A Sikh protester holding up a “Stop Hate” banner at a Donald Trump campaign rally in Iowa on Sunday was ejected by security amid chants of “USA, USA, USA” by the Republican presidential front-runner.
As the Sikh man in a bright red turban was being led away along with another person, Trump quizzed: “He wasn’t wearing one of those hats, was heIJ Was he wearing one of those thingsIJ”
“And he never will, and that’s OK because we got to do something folks because it’s not working,” Trump said at the rally in Muscatine and returned to his talk on radical Islamic terrorism.
Trump’s comment about the Sikh man’s “hat” soon enough became a subject of controversy on social media, with critics slamming the billionaire businessman for “mocking” a Sikh turban.
One post on the Twitter said, “Donald Trump is either continuing his campaign for Racist-in-Chief, and he’s only getting more adept at it – or, he’s got really terrible eyesight.”
But Trump supporters, joining the Twitter war, were equally empathic that he wasn’t mocking the turban at all, asserting that he was talking only about his own “Make America Great” hats. They even called the critics to apologise to Trump.
Trump was interrupted by the Sikh man and his friend when he was speaking about the 9/11 terror attacks and the recent San Bernardino massacre, commenting: “We have radical Islamic terror going on all over the place, all over the world, and we have a President that won’t say it.”
As he spoke about the young Pakistani-origin couple firing on friends in the San Bernardino attack, the Sikh man and his friend got up and raised their “Stop Hate” banner, prompting Trump to stop abruptly even as his supporters broke into chants of “Trump, Trump, Trump”.
As the two protesters were escorted out by security, Trump said, “Bye, Bye, Goodbye”, and the audience packing the school auditorium erupted with loud applause and chants of “USA, USA, USA”.
President Obama, meanwhile, has commented in an interview that the Republican vision in this election cycle “has moved not just to the right, but has moved to a place that is unrecognisable”. Speaking to Politico, Obama said: “You think about it: When I ran against John McCain, John McCain and I had real differences, sharp differences, but John McCain didn’t deny climate science.”
“John McCain didn’t call for banning Muslims from the United States,” Obama said, without naming Trump. Asked if he watched the Republican debates, Obama said, “I don’t. But, look, I, as you know, didn’t like participating in many of these debates. And so if I didn’t enjoy watching my own, I certainly am not going to watch the Republican debates.”