Donald Trump considers his latest proposal to stop immigration "from any nation that has been compromised by terrorism" as an "expansion" of his blanket ban on Muslims.
"People were so upset when I used the word 'Muslim'," Trump told NBC's Chuck Todd on "Meet the Press." "And I'm okay with that, because I'm talking territory instead of Muslim."
Trump hasn't identified yet which countries would be included in his list of territories. But in an interview aired Sunday, Trump refused to rule out banning individuals from top U.S. allies like France and Germany, agreeing that "they have totally been compromised by terrorism."
Trump announced in June that as president, he would "suspend immigration from areas of the world where is a proven history of terrorism against the United States, Europe, or our allies."
But questions still remained as to whether that proposal was an expansion of his proposed ban on Muslims, or a rollback.
"It is about terrorism and not about religion. It is about Muslims from countries that support terrorism," Trump's finance chairman Steve Mnuchin told reporters the same day, during Trump's trip to Scotland.
But Trump has not once publicly disavowed his original policy proposal to ban all foreign Muslims from the U.S.
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence had rejected Trump's blanket to ban Muslims in December as "offensive and unconstitutional." But after getting the vice presidential nod, Pence said he was "very supportive" of Trump's calls to suspend immigration from terror states.
Source: CNN
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