Trump calls for ‘complete shutdown’ on Muslims entering U.S.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
A week of raging debate over Syrian refugees and Islamic State violence has scattered misinformation everywhere. In the Republican presidential contest, Trump found himself with a potential new rival, the Constitution, in calling for a registry of Muslim citizens.
NEWARK, N.J. >> Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump called Monday for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States,” an idea that prompted one of his rivals to call him “unhinged.”
The proposed ban would apply to immigrants and visitors alike, a sweeping prohibition affecting all adherents of Islam who want to come to the U.S. The idea also raised immediate questions about whether it could pass muster under constitutional protections of the free exercise of religion.
Trump’s campaign said in a statement such a ban should stand “until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.”
The statement added that Trump’s proposal comes in response to a level of hatred among “large segments of the Muslim population” toward Americans.
“Until we are able to determine and understand this problem and the dangerous threat it poses, our country cannot be the victims of horrendous attacks by people that believe only in jihad, and have no sense of reason or respect for human life,” Trump said in the statement.
He added on Twitter: “Just put out a very important policy statement on the extraordinary influx of hatred & danger coming into our country. We must be vigilant!”
Several of Trump’s Republican rivals were quick to reject the latest provocation from a candidate who has delivered no shortage of them.
“Donald Trump is unhinged,” Jeb Bush said via Twitter. “His ‘policy’ proposals are not serious.”
Carly Fiorina said, “Trump’s overreaction is as dangerous as President Obama’s under-reaction.”
John Kasich slammed Trump’s “outrageous divisiveness,” while a more measured Ted Cruz, who has always been cautious about upsetting Trump’s supporters, said, “Well, that is not my policy.”
Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski said Trump’s proposed ban would apply to “everybody,” including Muslims seeking immigration visas as well as tourists seeking to enter the country.
He did not respond to questions about whether it would also include Muslims who are U.S. citizens and travel outside of the country, or how a determination of someone’s religion might be made by customs and border officials.
In response to a request for additional detail, Trump said via a campaign spokeswoman: “Because I am so politically correct, I would never be the one to say. You figure it out!”
Trump’s proposal comes a day after President Barack Obama spoke to the nation from the Oval Office about the shootings in San Bernardino, California, which Obama said was “an act of terrorism designed to kill innocent people.”
The FBI said Monday the Muslim couple who carried out the massacre had been radicalized and had taken target practice at area gun ranges, in one case within days of the attack last week that killed 14 people.
Trump’s campaign has been marked by a pattern of inflammatory statements, dating back to his harsh rhetoric about Mexican immigrants.
He has taken a particularly hard line against Muslims in the days since the Paris attacks, advocating enhanced surveillance of mosques due to fears over radicalization.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest accused Trump of playing on people’s fears and trying to tap into “a darker side, a darker element” of American society.
From the Democratic presidential campaign, Bernie Sanders said: “Trump and others want us to hate all Muslims. The United States is a great nation when we stand together. We are a weak nation when we allow racism and xenophobia to divide us.”
59 responses to “Trump calls for ‘complete shutdown’ on Muslims entering U.S.”
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Pretty bold statement that I don’t necessarily agree with, but totally understand the reasoning behind it.
all of his statements are bold, and I disagree with many of them. I’m trying to figure out how, after all the things he’s said that would sink any other candidate, he continues to lead in the polls. the only answer I can come up with is that he sold his soul to the devil.
Trump knows how to hit a nerve and press people’s buttons. He knows that most people associate Muslim culture with terrorism and a simple knee-jerk reaction is to ban them from entering the country. But of course, you can’t do do that and respect people’s freedoms at the same time. The question in my mind is – is Trump a really smart guy who is going for banal reactions to incite a crowd and get a vote, or does he really believe what he says?
Possibly neither. Very little, if anything that Trump has promised he can deliver on. Meaning from the very beginning he’s massively over promising and going to under deliver in an epic way. Which is a complete failure from a business reputation aspect. If we take the smart angle and think he’s basically appealing to the lowest instinct of the dumbest voters out there, that’s going to sink his Presidency.
Trump may fully intend to bail out at some point given the above and he’s purely doing this for brand exposure. Or he’s so completely deluded and being supported by yes men he has no grasp of the Constitution. That is a possibility given that his advisor basically screwed up which Jewish Holiday is more important.
Choyd, Mr. Trump is serious and is laying out his plan when he becomes President. His current position to seal the borders against all Muslim/Islamic travelers is a sound policy until we clean up our Immigration problem. One more American killed by an Islamic Terrorist, is one to many.
Well, kuroiwaj is another Conservative who clearly believes the COTUS is just toilet paper.
Choyd, pls provide section and paragraph of COTUS that states the Government of the United States can not seal its boarders.
kuroiwaj, stop pretending this isn’t about the COTUS relationship with religion.
He not afraid to tell the truth and does not hide behind political correctness
You mean what he says is the truth. Have of what he says he makes up on the fly.
What’s next? Labor camps?
