GOP presidential hopeful Donald Trump ratcheted his toxic rhetoric to a new level when he announced he would block the entry of all Muslims to America. His insensitivity prompted a crowd of City Council members to gather on the steps of City Hall Wednesday to denounce what many view as uncivil and racist remarks.
Leading the demonstration was Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, who called Trump “a disgusting, racist demagogue who has no business running for president.” A similar comment was released in a statement from the White House.
Trump’s ban, which he altered a bit Wednesday, citing that it would only be a temporary one, would apply to all Muslims seeking an immigration visa as well as vacationing tourists.
He claims his ban is drawn from the restrictions issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt during World War II, which put limitations on the immigration of Japanese, Germans and Italians.
Even with the upheaval of denunciation from both political parties, including Speaker Paul Ryan, Trump has maintained his stance. “Some of our best and biggest allies in this struggle and fight against radical Islamic terror are Muslims, the vast, vast, vast, majority of whom are peaceful,” Ryan said.
British Prime Minister David Cameron took umbrage, citing Trump’s ban as “divisive and unhelpful.”
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was equally outraged, stating that he could not support any “kind of rhetoric that relies on Islamophobia.”
Appearing on ABC’s “Live With Kelly and Michael” Wednesday morning, Trump kept up the drumbeat of sharp retorts, charging that Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton “doesn’t have the strength or the stamina” to be president, but he does. He said if he isn’t treated fairly by the Republican Party, he might consider a run as a third party candidate, which would be a blow to the GOP’s candidate.
Two mayors have satirically announced they would ban Trump from appearing in their cities, clearly aware that such a procedure would only fall into the same restrictions he has proposed. Even so, Mayor Michael Nutter of Philadelphia seemed a bit more serious in his call for banning Trump from his city. After calling Trump an “a—hole,” he said his remarks “are a threat to the moral security of the United States of America. It engenders a level of fear mongering that we have not seen literally since the 1930s and 1940s. He has taken a page from the playbook of Hitler: demonize a group, blame that group for a country’s problem and then seek to ban or eliminate that group as some kind of solution to a problem that does not exist.”
Trump fired back at Nutter, who is Black, calling him a “low life.”
