Carl Higbie

In a CNN interview with retired-Major General Paul Eaton and Chris Cuomo, Higbie was critical of the use of air power and drone strikes by the Obama administration and argued in support of Trump's promise to address problems in Iraq with "boots on the ground."[17] He was also critical of Eaton, who was the U.S. Army Chief of Infantry and then the Commanding General of the Coalition Military Assistance Training Team in Iraq (2003–2004),[22] stating that the leadership "[Eaton's] articulated here today is not conducive to winning a war."[17]

During the transition following the 2016 presidential election, Higbie defended Steve Bannon from accusations of anti-Semitism, misogyny, and racism.[18] Of Bannon's appointment as chief strategist to President-elect Trump, Higbie said: "Steve Bannon has excelled in every single role he has held dating back to his service in the US Navy. I cannot imagine a better person to be advising an already successful businessman taking on the biggest business in the world, the US Government."[18]

In an interview with Megyn Kelly of Fox News,[18] Higbie cited the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II and the associated Supreme Court decision in Korematsu v. United States as providing legal justification for Trump's campaign promise of a registry for Muslim Americans.[24] Higbie repeated his comments on CNN to Erin Burnett the following day.[16] Kelly replied that Higbie "knows better" than to make such suggestions, as they scare people.[25] Kelly met Higbie's further assertion that he was only noting "there was precedent for it" with the declaration: "You can't be citing Japanese internment camps for anything the President-elect is going to do."[25] Trump's transition team later issued a statement to the Huffington Post that denied that Trump supported a Muslim registry,[26] though he had made comments supporting such an idea in 2015.[27][28]

George Takei, who was detained in one of the World War II internment camps, described Higbie's comments as "dangerous"[29] and went on to say that "[r]egistration of any group of people, and certainly registration of Muslims, is a prelude to internment."[26] Higbie's comments attracted media criticism,[20] and Representative Judy Chu (D–CA), the first Chinese American woman elected to the U.S. Congress,[30] declared that "[a]ny proposal to force American Muslims to register with the federal government, and to use Japanese imprisonment during World War II as precedent, is abhorrent and has no place in our society. These ideas are based on tactics of fear, division, and hate that we must condemn."[27] Constitutional lawyer Bruce Fein addressed Higbie's suggestion that Korematsu could be used to support a Muslim registry, describing the case as having "joined Dred Scott as an odious and discredited artifact of popular bigotry"[31] even though it has never been overturned.[32] Harvard University's Noah Feldman concurred, declaring that "Korematsu's uniquely bad legal status means it's not precedent even though it hasn't been overturned."[33]

At its conference in Washington, D.C., in November 2016, the National Policy Institute celebrated Trump's victory as "the first step towards identity politics in the United States," and the audience responded to the end of Richard Spencer's speech – "Hail Trump! Hail our people! Hail victory!" – by standing and making the Nazi salute.[34] Higbie participated in a CNN panel discussion with Angela Rye to discuss the conference, and described the attendees as "morons" and "idiots" who do not represent the Republican Party as a whole.[21] The discussion became heated, with Rye calling the Republicans the "party of oppression" and describing Higbie's knowledge of history as "ass backwards" after Higbie stated that Martin Luther King Jr. would support the Republicans.[21]

In 2018, Higbie was forced to resign as the Chief of External Affairs for the Corporation for National and Community Service (an organization which runs AmeriCorps, Learn and Serve America, Senior Corps, and other national service initiatives), a position to which Trump had appointed him. His ousting occurred after CNN discovered Higbie's racist and inflammatory remarks (on a 2013 radio talk show) about Black Americans, Muslims, women, LGBT people, veterans suffering from PTSD, welfare recipients, and immigrants, which included suggesting withdrawing the right to vote from welfare recipients, and advocating free rein for all to go and shoot undocumented immigrants at the southern USA border.[35][36] Higbie had also repeatedly stated his belief that Barack Obama is Muslim and not a U.S. citizen.[35]

In a 2018 tweet, Higbie apologized for his comments,[35] though later that year he maintained his statements had been taken out of context.[37]