Editorial: Quit the shtick: Trump’s antics are a threat to national security

Donald Trump is running a successful campaign of racist belligerence.

He was never supposed to make it this far as a presidential candidate — yet here we are, reeling from his call on Monday for the United States to bar all Muslims from entering the country until national leaders can “figure out what is going on” following the San Bernardino terrorist attack.

Poll numbers show Trump leading with 36 percent of Republicans, according to the latest CNN/ORC poll, so Trump’s — call it what you will: shtick, act, strategy — is working. But it’s also becoming a threat to our national security.

Trump cannot continue spouting unbelievably provocative statements as a U.S. presidential candidate. They’re dangerous — and false — reflections of our national image.

Richard Engel, NBC News chief foreign correspondent, described the “Trump effect”  on MSNBC Monday night when he said, “So from the world perspective, it is absolutely an image, an impression, a black spot on our collective foreign policy and our conscience. And it also just feeds into the ISIS [Islamic State] narrative.”

Trump’s rhetoric expands anti-Muslim sentiment, further marginalizing Muslims from the Middle East and essentially falling into ISIS’s plans — marginalization breeds terrorism and makes our enemies stronger. Projecting anti-Muslim sentiment only serves to fuel extremists’ radical narratives and strengthen their influence.  We should aid — not marginalize — refugees by accepting them into our country.

Trump’s proposal is the sort of response that President Barack Obama denounced in his Sunday Oval Office address. “It’s our responsibility to reject proposals that Muslim Americans should somehow be treated differently. Because when we travel down that road, we lose,” Obama said.

Regardless, media personnel are beginning to treat Trump’s proposal as a valid possibility. KGET News, an NBC affiliate based in Bakersfield, California, tweeted to its followers, asking, “Should Muslims be banned from entering the country?” following Trump’s announcement.

This is not a question that we should ask ourselves. The United States has maintained an open policy of welcoming Muslims — and people of any religion, for that matter — into our country. Asking this question defies our country’s history of acceptance.

While people have been quick to criticize Trump’s proposal, state Rep. Al Baldasaro (R-New Hampshire) supported the plan by citing historical context for taking measures as drastic as the one Trump is suggesting. “What he’s saying is no different than the situation during World War II, when we put the Japanese in camps. From a military mind standpoint, all Donald Trump is saying is to do what needs to be done until we get a handle on how to do background checks.”

That Trump’s proposal can draw similarities with our atrocious policy of placing Japanese citizens in internment camps disregards history’s role as a lesson for the future. This comparison should horrify us.

Trump is no ordinary presidential candidate, and on Tuesday, Braddock Mayor John Fetterman put it best when he released a statement following Trump’s most recent remarks.

“Donald Trump is a jagoff.”