Trump followed his proposal with an email to reporters in December 2015: Without looking at the various polling data, it is obvious to anybody the hatred is beyond comprehension. Where this hatred comes from and why we will have to determine. Until we are able to determine and understand this problem and the dangerous threat it poses, our country cannot be the victims of horrendous attacks by people that believe only in Jihad, and have no sense of reason or respect for human life.

Trump did not distinguish between fringe groups of violent extremists and the rest of the worlds nearly 2 billion Muslims .

Several months later, he declared, I think Islam hates us in an interview with CNN s Anderson Cooper . He went on to say that his objection was to radical Islam, but added: Its very hard to define. Its very hard to separate. Because you dont know whos who.

The presidents anti-Muslim rhetoric has hampered his efforts to impose a travel ban on non-visa holders from several countries, including five with majority Muslim populations. The Trump administration has claimed the proposal doesnt constitute a Muslim ban, though Trump has called it one . And judges have pointed to the presidents numerous Islamophobic comments to question the bans legality.

There is nothing veiled about a press release titled Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States, U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson wrote in March.

During his campaign, Trump liked to tell an apocryphal story about an American general shooting Muslims with bullets dipped in pigs blood . He also made the dubious claim that he saw thousands of Muslims in New Jersey cheering as the twin towers fell, failing to note that Muslim Americans lost loved ones in the Sept. 11 attacks , too.

Trump additionally suggested that the mother of a fallen Muslim American soldier wasnt allowed to talk while her husband spoke at the Democratic National Convention. And Trumps inauguration in January included prayers from a pastor who thinks Islam is evil.

After a Muslim American man killed 49 people at a nightclub in Orlando, Florida, Trump called for increased surveillance of mosques and warned that radical Muslims were trying to take over our children.

The month after the election, an anti-Muslim hate group bragged about its influence in the White House , saying it had a direct line to the incoming Trump administration .

Early on in his presidency, Trump surrounded himself with a number of known Islamophobes, including former national security aide Sebastian Gorka and former political adviser Steve Bannon . Trumps pick for national security advisor, Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn who was fired after 24 days on the job called Islam a cancer and said fear of the religion was justified. Senior Trump adviser Frank Wuco has claimed that Muslims by and large want to subjugate non-Muslims.

Trumps comments have been accompanied by growing Islamophobia and a rise in anti-Muslim incidents in the U.S., which last year reached the highest levels since the period immediately following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Last year, a report from the Southern Poverty Law Center showed that the number of anti-Muslim groups in the U.S. had tripled in 2016.

Meanwhile, the president has been largely silent on attacks on Muslims, demonstrating a double standard in how he reacts to acts of terror.