--- title: Donald Trump Muslim Ban: Here's How It Would Work description: "They would say: Are you Muslim?" canonical: https://time.com/4140717/donald-trump-muslim-ban-morning-joe-how-it-would-work/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-12-08T18:43:30.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:46:50.102Z article:section: Politics og:title: Here's How Donald Trump Says His Muslim Ban Would Work og:description: "They would say: Are you Muslim?" og:url: https://time.com/4140717/donald-trump-muslim-ban-morning-joe-how-it-would-work/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta0064968627785ba/69887465f887dc1afde93a3b/donald-trump16.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5184 og:image:height: 2916 og:image:alt: Donald Trump og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's How Donald Trump Says His Muslim Ban Would Work twitter:description: "They would say: Are you Muslim?" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta0064968627785ba/69887465f887dc1afde93a3b/donald-trump16.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here's How Donald Trump Says His Muslim Ban Would Work > 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 [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Dec 8, 2015 6:43 PM UTC  Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during an interview with the Associated Press at the Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Va., Dec. 2, 2015. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during an interview with the Associated Press at the Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Va., Dec. 2, 2015. Andrew Harnik—AP by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Dec 8, 2015 6:43 PM UTC Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump sought to explain how his [proposed ban on allowing Muslims into the U.S.](http://time.com/4139476/donald-trump-shutdown-muslim-immigration/?xid=homepage) would work Tuesday during an [interview](http://on.msnbc.com/1XYKPCg) on MSNBC’s _Morning Joe_, saying he was “using common sense” when calling for limiting Muslims’ entrance into America. MSNBC’s Willie Geist responded to the plan by asking the real estate mogul specifically how the ban would be implemented, noting that passports do not indicate a person’s religion. “A customs agent would ask the person his or her religion?” Giest inquired. “They would say, ‘Are you Muslim?'” Trump replied. “And if they said, ‘yes,’ they would not be allowed in the country?” Geist asked. “That’s correct,” said Trump. The exchange between the _Morning Joe_ hosts and the leading Republican presidential candidate was sometimes tense—at one point, host Joe Scarborough [went to break](http://on.msnbc.com/1IRAWQ7) while the business mogul was speaking. “We will go to break if you keep talking. We’re going to ask you questions,” Scarborough said, before cutting to commercials. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4140717/donald-trump-muslim-ban-morning-joe-how-it-would-work/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4140717/donald-trump-muslim-ban-morning-joe-how-it-would-work/"},"headline":"Here's How Donald Trump Says His Muslim Ban Would Work","datePublished":"2015-12-08T18:43:30.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:46:50.102Z","description":"\"They would say: Are you Muslim?\"","url":"https://time.com/4140717/donald-trump-muslim-ban-morning-joe-how-it-would-work/","keywords":["2016 Election","republicans","2016 Election","Religion","Muslims","Donald Trump","trump","2016 Republicans"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta0064968627785ba/69887465f887dc1afde93a3b/donald-trump16.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta0064968627785ba/69887465f887dc1afde93a3b/donald-trump16.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Donald Trump","caption":"Donald Trump","creditText":"Andrew Harnik—AP","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/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4140717/donald-trump-muslim-ban-morning-joe-how-it-would-work/","name":"Here's How Donald Trump Says His Muslim Ban Would Work"}}]}] ```