And the answer is obviously, it's not. But to some people, it sounds good. And if you've got a prejudice against Muslims in general, it sounds really good to you," said Van Gundy.
This is the second time in the past three months that Van Gundy has spoken out against Trump. After the President was elected in November, Van Gundy called him an "openly brazen, misogynist leader" in a lengthy tirade.