A "glitch" on Trump's website was the culprit behind the disappearance of his controversial statement calling for a ban on Muslims.
"The website was temporarily redirecting all specific press release pages to the home page," Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said in an email to Reuters.
But, despite the statement's reappearance on the site, one of Trump's top advisers, Walid Phares, said that the suggested ban on Muslims is off the table in an interview after the election.
The notorious statement calling for a ban on Muslims entering the United States disappeared from the president-elect's website on Tuesday, leading to a plethora of media reports and expert commentary about possible changes in Trump policy.
After the November 2015 terrorist attacks on France, Trump called for the complete shutdown of Muslims entering the US "until our country's representatives can figure out what the hell is going on."
Since first calling for the blanket ban, Trump has reiterated his proposal on several occasions. Videos and speeches defending the ban haven't been taken down from the Trump campaign website.
Trump later adjusted his promise, replacing the "total and complete shutdown" with "extreme vetting", most notably in his second presidential debate with former Democratic presidential hopeful Hilary Clinton.
Trump's counter-terrorism and foreign policy adviser Walid Phares previously explained to The Daily Caller that Trump's call was more about the "need for a foreign policy and counter-terrorism strategy shift" than the actual ban of Muslims.
"The issue is, if you don’t have a measure for detecting who is who, and who is a jihadist and who is not, then we will keep having more bloodshed," he said.
Phares added that Trump's attitude stems from being a business man who is "simply looking at the problem from a national security perspective". He assured that Trump does not have any xenophobic ideologies.
"Lately, he has been adapting his position. The more he is informed of the subject, the more he is adapting."
In an interview with TRT World's Imran Garda a day after Trump's election, Phares said the ban was off the table. He said it "belonged to a different timezone".
"No more Muslims are on the table in terms of ban, this is over," Phares claimed, adding that Trump will work with Arab governments combating jihadists.
Trump will make sure to establish "an international web that would intercept the move of these radicals into the US".
In his victory speech, Trump vowed to be there for "Americans from all races, religions, backgrounds and beliefs".
Still, his election raises concern among Muslims and Arabs, in and out of the US. Some feel unsafe living in the country, and the past year has seen numerous hate crimes linked to Trump's campaign. The 24 hours that followed Trump's election also saw a spike in hate crimes, specifically against hijab-wearing Muslim women.