Trump's Mormon Problem

Many Mormons see frightening parallels between Trump’s attacks on Muslims today and their own fraught history. Joseph Smith, the religious community’s founding prophet, was murdered by an anti-Mormon mob, and at one time, “you could kill Mormons just like you could kill deer,” Utah Gov. Gary Herbert said in a recent interview with NPR. During the 19th century, some attacks on Mormons were officially sanctioned by the U.S. government. President Rutherford B. Hayes sought to limit the immigration of Mormon converts coming to the U.S. from Europe. Quin Monson, a professor of political science at Brigham Young University and co-author of Seeking the Promised Land: Mormons and American Politics, says “any Mormon that is even somewhat knowledgeable about Mormon history has respect for the ideals of religious freedom and feels empathy for religious minorities that are treated similarly.”