Jolie: Trump Is 'Playing With Fire'

By "writing off citizens of entire countries—even babies—as unsafe to visit our country by virtue of geography or religion," the US risks abandoning its ideals and fueling extremism abroad, Angelina Jolie writes in an op-ed in the New York Times. While she says it's "entirely justifiable" that we make our borders safer in the face of terrorism, "our response must be measured and should be based on facts, not fear." For example, the idea that our borders are being flooded is all wrong, she says. The US takes in a tiny fraction of the world's refugees, and "far from being terrorists," they are "often the victims of terrorism themselves." And those lucky enough to get here undergo a thorough vetting, despite claims to the contrary.

"If we send a message that it is acceptable to close the door to refugees, or to discriminate among them on the basis of religion, we are playing with fire," Jolie warns. "We are lighting a fuse that will burn across continents, inviting the very instability we seek to protect ourselves against." It not only sets a dangerous precedent that other countries may follow, it's in complete opposition to American values—and as we learned after 9/11, "every time we depart from our values we worsen the very problem we are trying to contain." Click for Jolie's full column. (Celebrities recently reimagined "I Will Survive" as an anti-Trump anthem.)