--- title: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Donald Trump, ISIS's Candidate description: The 2016 candidate has more in common with the terrorist group than he does with America canonical: https://time.com/4143003/kareem-abdul-jabbar-donald-trump-isis/ author: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-12-09T20:49:23.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:41:45.476Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Donald Trump, ISIS's Candidate og:description: The 2016 contender has more in common with ISIS than he does with America og:url: https://time.com/4143003/kareem-abdul-jabbar-donald-trump-isis/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd3b0da3ad53f41e2/698874a73c1639f3b245b1dd/donald-trump24.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Donald Trump og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Donald Trump, ISIS's Candidate twitter:description: The 2016 contender has more in common with ISIS than he does with America twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd3b0da3ad53f41e2/698874a73c1639f3b245b1dd/donald-trump24.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: What Donald Trump and ISIS Have in Common > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ## Video: Donald Trump: 'I Have to Win' [Watch (HLS stream): Donald Trump: 'I Have to Win'](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/RaDVQ2PJ.m3u8) (2:30)  _Published 2015-12-09. Watch Time magazine's interview with Donald Trump for Person of the Year_  by [Kareem Abdul-Jabbar](https://time.com/author/kareem-abdul-jabbar/)  ## Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Dec 9, 2015 8:49 PM UTC  Donald Trump at the Sunshine Summit conference on Nov. 13, 2015 in Orlando, Fl. Donald Trump at the Sunshine Summit conference on Nov. 13, 2015 in Orlando, Fl. Joe Raedle—Getty Images  by [Kareem Abdul-Jabbar](https://time.com/author/kareem-abdul-jabbar/)  ## Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Dec 9, 2015 8:49 PM UTC The terrorist campaign against American ideals is winning. Fear is rampant. Gun sales are soaring. Hate crimes [are increasing](http://www.npr.org/2015/12/07/458811232/deepening-anti-islamic-mood-in-texas-rivals-post-sept-11-climate). Bearded hipsters are being [mistaken for Muslims](http://nypost.com/2015/10/12/bearded-hipsters-mistaken-for-isis-terrorists-in-sweden/). And 83 percent of voters believe a [large-scale terrorist attack](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/americans-more-fearful-of-a-major-terror-attack-in-the-us-poll-finds/2015/11/20/ec6310ca-8f9a-11e5-ae1f-af46b7df8483%5Fstory.html) is likely here in the near future. Some Americans are now so afraid that they are willing to trade in the sacred beliefs that define America for some vague promises of security from the very people who are spreading the terror. “Go ahead and burn the Constitution — just don’t hurt me at the mall.” That’s how effective this terrorism is. I’m not talking about ISIS. I’m talking about Donald Trump. This is not hyperbole. Not a metaphor. Webster [defines terrorism](http://beta.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/terrorism) as “the use of violent acts to frighten the people in an area as a way of trying to achieve a political goal; the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion.” If violence can be an abstraction — and it can; that’s what a threat is — the Trump campaign meets this definition. Thus, Trump is ISIS’s greatest triumph: the perfect Manchurian Candidate who, instead of offering specific and realistic policies, preys on the fears of the public, doing ISIS’s job for them. Even fellow Republican Jeb Bush acknowledged Trump’s goal is “[to manipulate people’s angst and fears](http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/12/how-far-will-trump-go/419340/).” The Federal Bureau of Investigation, however, [defines terrorism](http://www.nij.gov/topics/crime/terrorism/pages/welcome.aspx) as “the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.” Now, we don’t require by law that our candidates tell the truth. They can retweet ([as Trump did](http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/nov/23/donald-trump/trump-tweet-blacks-white-homicide-victims/)) racist “statistics” from a white supremacist fictional organization that claimed 81% of murdered whites are victims of blacks, when the truth is 84% of whites are murdered by whites. They can claim ([as Trump did](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2015/11/22/donald-trumps-outrageous-claim-that-thousands-of-new-jersey-muslims-celebrated-the-911-attacks/)) to have seen on TV thousands of Muslims in New Jersey cheering on 9/11, even though there is no evidence of this. They can say ([as Trump did](http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news-campaigns-presidential-campaigns/260420-trump-refugees-pouring-into-us)) Syrian refugees are “pouring” into the country when only 2,000 have come (out of 4.3 million U.N.-registered refugees). Then, when caught lying (as Trump has been over and over), they can do what every belligerent child does: deny, deny, deny. While Trump is not slaughtering innocent people, he is exploiting such acts of violence to create terror here to coerce support. As I have written before, his acts [could be interpreted as hate crimes](http://time.com/4052923/kareem-abdul-jabbar-hate-crimes/). He sounds the shrill alarm of impending doomsday even though since 9/11, about 30 Americans a year have been killed in terrorist attacks worldwide — as _The Atlantic_ [pointed out](http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/06/americans-are-as-likely-to-be-killed-by-their-own-furniture-as-by-terrorism/258156/), “roughly the same number as are crushed to death each year by collapsing furniture.” Trump’s irresponsible, inflammatory rhetoric and deliberate propagation of misinformation have created a frightened and hostile atmosphere that could embolden people to violence. He’s the swaggering guy in old Westerns buying drinks for everyone in the saloon while whipping them up for a lynching. About [30,000 foreign fighters](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/27/world/middleeast/thousands-enter-syria-to-join-isis-despite-global-efforts.html) have gone into Syria to join ISIS, thousands of them from Europe and at least 250 from the United States. What most of us in these bountiful countries can’t understand is how our young, raised with such opportunity, choose to abandon our values to embrace a culture of pitiless violence. Before going, many of these recruits spend much of their time on social