SOURCE: AMERICAN THINKER
URL:
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2016/05/trump_now_says_his_proposed_ban_on_muslims_entering_us_was_just_a_suggestion.htmlBY: RICK MORAN
Donald Trump said in a radio interview that his proposal to temporarily ban Muslim travel to the US is just a "suggestion" until "we find out what's going on."
Does this sound like a mere "suggestion"? Or a statement of policy?
"Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on," a campaign press release said.
Trump, who has previously called for surveillance against mosques and said he was open to establishing a database for all Muslims living in the U.S., made his latest controversial call in a news release. His message comes in the wake of a deadly mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, by suspected ISIS sympathizers and the day after President Barack Obama asked the country not to "turn against one another" out of fear.
Trump's comments are likely to roil the Republican presidential race, forcing many of his opponents for the nomination to engage in a debate over whether there should be a religious test to enter America.
But his proposal was met with enthusiasm by many of his supporters, who showed their approval via social media as well as at his rally on Monday night.
"I think that we should definitely disallow any Muslims from coming in. Any of them. The reason is simple: we can't identify what their attitude is," said 75-year-old Charlie Marzka of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
Compare that statement of intent with what he told Fox News yesterday:
“We have a serious problem. It’s a temporary ban. It hasn’t been called for yet. Nobody’s done it. This is just a suggestion until we find out what’s going on,” Trump said.
But Trump didn’t mince words in linking Muslims to the proliferation of terrorism around the world.
“We have radical Islamic terrorism all over the world. You can go to Paris, you can go to San Bernardino, all over the world: If they want to deny it, they can deny it. I don’t choose to deny it,” he said.
Trump’s comments came one day after he claimed he would make an “exception” for London’s first Muslim mayor, Sadiq Khan, to enter the U.S.
“There will always be exceptions,” he told The New York Times on Tuesday, while adding he was happy Khan was elected in the city.
Khan was not impressed with Trump’s gesture, telling CNN that the Manhattan billionaire was “ignorant” about Islam and that he hoped he would lose the U.S. election.
Later on Wednesday, Fox News' Greta Van Susteren also asked about Trump's immigration plans, including forming a commission to work on his proposed Muslim ban.
“I’m looking at it very strongly with Rudy Giuliani heading it,” Trump said.
“I’ve spoken to him a little while ago. We’re going to put together a group of five or six people. Very, very highly thought of people, and I think Rudy will head it up, and we’ll look at the Muslim ban."
“I have a lot of confidence in Rudy Giuliani,” Trump concluded.
How long before Trump walks this comment back and pretends that this is what he meant all along?
Trump has a nasty habit of forgetting his original positions on issues and claiming to have said something else entirely. He's going to increase taxes on the rich. The next day, he said he wouldn't. His position on abortion has taken so many forms that no one knows where he stands.
These aren't slight shadings of positions that most politicians do. These are full blown reversals of what he has said previously.
It makes you wonder whether Trump stands for anything at al.
