Trump has criticized the Black Lives Matter movement and accused former President Obama of " dividing America . " Speaking to Bill O'Reilly during his presidential campaign , Trump said that he may direct his Attorney General to look into the Black Lives Matter movement for criminal charges . When asked if he believes there to be a racial divide in America , Trump answered , " Sadly , there would seem to be ... and it 's probably not been much worse at any time . " When asked if he believes police treat African Americans differently than whites , Trump answered , " It could be . " Trump describes the police killings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile as " tough to watch " and criticized the " terrible , disgusting performance " by police . Trump said that he could relate to the systemic bias African Americans faced against whites , saying , " even against me the system is rigged when I ran ... for president . " When asked if he could understand the experience of being African American , Trump replied , " I would like to say yes , but you really ca n't unless you are African American . You ca n't truly understand what 's going on unless you are African American . I would like to say yes , however . " On November 19 , 2015 , a week after the November 2015 Paris attacks , when asked if he would implement a database system to track Muslims in the United States , Trump said : " I would certainly implement that . Absolutely . There should be a lot of systems , beyond databases . We should have a lot of systems . " On November 21 , Trump clarified that he does n't support any registry of Muslims in the US and said that his earlier supportive remarks for surveilling Muslims were due to efforts by news media to entrap him . He however said that he would order " surveillance of certain mosques " to combat " Islamic extremism " , alluding to the New York Police Department 's use of informants in mosques after the September 11 attacks . Trump also spoke in favor of a database on Syrian refugees without clarifying how it would be different from the records already kept by federal agencies . Trump 's support for a database of American Muslims " drew sharp rebukes from his Republican presidential rivals and disbelief from legal experts . " Trump justified his proposals by repeatedly saying that he recalled " thousands and thousands of people ... cheering " in Jersey City , New Jersey , when the World Trade Center towers fell . PolitiFact noted that this statement was false and gave it a " Pants on Fire " rating . It reported that the rating was based on some debunked rumors and also that there were only eight people ( suggested by unproven media reports ) purported to be seen cheering , as opposed to Trump 's claim of " thousands and thousands " . Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop called Trump 's claim " absurd " and said that Trump " has memory issues or willfully distorts the truth . " In June 2017 , the Department of Homeland Security dropped a planned 400,000 dollar grant to " Life After Hate " , a program which was intended to de-radicalize Neo-Nazis and stop white extremism . The change came following a review of priorities , begun during the Obama administration , with regards to a 10 million dollar DHS umbrella grant program for " Countering Violent Extremism "
September 11 attacks
September 11 attacks
Social policy of Donald Trump