Fox host Kayleigh McEnany falsely claims Trump didn’t enact a Muslim ban

Written by Pete Tsipis

Published

On the June 4 edition of Outnumbered, Fox News host Kayleigh McEnany falsely claimed that former President Donald Trump did not implement a Muslim ban during his administration. McEnany, a former Trump White House press secretary, argued that Trump instead ordered a “country ban” and was not discriminating against any religious group when he suspended travel and immigration from several Muslim-majority countries.

However, Trump's executive order that he dubbed a “travel ban” was in fact a version of his proposed Muslim ban that he announced in 2015. Then-candidate Trump, who had also previously called for government surveillance of mosques and floated the idea of Muslims being registered to a database, called for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.” Within a week of being inaugurated president, Trump issued the executive order banning citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States for 90 days. 

The Trump administration later revised the ban “to strengthen it against legal challenges” after a federal court ruled the initial ban to be unconstitutional. While Trump insisted that his executive order was a “travel ban” and not a Muslim ban, he also equated that executive order to his original proposal to ban Muslims from entering the country at least a dozen times.

From the June 4, 2024, edition of Fox News' Outnumbered

KAYLEIGH MCENANY (CO-HOST): Part of the political decision, Carley, I believe the reason he took so long was he did not want to anger the far left. They are already angry about Gaza, they are already angry at him for any number of reasons. And it's interesting in the background call we're now able to report on, the administration told reporters this: “This only applies during times of high encounters. Only between ports of entry. This does not apply to children. This does not ban people based on their religion” — which, by the way, Trump never banned people based on their religion. It happened to be some Muslim-majority countries. It wasn't a religion ban, it was a country ban based on the levels of terrorism. So my point is they are couching this in such a way as to try to keep the far left but win back independents.