WND Exclusive

Hot-button candidate jumps into presidential race

Lightning rod for controversy seeks to legalize hemp, deport all illegals

Published: 1 hour agoby Aaron Klein


Pastor Terry Jones

Not one to shy away from controversy or from the media spotlight, Quran-burning pastor Terry Jones has announced he is running for president as a write-in independant candidate with a platform that includes legalizing hemp and deporting all illegal aliens.


“We are in the process of filing notices of intent with the secretaries of state across the nation,” says a news release for Jones’ Stand With Us organization.

Jones emailed WND his presidential platform, or what he calls “Seven points to save America:”

1. Stop overspending immediately. We are now overspending by 4 billion dollars a day.

2. Balance the budget. If this is not done, then we will experience a total collapse of our economy and way of life.

3. Reduce military spending. All military on foreign soil should be brought back immediately and all future involvement of military on foreign soil should not be engaged until our country has become strong again. The security of our nation must be reexamined and our military spending must be cut by several billion dollars.

4. Deport all illegals. We must immediately begin the deportation of the 20 million illegal aliens living in our country. This would be an operation similar to what Eisenhower did to provide jobs for the soldiers who were coming home after the war. This would save America $540 billion per year.

5. Reduce corporate taxes. Our corporate taxes are the highest in the world. Corporate taxes must be reduced immediately in order to encourage people to start new businesses and existing corporations to expand, thus producing the jobs that are needed.

6. Reduce bureaucracy. We must re-examine the bureaucracy of our government and businesses. We are dying and drowning in bureaucracy, rules and regulations. Companies must be held accountable for the consumer’s protection, but the over-control and over-kill that we have is destroying our companies.

7. Legalize hemp. Hemp is a plant that can be grown in our fields in America. It is friendly to the environment, and because it is a plant that is grown, it is unlimited. Unlike oil, we can never run out of hemp. It can be processed into a building material which is ten times stronger than steel. It can also be processed into a type of fuel which would replace our dependency upon foreign oil. The simple growing of hemp gives it unlimited availability, making it more economic than other forms of energy.

Jones is best known for setting off Muslim riots when he threatened to burn the Quran last year. In Afghanistan, protesters attacked a United Nations mission, killing at least 30 people, including seven U.N. workers, and injuring at least 150 people. Jones went through with the burnings in March 2011.
Last month, Jones again burned copies of the Quran as well as images of Muhammad after Iran refused his demands to release Youcef Nadarkhani, an imprisoned pastor sentenced to death sentence after converting from Islam to Christianity.

Hot-button candidate jumps into presidential race