media being brainwashed by propaganda videos. One 23-year-old woman, a devout Christian and Sunday school teacher, was recruited via Skype. The recruiter spent hours with the lonely woman teaching her the rituals of Islam. Maybe that’s because, according to some psychologists, the brain’s default setting is [simply to believe](https://blog.bufferapp.com/10-surprising-facts-about-how-our-brain-works) because it takes extra work to analyze information. The same process works for Trump’s supporters. They are impervious to facts or truth because their (understandable) frustration and anger at partisan greed and incompetence have fatigued them out of critical thinking. Like deranged newscaster Howard Beale in _Network_, they are mad as hell and they aren’t going to take it anymore. To express their outrage, they have rallied around a so-called “outsider” with no political experience, no detailed policies, and whacky ideas that subvert the very Constitution that he would be required to swear to uphold. Electing him would be like asking the clown at a child’s birthday party to start juggling chainsaws. But understanding and even having sympathy for his followers’ feelings of political impotence doesn’t excuse their dangerous behavior. There is never an excuse for people blindly following a leader who consistently lies to them, who exaggerates threats and who proposes remedies that are unconstitutional. It’s shameful enough that Trump’s solutions run contrary to American values, but it’s more shameful that his followers refuse to acknowledge it. Such brainwashed behavior is demeaning to them and harmful to the country. Perhaps that’s why Trump enjoys the endorsement of sev[eral white supremacist groups](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-neo-nazi-support%5F56660b92e4b079b2818fcd36), one of which proclaimed on their website: “Heil Donald Trump—The Ultimate Savior” and called for him to “Make America White Again!” Don’t worry — he’s trying his hardest.  My manager Deborah Morales and I with Trump several years ago, before he forgot there are Muslim athletes Provided by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Trump’s latest enemy _du jour_ are Muslims. He’s the schoolyard bully rallying classmates to make fun of the skinny kid with glasses. When President Obama said that “Muslim-Americans are our friends and our neighbors; our co-workers, our sports heroes,” Trump quickly tweeted: “[What sport is he talking about, and who](https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/673741357190615040)?” The press immediately provided him with a list, as well as photos of Trump with prominent Muslim-American sports figures, including Shaquille O’Neal, Mike Tyson, Muhammad Ali and, yes, me. What makes his statement even more insidious is the suggestion that, even if there were no Muslim sports heroes, Muslims would somehow be lesser people, less worthy. This cruel and dim-witted thinking is not the stuff presidents are made of. Trump’s claims that he might support registering Muslims as well as call for a ban of Muslims from entering the United States — even U.S. citizens abroad — have elevated him to the level of a James Bond super-villain. And like those villains, he is doomed to failure. Even former Vice-President Dick [Cheney condemned Trump](http://time.com/4139998/dick-cheney-trump-muslims/): his proposals go “against everything we stand for and believe.” There’s absolutely no evidence that his unconstitutional ideas would help in any way—quite the opposite. Secretary of Homeland Security [Jeh Johnson criticized](http://www.breitbart.com/video/2015/12/08/dhs-sec-jeh-johnson-trump-muslim-ban-illegal-unconstitutional-un-american/) Trump’s proposal as “irresponsible, probably illegal, unconstitutional and contrary to international law, un-American, and will actually hurt our efforts at homeland security.” One of my favorite poems is “The Second Coming” by W.B. Yeats, in which he describes, in a chillingly obtuse and mystical way, a second coming — not of Christ, but of something much darker and sinister: _And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,/Slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?_ When I read the description of the beast, it’s “gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,” I can’t help but think of Trump and his cynical strategy of using misinformation, half-truths and deception in order to gain access to a position that should only be held by those who would be repulsed by that strategy. Indeed, what rough beast slouches toward Washington to be born? ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] [ NOISE ] I see your face. [ MUSIC ] My crowds have gotten larger. They've gotten even more energized to a point where we go into a place, whether it's New Hampshire, whether it's Iowa, whether it's Columbus, Ohio. No matter where I go, we have many more people than we anticipated. And the other thing I see now that I didn't see as much, tremendous energy, tremendous spirit. They want to make America great again. It's very simple. They want to make America great again. [ CROSSTALK ] [ APPLAUSE ] United States, Donald Trump. I am less politically correct than you're supposed to be and I will tell you, I don't do it purposely. I could be so politically correct you would sit with me and people would say, wow, he is such a fine person, he is a, I just don't have time for it. Political correctness takes a lot of time, takes a tremendous amount of time. We are lead by very, very stupid people. Mexico sends it's people. Oh I don't know what I said. They're not sending their best. I don't remember. Bringing drugs. Out of hundreds of deals that I've done. They're bringing crime. I've taken advantage of the laws of this country. They're rapists. We don't win anymore. And some, I assume, are good people. I'm really rich. I'll show you that myself. I was called by a major, major A reporter, whose name I won't use. He said, " How does it feel ?" I said, " How does what feel ?" " What you've done has never been done in the history of United States politics. I say, " What do you mean by that ?" He said, " Nobody has ever done what you've done. The energy, the crowds, the whole concept of what you've done has never been done ." And I said, " Well, what have I done? I haven't won ." If I don't win it's just a waste of time as far as I'm concerned. I will consider it a giant waste of time. He said, no you're wrong, if you don't win you have still done something that's never been done before. I tend to disagree with him, I think I have to win. I'm about winning. 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