Trump: Bar all Muslims from entering US
LAS VEGAS (AFP) — Republican frontrunner Donald Trump called for a “total and complete shutdown” of all Muslims entering the United States, unleashing some of the most provocative and divisive remarks of his controversial presidential campaign.
The stunning statement followed last week’s mass shooting in California by a Muslim couple believed to have been radicalized by extremists, and landed with a thunderclap just as fellow presidential candidates were contemplating ways to improve national security.
His aides did not specify if the proposal would affect both tourists and immigrants, and did not say either if it would target American Muslims currently abroad.
In a rambling, 50-minute speech aboard the USS Yorktown later Monday, Trump read part of his statement aloud, hardening the tone and saying the halt on Muslims entering the country should remain in place “until our country’s representatives can figure out what the hell is going on.”
“We have no choice,” Trump said, saying that Islamist radicals want to kill Americans.
“It’s going to get worse and worse. We’re going to have more World Trade Centers,” he said, referring to the deadly attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
Trump drew swift condemnation by presidential rivals and the White House, which denounced his call to bar Muslims as “totally contrary” to US values.
“We have, in our Bill of Rights, respect for the freedom of religion,” said one of US President Barack Obama’s top foreign policy aides, Ben Rhodes.
Trump’s campaign cited poll data allegedly showing “hatred toward Americans by large segments of the Muslim population.”
”Where this hatred comes from and why we will have to determine,” the billionaire real estate mogul, who is leading in opinion polls among likely Republican voters, said in the statement.