Mr. Zeldin’s Party of Fear

From conversations locally, it seems that a fair number of rank-and-file supporters of President Donald J. Trump really fear, deep in their hearts, the prospect of a terror attack within the United States by radicalized Muslims. As irrationally improbable as that may be — deadly violence in the United States since 9/11 is overwhelmingly a homegrown crisis — the so-called immigration ban makes them at least feel safer. They are not alone; according to polls cited by The New York Times, almost half of U.S. respondents favored more restrictions on migrants from “terror-prone” regions.

Such poll data might help explain why Representative Lee Zeldin, the First District congressman, was among those speaking out in favor of Mr. Trump’s precipitious order blocking entry to Green Card holders and others on Friday. But it does not explain how Mr. Zeldin, who has often sought to score political points by promoting his Jewish background, can so easily promote a policy so based on religous and ethnic discrimination. 

Mr. Zeldin appeared to want to have it both ways this week, by working for the release of a Stony Brook University linguistics doctorate candidate from Iran who had been detained at John F. Kennedy Airport as a result of Mr. Trump’s executive order. In a press release, Mr. Zeldin’s office said that he had been monitoring the situation.

Also worth noting is that Mr. Zeldin, during his overseas deployment with the United States Army, likely crossed paths with some of the Iraqi translators and other on-the-ground support staff now barred from entry by Mr. Trump’s order.

We would hardly expect Mr. Zeldin to turn on the president now. He was among Mr. Trump’s earliest supporters during the primary and won re-election by a large margin in November. Adding to his confidence perhaps is the fact that Mr. Trump easily beat Hillary Clinton in the First District. But bowing to the political winds does not excuse him from standing by as many core American values are assailed by the White House. We would hope that Mr. Zeldin would have a sudden change of heart, but we, sadly, do not see that happening any time soon.