A commission led by former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani will examine problems with immigration in general along with the issues being caused by Muslim immigration, presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump said Friday, emphasizing that his call for a ban on Muslims entering the country was a "suggestion" as he is not the president.
"Look, anything I say right now — I'm not the president," Trump told Fox News'
"Fox & Friends" program. "I feel strongly we have to do something about it. When you look at radical Islamic terrorism, we have a president that — as you folks know very well — we have a president that won't use the term for the World Trade Center, he won't use the term.
"And we have to do something. You're not going to do something about it until you know what the problem is."
Trump said he's spoken with Giuliani about the issue and a group is coming together "to look at the problem . . . I feel very strongly that we have to find out what the problem is. When you look at San Bernardino, when you look at Paris, when you look at all of these horrible, horrible acts of hatred, this is pure hatred. We have to find out and get to the bottom of the problem before we can solve it."
But the panel will also look at immigration "generally," including "across the border, we're talking about the problems that we have, tremendous problems we have on the southern border with the drugs pouring through, with people coming through the border, it's like Swiss cheese."
Trump also on Friday also commented on this week's meetings in Washington with Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus and House Speaker Paul Ryan. Although the meetings didn't bring him a Ryan endorsement, Trump thinks the Wisconsin lawmaker will eventually back him.
"If that didn't happen, I would continue on," said Trump. "But we had a great meeting yesterday. He's a very good guy, very nice guy, and very committed to what he's doing and to the country."
Trump has been able to win even without establishment support, but he said Friday he'd "rather see unity."
"I'm a Republican, I'm conservative," he said. "Some people say I'm not conservative on trade. I say, really, tell me about it. I'm more conservative than anybody on trade. I'm actually a free trader. But we make all bad deals."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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