ISIS supports Trump

Donald Trump has said that "no one will be tougher" on terrorism than him, but new analysis from Foreign Affairs magazine shows that ISIS — the terror group Trump has pledged to eradicate — is actually hoping for the Republican nominee to win the US presidency.

Foreign Affairs analyzed ISIS' online channels and interviewed a dozen supporters and defectors to reach its conclusion.

The magazine found that "jihadists are rooting for a Trump presidency because they believe that he will lead the United States on a path to self-destruction."

Malcolm Nance, a terrorism expert and veteran military-intelligence officer, offered a similar assessment after a terrorism debate at the Comedy Cellar in New York City last month.

"Donald Trump is ISIS' preferred candidate and anything that he does is going to be done to the detriment of the United States," Nance told Business Insider, adding, "Donald Trump is unstable."

It's unclear whether ISIS leadership openly advocates for a Trump presidency. Experts have expressed skepticism about this and noted that the group seems to talk about President Barack Obama more often than they talk about Trump.

And despite Hillary Clinton's assertion that Trump is "ISIS' best recruiter," it seems that most of the pro-Trump propaganda comes from supporters of the group rather than top-tier members themselves.

Still, Foreign Affairs found that ISIS chatter on social media and messaging apps like Telegram seemed to favor getting Trump to the White House. And some verified members of the group told the magazine that they think Trump could lead the world into the apocalyptic final battle that is the ultimate endgame for ISIS.

Original Quill wrote:While "a dozen supporters and defectors" doesn't sound like a very scientific sample, it is a well known fact that ISIL will gain by US involvement, as did al Qaeda during the past wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Terrorists are not warriors, but messengers.  Terrorism is too insignificant to comprise a real military assault.  Acts of terror are usually small and self-destructive.  But they publicize and hope to draw sympathy to their cause.

Every time America enters a fray, everyone worldwide recalls images of David and Goliath.  That image fits in perfectly with the messaging that ISIL wants to put out.  An ignorant Goliath in the middle east would create a rallying post around which worldwide sympathizers would gather.  It would be a public relations coup.

Trump is dumb and quite inexperienced, and could easily be goaded into involving the US in another meaningless war.  Another war--especially at the moment when the US public is against any military adventures--will mean opportunities for ISIL to demonstrate their victim status, and win the hearts of the world.

So it's no surprise that shop-talk around ISIL favors Trump.

Ben Reilly wrote:

Original Quill wrote:While "a dozen supporters and defectors" doesn't sound like a very scientific sample, it is a well known fact that ISIL will gain by US involvement, as did al Qaeda during the past wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Terrorists are not warriors, but messengers.  Terrorism is too insignificant to comprise a real military assault.  Acts of terror are usually small and self-destructive.  But they publicize and hope to draw sympathy to their cause.

Every time America enters a fray, everyone worldwide recalls images of David and Goliath.  That image fits in perfectly with the messaging that ISIL wants to put out.  An ignorant Goliath in the middle east would create a rallying post around which worldwide sympathizers would gather.  It would be a public relations coup.

Trump is dumb and quite inexperienced, and could easily be goaded into involving the US in another meaningless war.  Another war--especially at the moment when the US public is against any military adventures--will mean opportunities for ISIL to demonstrate their victim status, and win the hearts of the world.

So it's no surprise that shop-talk around ISIL favors Trump.

It's actually a problem with the whole Republican Party -- Al Qaeda wanted McCain to win in 2008, and the CIA believes Bin Laden's 2004 commentary tape was meant to help swing the election to Bush. Looks like they tried a bit of that reverse psychology in 2012 as well.

Ben Reilly wrote:Nope! Terrorists have essentially been hijacking a lot of military infrastructure from us in order to even have wars. They don't have the ships and planes to invade, so they provoke us into invasions.