Donald Trump was making headlines for questioning the place of birth and religion of President Barack Obama as far back as 2011. Now as a potential candidate for president, Donald Trump finds himself tied to the “birther” movement again.
A voter asking a question at a Donald Trump rally last week raised eyebrows when he declared that Muslims were a problem for the United States and implied that Obama was a member of that religion. Donald Trump did nothing to correct the man, although Obama is a professed Christian and has produced a birth certificate showing he was born in Hawaii. Donald Trump has since said it was not his place to correct the man and defended his actions on various Sunday morning talk shows.
The Huffington Post reports that on an appearance of Meet the Press , Donald Trump deflected questions about his current beliefs on Obama’s citizenship.
“I just don’t discuss it,” Donald Trump said. “Really, it hasn’t been brought up in a long time.”
Meet the Press host Chuck Todd changed tactics and asked Donald Trump if he would be comfortable with a Muslim president. In his answer, Donald Trump made what could be seen an allusion to Obama.
“Would I be comfortable? I don’t know if we have to address it right now, but I think it is certainly something that could happen,” Donald Trump said. “I mean, some people have said it already happened, frankly, but of course you wouldn’t agree with that.”
Donald Trump also tried to sidestep Todd’s questions as to whether or not he believed Obama was Muslim.
“I don’t talk about people’s faith. Now, in all fairness, he said he was a Christian and he said he is a Christian. He attended the church of Rev. Wright. And so, you know, I’m willing to take him at his word for that. I have no problem with that,” Donald Trump said.
CNN reports that Donald Trump also showed up on the network’s morning show State of the Union with host Jake Tapper. On that program, Donald Trump agreed with the voter from the town hall meeting, stating radical Muslims posed a threat to Americans.
“You have radicals that are doing things. I mean, it wasn’t people from Sweden that blew up the World Trade Center, Jake,” Donald Trump said. “We do have a problem with radical Muslims, there’s no question about that.”
[Photo by Steve Pope via Getty Images]