Donald Trump's proposed Muslim ban briefly disappeared from his website
On Dec. 7, 2015, after the attack in San Bernardino, Donald Trump released a statement calling for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.”
Link to Donald Trump's Muslim ban - still on the website: https://t.co/nHnB4fywwK pic.twitter.com/jeqWCJ8k00
— Sopan Deb (@SopanDeb) July 22, 2016
But sometime in the 24 hours after Trump was elected president, the message disappeared from his website without comment. The link where the statement once lived instead re-directed to the home page, asking for donations.
However, by late Thursday afternoon the statement was back on the site, putting an end to speculation that it might indicate some sort of policy shift.
In a statement, the Trump campaign told CBS News the site “was temporarily redirecting all specific press release pages to the homepage. It is currently being addressed and will be fixed shortly.”
The proposed ban was a point of controversy in his campaign, with many Republicans denouncing it and polling suggesting most Americans opposed such an idea.
After the Republican National Convention in July, Trump announced he was expanding the ban to include suspending immigration from “any nation that has been compromised by terrorism until such time as proven vetting mechanisms have been put in place.”
During the October 9th presidential debate, Trump told the moderators that the ban had “morphed” into “extreme vetting,” something he has touted as a way to fight terrorism.
Part of that vetting process could include an ideological test, he said in a speech in August. “We should only admit in this country those who share our values and respect our people ... the time is overdue to develop a new screening test.”