Donald Trump May Want To Do More Than Ban Muslims

In the presidential primary, presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump called for a ban on Muslims entering the United States and the surveillance of mosques in controversial comments heavily criticized as bigotry. In the wake of last week's deadly mass shooting at an Orlando nightclub, Trump has ratcheted up his rhetoric about Muslims, doubling down on many of his earlier proposals while floating a few new ideas for how to respond to acts of terrorism. The real estate mogul and reality TV star continued to expand on his comments about "radical Islamic extremists" Sunday in an interview with CBS' Face the Nation. Speaking with host John Dickerson, Trump proposed the government begin profiling Muslims.

"I think profiling is something that we're going to have to start thinking about as a country," Trump said when asked if his "bottom line" was a call for increasing profiling of Muslims in America. "Other countries do it; you look at Israel and you look at others and they do it and they do it successfully."

Profiling is commonly defined as the practice of singling out specific individuals for scrutiny by government or law enforcement based on the person's personal characteristics — such as race, ethnicity, national origin, or religion — rather than their behaviors.

"I hate the concept of profiling. But we have to start using common sense, and we have to use, you know, we have to use our heads," Trump continued to say Sunday. "We really have to look at profiling. We have to look at it seriously. And other countries do it and it's not the worst thing to do."

As a practice, profiling is often criticized as discriminatory. In an effort to curb racial and ethnic profiling, the Department of Justice issued guidance in 2003 that prohibited federal law enforcement from employing the practice, which it defined as "invidious discrimination," according to the Brennan Center for Justice. But the practice of religious profiling was not addressed and has been periodically put to use by authorities since the 9/11 attacks.

In the days following the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history, Trump has renewed much of the anti-Muslim rhetoric he appeared to be backing away from after being named the Republican Party's presumptive nominee. The day after the Orlando shooting Trump referred to Muslim Americans as "these people," drawing an unmistakable line between "us" and "them" in a speech calling for people to report on their neighbors. In an interview on Fox News, he seemed to suggest President Barack Obama was sympathetic to Muslim terrorists.

His comments caused some GOP leaders like House Speaker Paul D. Ryan to publicly denounce and push back against their party's presumptive nominee in a sign Trump's road to the Republican National Convention may not be as smooth as first thought.