--- title: Donald Trump Encourages People to Spy on Their Neighbors description: Speaking in South Carolina Tuesday, Donald Trump told the audience to report their neighbors if they see suspicious behavior. canonical: https://time.com/4127275/donald-trump-spy-report-neighbors/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-11-25T17:14:01.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:46:52.085Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump Encourages People to Spy On Their Neighbors og:description: And then report them to the police og:url: https://time.com/4127275/donald-trump-spy-report-neighbors/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4cebaf4bef14e17f/698872a5a988ca0b776b574c/donald-trump7.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump addresses supporters during a campaign rally at the Greater Columbus Convention Center on November 23, 2015 in Columbus, Ohio. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump Encourages People to Spy On Their Neighbors twitter:description: And then report them to the police twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4cebaf4bef14e17f/698872a5a988ca0b776b574c/donald-trump7.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Encourages People to Spy on Their Neighbors > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Nov 25, 2015 5:14 PM UTC  Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump addresses supporters during a campaign rally at the Greater Columbus Convention Center on November 23, 2015 in Columbus, Ohio. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump addresses supporters during a campaign rally at the Greater Columbus Convention Center on November 23, 2015 in Columbus, Ohio.Ty Wright—Getty Images  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Nov 25, 2015 5:14 PM UTC Donald Trump made headlines recently calling for increased domestic security measures, namely a “[database](http://time.com/4121511/donald-trump-muslims-database-terrorism/)” of Muslims in the country. Now he has a new tactic in mind: getting people to spy on their neighbors. “The real greatest resource is all of you, because you have all those eyes and you see what’s happening,” the business mogul told the crowd at a rally in Myrtle Beach, S.C. Tuesday night, [according to _The Hill_](http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/261267-trump-report-your-neighbors-for-suspicious-activities). “People move into a house a block down the road, you know who’s going in,” he said. “You can see and you report them to the local police.” He acknowledged this wouldn’t be a perfect system: “We know if there’s something going on, report them. Most likely you’ll be wrong, but that’s OK.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4127275/donald-trump-spy-report-neighbors/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4127275/donald-trump-spy-report-neighbors/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Encourages People to Spy on Their Neighbors","datePublished":"2015-11-25T17:14:01.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:46:52.085Z","description":"And then report them to the police","url":"https://time.com/4127275/donald-trump-spy-report-neighbors/","keywords":["Donald Trump","2016 Election"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4cebaf4bef14e17f/698872a5a988ca0b776b574c/donald-trump7.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4cebaf4bef14e17f/698872a5a988ca0b776b574c/donald-trump7.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump addresses supporters during a campaign rally at the Greater Columbus Convention Center on November 23, 2015 in Columbus, Ohio.","caption":"Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump addresses supporters during a campaign rally at the Greater Columbus Convention Center on November 23, 2015 in Columbus, Ohio.","creditText":"Ty Wright—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4127275/donald-trump-spy-report-neighbors/","name":"Donald Trump Encourages People to Spy on Their Neighbors"}}]}] ```