My 6 year old daughter has a best friend at school who is Muslim and from a Muslim family. She is aware of the Presidential race, presumably from news. To my surprise, she has tearfully told me that she is afraid that if Donald Trump is elected President of the United States, her Muslim friend will be forced to leave the country.

I'm *shocked* that this is a concern that a 6 year old girl is having, and I'm not sure how to respond. 

Best I can tell, she got this idea from when Trump [called for a travel ban on all Muslims to the US][1]. Along with Trump's other anti-Muslim sentiments, it seems that this eventually morphed into a fear that her Muslim friend will be forced to leave the country if he becomes President. Hearing that Trump is currently the Republican frontrunner [as of the New Hampshire primary][2] probably reinforced her fears that he might actually be elected.

Correcting her by saying that Trump actually called for a travel ban, not deportation, isn't going to allay the underlying fears (and I believe that her Muslim friend has family relatives outside the US, which would apply to). I tried to explain to her that Trump can't make such a unilateral move on his own (it is my understanding that Congress would have to enact such a law) but she doesn't seem convinced, what with the media and Trump himself acting like he can. It doesn't help that at her age, she doesn't have a good grasp on how many parts there are to the government.

We've stopped watching the nightly news to limit her exposure to Trump's campaign, but I know she is still talking about it with her friends at school. It's causing her a lot of stress and I'm not sure what to do. How can I allay my daughter's fears?

<sub>I'm posting this on behalf of a family friend, who is not familiar with Stack Exchange, but I used the term "my daughter" for simplicity.</sub>


  [1]: http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/07/politics/donald-trump-muslim-ban-immigration/index.html
  [2]: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/10/us/politics/new-hampshire-primary.html?_r=0