Donald Trump has done another brilliant job of planting himself into the story and catapulting him into the national spotlight. After the disturbing attacks in San Bernardino, California by ISIS-inspired terrorists, Trump proposed the brash and polarizing idea that the United States should ban all Muslims coming into the U.S. until “our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.” The extreme viewpoint was applauded by some as well as met with disdain, and even comparisons to Adolf Hitler. The hacktivist group Anonymous has deemed the rhetoric of the leading Republican candidate to be dangerous, and have since declared war on Mr. Trump.
. America is not immune to Fascism. . #Trump EXPECT US. . #OpTrump is on. JOIN IN !!! . #Anonymous #AnonFamily #Anon pic.twitter.com/GZCQonQX8R
— ANONYMOUS JOBS (@AnonymousJobsUS) December 10, 2015
Anonymous posted a video announcing their intentions, “It has come to our attention that you want to ban all Muslims to enter the United States. This policy is going to have a huge impact. This is what ISIS wants.” The hashtag #OpTrump saw many Twitter users supporting the actions by Anonymous.
The hacktivist group’s initial attack was a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) on trumptowerny.com. As of 7:45 a.m. EST, the website trumptowerny.com was working intermittently.
https://t.co/AhA1CqdXPt nearly down. we need more laz0rs! #DDoS #OpTrump #OpFire pic.twitter.com/L6mKFMpFzF
— #TrollingDay Dec11 (@FibsFreitag) December 9, 2015
Trump was asked if he regretted the ban on Muslims proposal, to which he said the following:
Not at all. We have to do the right thing. Somebody in this country has to say what’s right. I have great respect and love, I have people that I have tremendous relationships with, they’re Muslim. And Barbara, they agree with me 100%. It’s short-term. Let our country get its act together.
They knocked down the World Trade Center, they tried doing it twice. Other things have happened. They have a lot of — there are people that have tremendously bad intentions. We have to be tough, we have to smart and we have to be vigilant.
A national NBC News/New York Times poll found that 57 percent of Americans oppose Trump’s ban on Muslims and 25 percent agree with him.
This comes right before “Anti-ISIS Day,” which was devised by Anonymous as a full 24 hours of trolling the terrorist organization as a “day of rage” against Daesh that happens today, December 11.