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Taking Heat on Gaza, Biden Reminds Voters of Trump’s Muslim Ban

Democrats are trying a way to address the backlash to the president’s handling of Israel’s war in Gaza.

A protester holds a sign during a 2017 demonstration to denounce President Donald Trump's travel ban from Muslim-majority countries.
Then-President Donald Trump’s enacted his first travel ban from Muslim-majority countries in January 2017. Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP

In his first run for president, Donald Trump promised a Muslim ban. Now, nearly seven years after Trump’s administration enacted a travel ban from several Muslim-majority countries, Democrats and Joe Biden want to be sure voters remember.

Biden and his allies are highlighting the former president’s treatment of Muslims as the current president deals with his own struggles with Muslims and Arab Americans over his handling of Israel’s war in Gaza.

“The more it becomes that binary choice between someone who is going to implement a Muslim ban on day one versus someone who is trying to develop a two-state solution,” one Biden ally told NOTUS, “there is really no choice.”