Trump promises Muslim database if elected
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has voiced support for creating a mandatory database to track Muslims in the United States — the latest in an escalating series of responses from the real estate mogul following the deadly attacks in Paris.
“I would certainly implement that. Absolutely,” Trump told an NBC News reporter between campaign events Thursday in Newton, Iowa, according to video posted on MSNBC.com.
He said Muslims would be signed up at “different places,” adding, “It’s all about management.”
Asked whether registering would be mandatory, Trump responded, “They have to be.”
Trump, along with retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, has stunned the political world with his rise to the top of some polls in the crowded Republican nomination race. With the first primary votes less than three months away, the two outsider candidates continue to overshadow established politicians who were expected to vie for front-runner status.
While some of his Republican rivals have been chastised by President Barack Obama for suggesting that Christian Syrian refugees be given preference over Muslims, Trump has gone further in his rhetoric, advocating new restrictions on civil liberties and enhanced surveillance activities, including inside mosques.
He said earlier this week that the country was “going to have no choice” but to close certain mosques because “really bad things are happening, and they’re happening fast.”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations issued a statement Thursday condemning Trump for what the group described as “Islamophobic and unconstitutional” comments targeting American Muslims and Syrian refugees.
New Day for America, a group supporting the presidential bid of Ohio Gov. John Kasich, announced plans to launch a $2.5 million ad campaign targeting Trump.
“There’s a growing consensus that someone has to do something to stop Donald Trump,” said Matt David, a spokesman for the group, who said the campaign would include television, radio, mail and digital ads in New Hampshire.
Trump responded to the news by unloading a dozen rapid-fire tweets mocking Kasich’s polling and debate performances and threatened to “sue him just for fun!” if the ads aren’t truthful.
Kasich responded with his own tweets aimed at Trump.