I don’t consider Trump unhinged or having a dangerous overreaction. He was the only candidate to take the Islamic threat seriously. Obama needs to step up already and so do the other Republicans.
He’s serious, but he has no actual plan? How can you bash Obama for not having a plan but back a guy so clearly winging literally everything? The ugly truth is that there may not be a solution.
Obama has been winging it for seven years so let’s give Trump a chance. He’s moving up in the polls and Fox News still rated number one. MSNBC has great coverage of Mr Trump.
Good thing the military relies on officers, not gopher sarge22’s. Hey sarge, go for this, go for that.
Butinski, sorry, but the military relies on the enlisted men in command. Interesting, I commanded a platoon in Vietnam for 6 months in the A Shau with the 101st as an SSG E6. Many of us NCO’s worked with the officers. I guess you have never served.
I may have already said “THAT” but SA wouldn’t publish it because I agree with Trump.
This is what I was referring to in the last post. There are ‘sleeper’ cells here in the US that harbour Muslim extremist. They are born here, go to school here, get jobs within the communities and strike when we least expect it.
If we don’t do anything it’ll only perpetuate the random shootings of innocent citizens.
It’s like trying to find out the ‘sex’ of chicks that only trained eyes can detect.
For those that didn’t grasp my last sentence, “It’s like trying to find out the ‘sex’ of chicks that only trained eyes can detect.”
http://www.howtodothings.com/pets-and-animals/a3887-how-to-determine-the-sex-of-baby-chickens.html
Do America a favor and stick to sexing chickens.
It’s a sad sign of the times when the only candidate living in the real world is called “unhinged” by a clueless drone like Jeb Bush.
Trump is a total and complete idiot who doesn’t have a clue what American law has to say on this issue. And to boot, he’s a loathsome toad.
I think Trump might be smart enough to know that what he said won’t hold up in the real world, but he said it anyways to get votes and tap into people’s desire to do something, anything, about terrorism.
Silly What, you act like Republicans ever cared about the Constitution.
I think people need to take a step back and remember the last time we tried to fight a war on an idea with guns and bombs. That little adventure will cost us well over a trillion dollars and left thousands of families with one or more empty place mats at every Christmas dinner.
Trumps proposal makes sense to me. Why would you invite more Muslims who do not embrace our Judeo christian values and beliefs into our country when
fundamental and devout followers of Mohammed have declared jihad against the US and the West. By doing so, they are now free according to the mutterings of
Mohammed to do anything without restraint to kill the non believers/apostates.
Was reading an article yesterday that really put things into perspective. Since 2001 after the 9/11 attacks there have been 40 something people killed in Islamic extremist terrorist attacks in this country, about the same number killed in right-wing/white supremist terrorist attacks in this country. Now compare that to the over 200,000 other homicides in this country and you really get a perspective over what’s the bigger threat. You remind me of one of those people who’s afraid to fly and drives everywhere.
Poorly educated people often go with their baser instincts over rational thought. There is a reason why traffic spiked after 9/11 and deaths via vehicle accident skyrocketed. People were afraid to fly (despite it being wildly safer per hour and mile than driving). Lots of people embraced their fear and died in car accidents when they could have flown and arrived alive. We may be the first generation with access to the world’s collective knowledge….who are getting dumber and dumber. For instance, Winston could have looked up how a ground controller works with smart weapons and planes to determine that we have ground controllers in Iraq. He didn’t bother. He just assumed we didn’t. All this easily accessible knowledge and poorly educated people go with their base assumptions and never bother to self educate. Not a good sign of America’s future.
There’s this thing called the “Constitution.” It says the government can’t be establishing or favoring one religion over another. Maybe you’ve heard of these things before? I mean, you can’t really get any more conservative than following the Constitution, right?
Hahah, you think Republicans gives a **** about the COTUS? That’s funny. It’s toilet paper to them, at best.
Sub Obama for Republicans and I fully agree.
RichardCory, temporarily stopping all Muslims from entering the United States until the Congress and Administration develop a policy to protect all Americans is sound policy. Policy that is based on a number of intelligence agencies who has presented data that we have Muslims in Country already radicalized, as the ones in San Bernadino, and that ISIS has infiltrated movement of Muslims attempting to enter the United States. It’s smart to protect Americans. As a combat veteran, I always wanted to know where the enemy was. At present, we don’t know where the Radicalized Islamic Muslims are within our own Country. My major fear an explosion in some area where thousands of innocent Americans gather. Religion has nothing to do with Radicalized Islamic Muslims. There are millions of Muslims who love the United States and conform to our Constitution.
“trying to tap into “a darker side, a darker element” ”
And who would that be – the Muslim radicals?
A shutdown of Muslims entering the U.S.? Keep dreaming, Donald.
Being the good German that Trump is, he should also consider firing up the ovens once again.
Little wonder that
The Daily Stormer
, a neo-nazi online magazine was one of the first media organizations to endorse Trump back in June.
