“Dear Muslims of the Levant, We Americans know you enjoy your oil-drenched lives of crass debauchery and fake religiosity.” This is a quote reportedly straight from notorious anti-Muslim figure Tom Trento.
Thomas Anthony Trento, better known as Tom Trento, is an American conservative figurehead who has a deep-rooted professional history in anti-Muslim and Islamophobic rhetoric. He is the founder and director of The United West, an organization whose stated mission is to “educate and activate freedom-minded people to effectively develop strategies and tactics… against the Satanic choke-hold of Islam…”
In 2006, Tom Trento, alongside “a unique group of highly skilled national security experts” founded the Florida Security Council, which would later be rebranded as The United West. As remembered by Trento himself, the group had regular trips to Europe to develop relationships “which resulted in a united effort to fight the encroachment of Islam in North America and Europe.”
In 2008, Trento reportedly assisted in distributing more than 28 million DVD copies of the 2005 anti-Muslim film Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West. A summary of the film describes it as a “film about the threat of Radical Islam to Western civilization.” It features interviews from Daniel Pipes and Steve Emerson, both associated with longstanding anti-Muslim organizations. Trento reportedly claimed that the film is “[t]he single most powerful piece of media over the past five years that has been effective in persuading average Americans to the Islamist threat” and that “[t]he intent of the movie was to activate people.”
Trento is a co-author of the report “Shariah: The Threat to America.” The report was published in 2010 by the Center for Security Policy, which has been designated as an anti-Muslim hate group by the Southern Policy Law Center. The 170-page report, full of conspiracies and anti-Muslim rhetoric, reportedly included claims such as that “many of the most prominent Muslim organizations in America are front groups for the Muslim Brotherhood.”
Tom Trento rebranded The Florida Security Council to The United West in March 2011. Among the attendees at the 2011 launch were prominent members of the Islamophobia Network, a group of individuals and organizations accused of fomenting anti-Islam and anti-Muslim sentiment, reportedly including Frank Gaffney, who is reportedly “one of America’s most notorious Islamophobes“ and Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff, who was “convicted of hate speech against Muslims.” Future President Donald Trump was also reportedly in attendance at the 2011 launch.
In 2013, during a 9/11 memorial in Venice, Florida, Trento, one of the speakers, reportedly claimed “Islam is the enemy” and the conspiracy theory that the the “Muslim Brotherhood has infiltrated America.”
In a June 2014 newsletter, Trento reportedly wrote a mocking letter to Muslims living in areas affected by ISIS. He reportedly wrote, “Dear Muslims of the Levant, We Americans know you enjoy your oil-drenched lives of crass debauchery and fake religiosity.” The newsletter also reportedly asked that Muslims “divest ownership in American gas stations, or at least clean the bathrooms.”
In a 2016 email to his supporters, Trento reportedly wrote, “There is no doubt that, for those with eyes to see, we are at war with devout Muslims who follow the jihad teachings of doctrinal Islam. Therefore, all Americans must adopt a ‘war-footing’ mentality and are constantly prepared for any threat, any situation, any problem.”
In a November 2023 video published on The United West featuring Tom Trento, the title reads: “Video: DON’T SAY ‘RADICAL ISLAM’ – MOHAMMAD = HAMAS, HAMAS = JIHAD, JIHAD = ISLAM.” The text below the video claims that “[d]octrinally, Islam has a GLOBAL mandate to subdue the world…”
In a video published on May 16, 2024, regarding campus protesters, Trento suggests that if Muslims in America were to build their ideal society, “they’re going to build a totalitarian state built on Sharia law that controls every aspect of every person’s life.” He also claims, “They [Muslims] have a business out of destroying, not producing.”
In a tweet published on June 17, 2025, linking his latest newsletter, Tom Trento writes, “Time to take back America from the lunatic left and maniac Muslims.”
Despite his Islamophobic remarks, key officials in the Trump administration, such as ‘Border Czar’ Tom Homan, have continued to partner with Trento, according to a webpage that publicized a tour to Israel with Homan and Trento in May 2025.