When Trump proposed as a candidate to ban Muslims from entering the country, Stefanik told a local newspaper in a telephone interview, "This is not who we are as a country... This is not according to our constitutional principle." "And I associate myself with Speaker (Paul) Ryan's comment just saying there is no place for what Trump said about Muslims in this country." "I don't think that's who we are," she said again in January 2016 in a radio interview, adding Trump would not be the nominee. "That's not according to our constitutional principles." After Trump won the Republican primary, Stefanik's critiques of him did not diminish, even though she pledged to support the Republican nominee. Stefanik criticized Trump for attacking Khizr Khan, a 2016 speaker at the Democratic National Convention whose Muslim son was killed in Iraq while serving as a US soldier in 2004. "I think there is no excuse to be attacking Gold Star families," she said in August 2016. "Military families deserve our utmost respect."