New York: US Presidential candidate Donald Trump appears to have threaten to leave the Republican Party after sparking an international outrage over his call to temporarily ban all Muslims from entering the US. He shared a poll that claimed to show almost 70 per cent of his supporters would still vote for him if he ran as an independent candidate. “A new poll indicates that 68% of my supporters would vote for me if I departed the GOP,” the 69 year old wrote on Facebook.
Trump sought to defend himself from a series of criticism after releasing a statement proposing a “complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on” regarding alleged support for Islamist terrorism. Zeid Raad al-Hussein, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and Prince of Jordan, called the suggestion “grossly irresponsible”, warning that it plays into the hands of extremist groups at the expense of ordinary Muslims who are also “eligible targets” of the extremists. Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson said the UN Secretary-General strongly opposed Trump's statement, while British prime minister David Cameron, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls and the Canadian government also condemned the real-estate mogul's comments.
An unfazed Trump said his ideas were no worse than those of former President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who oversaw the internment of more than 110,000 people in US government camps after Japanese forces bombed Pearl Harbour in 1941. “We have no choice but to do this,” he told ABC's Good Morning America. “We have people that want to blow up our buildings, our cities. We have to figure out what's going on.” His call to block all Muslims, including international heads of state from entering America, came after a mass shooting in California by a couple who reportedly supported Isis.
British minister Boris Johnson dismissed Trump's “ill-informed” comments as “nonsense”, while the Muslim Council of Britain invited him to lunch, “should he be allowed to enter the UK”. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Trump's comments disqualify him from being President and said other Republican candidates should disavow him “right now.”
