Trump says Obama may have secret agenda on such attacks
WASHINGTON — Presumptive Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump broke out an old attack line against President Barack Obama on Monday, suggesting that there’s “something going on” with an American leader who avoids blaming “radical Islamic terrorism” for events such as the Orlando, Florida, massacre.
The country is “led by a man that either is not tough, not smart, or he’s got something else in mind,” Trump said in an interview Monday morning with Fox News. “And the something else in mind — you know, people can’t believe it. … They cannot believe that President Obama is acting the way he acts and can’t even mention the words ‘radical Islamic terrorism.’ There’s something going on. It’s inconceivable. There’s something going on.”
Trump did not clarify what he meant, but he has previously flirted with theories that Obama, who says he is a Christian, is actually a Muslim. During the last election cycle, he repeatedly suggested that Obama was hiding his birth certificate because it might identify him as a Muslim. Even after Obama released the long-form version of his birth certificate, Trump tweeted about the “black Muslim in the White House.”
Some Republicans have suggested that Trump would move away from espousing such theories once the Republican primaries ended. But Monday’s statements made clear that he does not plan such a switch and is likely to continue making such appeals on into the general election. The White House dismissed Trump’s remarks. Hillary Clinton — likely to be the Democratic presidential candidate Trump will face as the likely Republican candidate in November’s presidential election — called Monday for more bipartisanship in the effort to track potential terrorists online and for closing a loophole allowing individuals on a federal terrorism watch list from purchasing assault weapons, in her first televised remarks following the Orlando night club shootings.
Trump, who reiterated his support for a temporary ban on Muslim travel to the U.S., accused Clinton of planning to “dramatically increase admissions from the Middle East.”