--- title: Donald Trump: U.S. Must Consider Racial Profiling of Muslims description: Donald Trump on Sunday said the U.S. will have to consider the use of racial profiling in the wake of the Orlando nightclub massacre canonical: https://time.com/4374212/donald-trump-racial-profiling-muslims/ author: Melissa Chan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-06-19T15:46:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:44:51.257Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump Says U.S. Should 'Start Thinking About' Racial Profiling og:description: "It's not the worst thing to do" og:url: https://time.com/4374212/donald-trump-racial-profiling-muslims/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta25a0479078eeaea/6988987c2dce0179b29e9863/donald-trump-02.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: Republican U.S. Presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Phoenix og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump Says U.S. Should 'Start Thinking About' Racial Profiling twitter:description: "It's not the worst thing to do" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta25a0479078eeaea/6988987c2dce0179b29e9863/donald-trump-02.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Says U.S. Should 'Start Thinking About' Using Racial Profiling > 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 [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Jun 19, 2016 3:46 PM UTC  Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Phoenix on June 18, 2016. Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Phoenix on June 18, 2016. Nancy Wiechec—Reuters  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Jun 19, 2016 3:46 PM UTC [Donald Trump](http://time.com/4374195/donald-trump-campaign-hasnt-started/?xid=homepage) on Sunday said the U.S. will have to [consider the use of racial profiling](http://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trump-after-orlando-racial-profiling-not-the-worst-thing-to-do/) in the wake of the Orlando nightclub massacre, defending the practice as “not the worst thing to do.” The presumptive Republican presidential nominee, who [last week](http://time.com/4367120/orlando-shooting-donald-trump-transcript/) renewed his call for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the country in the days following the worst mass shooting in U.S. history, said America should look “seriously” at racial profiling. “I think profiling is something that we’re going to have to start thinking about as a country,” Trump said in a telephone interview with CBS’ _Face the Nation_. “You look at Israel and you look at others, they do it and they do it successfully. And I hate the concept of profiling, but we have to start using common sense and we have to use our heads.” “Other countries do it, and it’s not the worst thing to do,” he added. The real estate mogul also said he’s in talks with the National Rifle Association about possibly banning people on the no-fly list from purchasing guns. “We understand there are problems with that because some people are on the terror watch list that shouldn’t be on,” Trump said. “So I’m working with the NRA, we’re discussing it and again the NRA has the best interests of our country, it just has the absolute best interests of our country.” \[[_CBS_](http://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trump-after-orlando-racial-profiling-not-the-worst-thing-to-do/)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4374212/donald-trump-racial-profiling-muslims/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4374212/donald-trump-racial-profiling-muslims/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Says U.S. Should 'Start Thinking About' Using Racial Profiling","datePublished":"2016-06-19T15:46:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:44:51.257Z","description":"\"It's not the worst thing to do\"","url":"https://time.com/4374212/donald-trump-racial-profiling-muslims/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta25a0479078eeaea/6988987c2dce0179b29e9863/donald-trump-02.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Chan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta25a0479078eeaea/6988987c2dce0179b29e9863/donald-trump-02.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Republican U.S. Presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Phoenix","caption":"Republican U.S. Presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Phoenix, Arizona, June 18, 2016. 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