He advocated a largely non-interventionist approach to foreign policy while increasing military spending, extreme vetting or banning immigrants from Muslim-majority countries[183] to pre-empt domestic Islamic terrorism, and aggressive military action against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. He described NATO as "obsolete".[184][185]
Trump helped bring far-right fringe ideas, beliefs, and organizations into the mainstream.[186] In January 2016, Trump retweeted a racist Twitter account.[187][188] Trump was slow to disavow an endorsement from David Duke after he was questioned about it during a CNN interview on February 28, 2016.[189] Duke enthusiastically supported Trump and said he and like-minded people voted for Trump because of his promises to "take our country back".[190][191] In August 2016, Trump hired Steve Bannon, the executive chairman of Breitbart News—described by Bannon as "the platform for the alt-right"—as his campaign CEO.[192] The alt-right movement coalesced around and supported Trump's candidacy, due in part to its opposition to multiculturalism and immigration.[193][194][195] In an interview after the election, Trump said of the alt-right that he did not want to "energize the group" and that he disavowed them.