His comment will not fly. That will not stop anyone from being a terrorist. In fact you really don’t have to be muslim to be a terrorist. We already have people here with a deformed brain committing mass murders.
can we put a complete shutdown on this man before he starts wwIII already… smdh.
Since 9/11, Islamic terrorists have killed 45 people in the US. During that same period, white, right-wing terrorists have killed 48 people. 2015 Colorado Planned Parenthood Shooting (3); 2015 Charleston Church Shooting (9); 2014 Las Vegas Police Ambush (3); 2014 Kansas Jewish Center Shooting (3); 2014 Blooming Grove Police Shooting (1); 2012 Tri-State Killing Spree (4); 2012 St. John’s Parish Police Ambush (2); 2012 Sikh Temple Shooting (6); 2011 FEAR Militia (3); 2010 Carlisle, PA Murder (1); 2010 Austin, TX Plane Attack (1); 2009 Pittsburgh Police Shootings (3); 2009 Holocaust Museum Shooting (1); 2009 George Tiller Assassination (1); 2009 Flores Murders, Pima County, AZ (2); 2009 Brockton, MA Murders (2); 2008 Knoxville, TN Church Shooting (2); 2004 Tulsa OK, Bank Robbery (1)
I saw that statistic in an article I read yesterday. It also mentioned there were over 200,000 non-terrorist homicides in the US during that same time period. Also worth mentioning is that a “terrorist” killing isn’t any worse than any other situation where innocent people are murdered.
You know America has problems when a political party wants to throw out the Constitution because a religious minority is easily demonized to gain votes and does nothing when a ethnic majority killer who murdered 20 school children gets barely even lip service and no action.
You know America has problems when a political party backs the criminal and not law enforcement.
sarge22, exactly! When the GOP votes to repeal the individual mandate and back the millions of uninsured stealing billions from rate payers, we know we have a big problem. The GOP is anti-personal responsibility and pro-theft.
Columbine was a terrorist act, Aurora was a terrorist act, Sandy Hook was a terrorist act. You don’t need to yell “fillintheblank” before you pull the trigger or set off the bombs. The message can be a simple as, “look at me (for once).” It’s a mistake not to call the non-religious or non-political bullet sprayers terrorists. With this in mind, our homegrown blue-eyed idiots outnumber the fanatical idiots by quite a spread.
What terrorist groups were behind those attacks?
And yesterday Marco Rubio, playing dumb (or is it for real?), asked, “Where is there widespread evidence that we have a problem in America with discrimination against Muslims?”
Trump speaks in tough, hyperbolic terms our enemies might just understand. It’s harsh on our American sensibilities. But he knows how to tell those who would harm us to watch out – or as President he’ll give them a dose of their own medicine. Go Trump!
What? No internments?
These victims should file a wrong full death lawsuit against these criminals families. They knew darn well that the devoted fanatics were headed for murder. Would mind one bit if muslims were banned especially 35 and under.
I really hope English is not your first language…
It took Jimmy Carter to get us Ronald Reagan. Barry’s gift to the USA will be Donald Trump. Or Ted Cruz, either way it’s better than what we have now.
An hour before the terrorist attack in San Bernadino, Trump appeared on Alex Jones’ radio show, saying that Jones had an “amazing” reputation and promising, “I will not let you down.” Today, Jones claimed that ISIS leaders work for the U.S. government to “create the false flags.” Jones added that the administration “brought in” terrorists to “have them attack us and then take our guns and then restrict internet free speech…What we need to do is to initiate a referendum where we will ask the president to step down,” he said, “I do not want an assassination, what I want is a referendum where the people say we can no longer wait for a year, we do not want anyone else and we will want to nominate, by choice, Trump. Either we have the elections now or we don’t have the elections, we do not have one more year.” Trump has endorsed this treasonous call-out to white, right-wing terrorists.
Big brother is watching you if you are listening to Alex Jones and spreading rumors on Mr Trump. bsdetection not doing a very good job.
What a scared, little man!
Watch the polls tomorrow. I believe Trump’s lead will increase. You can say what you want about Trump’s comments, as wild as some may be, but the fact that he keeps rising in the polls when he makes these comments suggests quite strongly that he is verbalizing what many Americans believe but are too afraid to say publicly.
Yes, just as most people are afraid to “read” their dirty magazines publicly, there are many who are afraid to spout idiocy publicly.
Exactly why our vote is private.
I’ll concede you that. Although the nuance of you message is that you vote for idiots.
What people do with dirty magazines, they do in private too.
And then it gets swirled down the drain, which is exactly what should happen to Trump — although I’m sure it would require more than one flush.
Mr. Eye, the “idiots” you allude to are simply frustrated Americans, without a sense of participation. So much has and is happening that evokes a feeing of emasculation, resulting in a resounding cheer for someone as foolish as Trump. Personally, I’m confident that when the time comes to pull the lever, most of these voters will reject him, and cast their vote for a viable candidate. My real fear is having him win the nomination, bypassing some really credible individuals sorely needed to move us forward. I keep waiting for him to be abandoned, and ridiculous statements like this border thing only build the pressure to reach that point.