Anti-Muslim platform positions helped Trump rise in 2016 Republican primary polls

Evidence

Islamophobic rhetoric by American politicians both reflected and validated the negative media coverage. In the 2016 presidential primary battles, for example, Donald Trump, Newt Gingrich, Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio resorted to targeting Islam and Muslims in seeking to mobilize broad-based support for their candidacy. Trump, the leading Republican candidate, advocated a freeze on all Muslim immigration, as well as the monitoring or even the forced closure of American mosques. The result? Trump soared in the polls. — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 40

Categorization

• XREF: Contrasts with The Reluctant Fundamentalist’s depiction of post-9/11 Muslim invisibility — here Muslims become hyper-visible as threat objects. — connects to: Anti-abortion absolutism fused with Christian nationalism to anchor GOP loyalty by 2016 — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers: Inside the…, 290; By late 2015 a majority of Trump supporters believed Obama was Muslim — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long: The Legacy of White…, 49