Is Donald Trump a Salafi?

Is Donald Trump a Salafi?
A recent tweet by US President Donald Trump has had some social media users scratching their head about the POTUS' religious leanings.
1 min read
27 Jul, 2017
Donald Trump has attempted to maintain his appeal to America's religious right [AFP]
Is US President Donald Trump a Salafi? The simple answer, of course, would be no. But in his recent attempts to please America's religious Right the Twitter-fingers-in-chief ended up perhaps sounding less presidential and more like a puritanical preacher. 

"IN AMERICA WE DON'T WORSHIP GOVERNMENT - WE WORSHIP GOD!" Trump tweeted on Wednesday.

In the tweet, the president shared a link to a video in which he is seen telling an ecstatic crowd of supporters that "family and faith - not government and bureaucracy - are the foundations of our society".

In a word he told Americans that God trumps democracy.

The tweet received close to 30,000 retweets and over 100,000 likes.


"Guy turned out to be a Salafi," wrote another, drawing parallels between the president's tweet and Salafi Muslims' zealous insistence on refraining from all acts that could be deemed as idolatry. 


Elsewhere, US social media users were split between those who are not convinced by the president's new-found religious enthusiasm and those who see him as a protector of traditional 'family values'.