Trump Revisits Muslim Ban: ‘Our Constitution Is Great, But…’

Donald Trump spoke with left-wing MSNBC’s Chuck Todd for an interview that aired on Sunday. In an apparent pivot on his proposed temporary ban on the entry of foreign Muslims as immigrants, refugees, and visitors, he alluded to perceptions of constitutional prohibitions on such a measure given the First Amendment.

“Our constitution is great, but it doesn’t necessarily give us the right to commit suicide, okay?” said Trump. “Now, we have a religious, y’know, everybody wants to be protected. And that’s a wonderful part of our constitution. I view it differently. Why are we committing suicide?”

Despite the Constitution not prohibiting the calibration of immigration, refugee, and foreign visitor policies aon the basis of religion, Trump elaborated on his Republican National Convention speech’s shift to territory and away from religion and ethnicity.

“I live with our constitution. I love our constitution. I cherish our constitution. We’re making it territorial. We have nations, and we’ll come out, I’m gonna be coming out over the next few weeks with a number of the places. And it’s very complex, because we have problems in Germany, and we have problems in France, you know it’s not just the countries [with Muslim-majority populations],” said Trump.

Trump said he wants “extreme vetting,” presumably to keep out persons aligned with Islamic terrorism and Islamism. He contrasted himself with Hillary Clinton, who refuses to acknowledge risks of Islamic terrorism connected with Muslims. Clinton, President Barack Obama, and the broader left and Democrat Party have asserted that “anti-Muslim” rhetoric drives Islamic terrorism.

“If a person can’t prove that they’re from an area, and if person can’t prove what they have to be able to prove, they’re not coming into this country. And I would stop the Syrian migration, and the Syrians from coming into this country in two seconds,” said Trump, adding a highlight of Clinton’s proposals to admit hundreds of thousands of migrants and refugees from the failed state, almost all of whom would be Muslim.

“I think [Hillary Clinton’s] crazy. I think she’s crazy. We have no idea who these people are, for the most part,” said Trump. “There is no way that you can vet some of these people. There’s no way.”

Trump then recommended regional resettlement for legitimate refugees, a less expensive and safer alternative to bringing such persons to the homeland.

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