Islamic terrorism: Trump’s new problem at top of his to-do list

Incidents in New Orleans and Las Vegas mean Islamic terrorism is once again front and centre for US president-elect Donald Trump, with his inauguration just weeks away.

Islamist terrorism will be at the top of Donald Trump’s in-tray after the attack in New Orleans and a separate incident in Las Vegas in which a Tesla Cybertruck appeared to explode outside one of the president-elect’s hotels.

One person died and seven were injured at Trump International Hotel on Wednesday morning (overnight AEDT) in the city in Nevada. Reports suggested the incident was being investigated as a possible terrorist attack. It happened hours after a pick-up truck was driven into a crowd of New Year’s Eve revellers in New Orleans.

The terror threat confronting the United States had until today looked far different than it did in 2017, when Mr Trump first took office. When he took over from Barack Obama, Islamic State was at its apex, controlling large areas of territory across Syria and Iraq and staging external operations in the West.

After its near-total defeat in 2019, the group has done little to trouble President Biden. The terrorist attacks that hit the US and Europe with alarming regularity from 2014 until 2019 had largely stopped by the time Mr Biden entered the White House. Geopolitics have shifted in recent weeks, however.

Complicating matters for Mr Trump, whose inauguration is on January 20, is the volatile situation in Syria. Since Bashar al-Assad’s fall, Mr Trump has said that the US should stay out of the nation, where several thousand American troops are stationed.

“You are on the front line of the war against terror,” Sebastian Gorka, tasked by Trump to lead counterterrorism efforts, told Americans yesterday.

Colin Clarke, an associate fellow at the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism, said: “Trump has signalled a potentially lessened emphasis on counter-terrorism, relying on an ‘over-the-horizon’ approach to targeting terrorist groups and their leaders. The Trump administration will need to come into the White House on day one or risk getting punched in the face.”

The Times