These Days Before the Vote: "The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way – everywhere in the world."

Whitewater, Wis. — This Tuesday evening in Wisconsin continues These Days Before the Vote, a series addressing, each day before the November election, a principle or position on which our liberal democratic tradition rests.

Let's go only one line further from Roosevelt's remarks on freedom of speech in his address to Congress on January 6, 1941. Roosevelt then said:

The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way --everywhere in the world.

See Franklin D. Roosevelt, Annual Message to Congress on the State of the Union (Jan. 6, 1941), Nat’l Archives.

Eighty-five years later, we've not achieved Roosevelt's hope for future days. On the contrary, in our present day, Trump and his party have declared a political and cultural war on Muslims. Trump and his officials treat Islamic belief, Muslim civic organizations, and Muslims both here and abroad with suspicion.

Trump's June 2025 proclamation restricted immigration from a dozen Muslim countries: fully restricted entry for nationals of twelve countries, including Afghanistan, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen. He later expanded those restrictions to nationals from Mali, Niger, and Syria, and people traveling on Palestinian Authority documents. See Restricting the Entry of Foreign Nationals to Protect the United States from Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats, Proclamation No. 10,949, 90 Fed. Reg. 24,497 (June 10, 2025).

Where Roosevelt hoped for worldwide freedom of belief, Trump now builds a perimeter fence against much of that world.

If you have met anyone — anywhere, at any time — who is confident that Trump understands Islam (or for that matter even his own supposed religious beliefs), then you have met one person this libertarian blogger has not.

Trump's remarks about Islam are no more than a series of calumnies, one worse than the next. He has long and falsely insisted that “Shariah authorizes such atrocities as murder against non-believers who won't convert.” Donald J. Trump, Statement on Preventing Muslim Immigration (Dec. 7, 2015), The American Presidency Project. He has called for "surveillance of certain mosques." See Donald J. Trump, Transcript of Remarks at Campaign Appearance, CNN Inside Politics, November 22, 2015. Trump has expressed support for a Muslim database, then lied about that support. See Jordyn Phelps, Donald Trump Would ‘Certainly Implement’ a Registry of Muslims, ABC News, November 20, 2015 ("I would certainly implement that, absolutely."). Trump has long insisted that "thousands of Muslims” in New Jersey had cheered the September 11 attacks. Neither Trump operatives nor any news organizations have found contemporaneous reporting confirming his claim. See What ABC News Footage Shows of 9/11 Celebrations, ABC News, December 4, 2015.

Trump has not changed these years later. On the contrary, he has grown more bigoted as age loosens his tongue. He casually and routinely describes Muslims as violent. See Donald Trump Remarks on Executive Order and Vaccination Schedules, Roll Call, August 10, 2026 (even during an executive order on vaccines: “We have jihadists being elected all over the place.").

Trump typically ridicules Muslim names, which in its own way may be the least of his assaults on Muslims. This very October, at a Tennessee rally, Trump deliberately called Dr. Abdul El-Sayed “Mohammed,” while acknowledging that his name was Abdul, and thereafter saying, “He’s a radical jihadist.” See Ian Schwartz, Trump on Abdul El-Sayed: “I Call Him Mohammed,” “I’m The President, I Can Call Him Whatever The Hell I Want,” RealClearPolitics, October 10, 2026.

When U.S. Rep. Randy Fine declares that “If they force us to choose, the choice between dogs and Muslims is not a difficult one,” he's culpable on his own and additionally culpable for following his party's leader. See Kanishka Singh, US Lawmaker Fine Criticized by Rights Advocates, Democrats After Anti-Muslim Remarks, Reuters, February 17, 2026.

Where Roosevelt called for freedom of worship everywhere in the world, Trump calls for surveillance and restrictions against Islam at home and barriers against Muslims abroad.