ISIS jihadists are hoping and praying for a powerful new recruiting tool this November: a Donald Trump presidency.
Even though the GOP presidential candidate has promised to “knock the hell out of” ISIS extremists, the terror group is rooting for him to win the upcoming general election because they believe it will boost their ranks and their sick cause.
An analysis of ISIS social media channels and interviews with 12 terrorists some who have since defected shows extremists strongly back Trump over Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, according to Foreign Affairs magazine.
Trump’s over-the-top rhetoric makes him “the perfect enemy,” a former ISIS fighter told the magazine.
“I ask Allah to deliver America to Trump,” an ISIS spokesman wrote last week on an ISIS-affiliated outlet, the magazine said.
Another extremist posted on various ISIS social media channels that, “The ‘facilitation’ of Trump’s arrival in the White House must be a priority for jihadists at any costs!” the magazine said.
The jihadists interviewed by Foreign Affairs cited several reasons for their support of Trump but mainly, they felt the Republican’s anti-Muslim rhetoric would be great for recruitment.
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ISIS organizers also felt Trump’s extreme views would help radicalize more Muslims in the U.S. and Europe and inspire them to commit “lone-wolf attacks,” the magazine reported.
Several former ISIS fighters said Muslims in the Middle East already believe the West is against them but the beauty of Trump is that he is an “incubator” for homegrown terrorists.
The general perception of him is that he must be “insane or crazy,” the magazine said.
“He must be smoking bad hashish to say such crazy things,” one ex-fighter said.
Jihadists also like what they see when it comes to Trump’s loose-lipped and shoot-from-the-hip decision-making.
He’s viewed by ISIS members as “an unstable and irrational leader whose impulsive decision-making” will hurt the U.S., Foreign Affairs found.
Jihadists are also thrilled at his flame-throwing style of handling international relations, with one ex-fighter saying Trump “talks like a crazy person-not just about Muslims but about U.S. allies like Saudi Arabia.”
An ISIS spokesman recently declared on one of its online portals that a Trump presidency would be a boon for terrorists because it will “cause trouble with Arab despots . . . especially in the Gulf. Trump’s reign in America will unsettle (Gulf) rulers and make them vulnerable. The religious clerics of these rulers will not be able to defend them, and large numbers of people will join jihad,” the magazine reported.
There’s also a belief that Trump will cause unrest with China and “maybe start a third world war.”
As for Clinton, she doesn’t appear in ISIS propaganda and recruitment videos, said ex-fighter Adel, because “she never says anything bad about Muslims.”
He noted that it was much harder to use Clinton as a recruitment tool because she always said “Islam is not our adversary” and “Muslims are peaceful and tolerant people.”
