In response to the terrorist attack in San Bernardino, California, last week by islamist militants that killed 14 people, Trump pounced on the opportunity to chime in with an extreme idea that would at least generate more controversy in the media, something it seems Trump thrives off of. On Monday afternoon in front of a crowd of supporters after a Pearl Harbor Day rally aboard the USS Yorktown memorial in Mount Pleasant, S.C., Trump announced that he wanted to see “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.” The announcement drew loud cheers from a large crowd of people, but many in the GOP have sharply criticized Trump and his stance.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said there was “no question” that Trump’s idea was unconstitutional, but added that “there are folks in this race who don’t care about what the law says because they’re used to being able to just fire people indiscriminately on television.” The chairmen of the Republican state parties in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina – the first three states to vote in the primary process – all condemned Trump Monday evening in the strongest terms after the GOP frontrunner announced his proposal. The Republican National Committee canceled a planned fundraiser with Trump on Wednesday night in New York, although it is uncertain as to why the cancelation was made.
Senator Rand Paul, R-Ky, appeared to the only notable person within the GOP who appeared to somewhat agree with Trump’s stance. Senator Paul said the US should pause all immigration from the Middle East until “we can get a handle on: ‘Are we admitting people who want to attack and kill us?'” The major difference between Trump’s idea and Paul’s is that Trump has proposed to discriminate against an entire religion, rather than from immigrants or refugees from a certain part of the world. With Religious freedom being a founding principal in America, it was no surprise that even the most Far Right Conservatives found Trump’s plan to be quite offensive.
