Anti-Muslim racism intensified and became a deliberate GOP electoral strategy.

Evidence

Instead of abating with time, anti-Muslim racism has intensified. Indeed, Muslims serve as convenient scapegoats for Republican politicians eager to mobilize their right-wing base. Thus, it was no coincidence that Trump campaigned in 2015 and 2016 on an anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant platform. His advisers were unabashedly Islamophobic and White nationalist. — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 853

Categorization

• XREF: Builds on earlier chapters framing Trump’s 2017 travel ban executive order as an outgrowth of the Islamophobia industry. — connects to: Electoral politics incentivize both parties to weaponize anti-Muslim racism for career gain — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 743; Anti-abortion absolutism fused with Christian nationalism to anchor GOP loyalty by 2016 — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers: Inside the…, 290; Contentious violence against minorities can yield major electoral gains for the aggressors’ party. — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 1334