Donald Trump reacted to the explosions that rocked Brussels Tuesday morning, describing the scene as a “disaster” and warning that “this is just the beginning.”
Trump, who has made immigration and security issues central to his 2016 presidential bid, discussed the reported suicide attacks in an interview on Fox News’ Fox and Friends: “I will tell you, I’ve been talking about this a long time and look at Brussels. It was a beautiful city, a beautiful place with zero crime. And now it’s a disaster city. It’s a total disaster, and we have to be very careful in the United States, we have to be very careful and very vigilant as to who we allow in this country.”
Donald Trump’s implied portrayal of Muslim communities as the “enemy within”, with his declaration to Piers Morgan that they are not reporting terrorist suspects, follows his claim in December that parts of UK cities are so radicalised they are no-go areas for the police. Scotland Yard responded then that “Trump couldn’t be more wrong”. The force has been equally robust in rejecting the Republican contender’s questioning of the loyalty of Britain’s Muslim communities.
Muslim communities are “absolutely not reporting” suspected terrorists and need to “open up to society”, Donald Trump had said in his first UK interview since launching his bid for the US presidency. Appearing on ITV’s Good Morning Britain (GMB), Trump said there was “very little assimilation” in cities where there had been a “large inflow” of Muslims, and denied that some British citizens were scared of the idea of him in the White House.
The frontrunner for the Republican nomination told the programme’s presenter, Piers Morgan, on Wednesday that residents of the Brussels neighbourhood Molenbeek had “coddled and taken care of” Paris terror suspect Salah Abdeslam before his arrest. The billionaire, who was once described by Morgan as a friend he had known for 10 years, also pledged to “hit Isis so hard you wouldn’t believe it” if he became US president. Discussing Muslim communities, Trump said: “When they see trouble they have to report it. They are not reporting it. They are absolutely not reporting it and that is a big problem.” Trump complained about the failure to turn in Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, the married couple who went on to launch a deadly attack in San Bernardino, California, in December: “It’s like they are protecting each other but they are really doing very bad damage.
“They have to open up to society, they have to report the bad ones. And, you know, if you report the bad ones, all of a sudden you are not going to have the problems.” Trump denied he was racist, telling the programme: “I’m not ‘anti’ anything; I’m just common sense, I say it like it is.”
When Today show cohosts Matt Lauer and Savannah Guthrie asked Trump how he would hypothetically handle the explosions that claimed the lives of dozens, he replied: “It’s probably why I’m number one in the polls. We have to have strong borders, we have to be very vigilant and careful of who we allow into our country. Uh, I know Brussels well, and Brussels is a total mess. I would be very, very tough on the borders and not allowing certain people into this country without absolute perfect documentation.”
Meanwhile, Senator Bernie Sanders, who’s currently one of the candidates in the running for the Democratic presidential nomination, blasted Donald Trump’s reaction to the Brussels terrorist attacks on Tuesday, March 22, while appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live!
“They have to open up to society, they have to report the bad ones. And, you know, if you report the bad ones, all of a sudden you are not going to have the problems.” Trump denied he was racist, telling the programme: “I’m not ‘anti’ anything; I’m just common sense, I say it like it is.”
When Today show cohosts Matt Lauer and Savannah Guthrie asked Trump how he would hypothetically handle the explosions that claimed the lives of dozens, he replied: “It’s probably why I’m number one in the polls. We have to have strong borders, we have to be very vigilant and careful of who we allow into our country. Uh, I know Brussels well, and Brussels is a total mess. I would be very, very tough on the borders and not allowing certain people into this country without absolute perfect documentation.”
Meanwhile, Senator Bernie Sanders, who’s currently one of the candidates in the running for the Democratic presidential nomination, blasted Donald Trump’s reaction to the Brussels terrorist attacks on Tuesday, March 22, while appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live!
Kimmel noted that Trump’s numbers “shot up” after the Paris terrorist attacks last fall. “Why do you think that is?” the ABC late-night host asked Sanders. “I think people get afraid, and for good reasons,” Sanders replied. “ISIS is a disgusting, barbaric organization. We’ve seen what they’ve done in Paris, what they’ve done in Brussels. People are afraid of an attack in the United States, but I think what we have to understand is we’re not going to undermine the Constitution of the United States of America in order to effectively destroy ISIS.”