Great Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron is walking back his insults of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, claiming that the candidate has “already dropped” his proposal to ban all Muslims from the country.
Cameron, who has previously called Trump’s Muslim ban “divisive, stupid, and wrong” was asked by British television’s Good Morning Britain if he stood by his previous criticisms.
“I was making a comment on a specific proposal he had which was to ban Muslims from entering the United States,” Cameron said. “I wouldn’t remove any of the adjectives I used to describe that policy. It would be a dangerous policy because it tries to pin all Muslims with extremism which is completely unfair.”
But Cameron apparently believes that Trump no longer is proposing such a ban.
“The good news is my understanding is he’s already dropped that proposal, not least because there are billions of Muslims living in America and making great contributions to that country,” Cameron said. “So that proposal has been dropped which I think is the right thing to do.”
David Cameron Says He Would Welcome Trump To UKWorld CREDIT: AP Photo/Mary Altaffer In recent weeks, Republicans Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC), House Speaker Paul Ryan…thinkprogress.orgCameron may be trying to temper his previous comments in order to avoid an awkward meeting when Trump visits the United Kingdom later this month. Trump has said that Britain should leave the European Union — a position Cameron opposes — and is visiting the country the day after it votes on the issue.
Unless Cameron has received personal assurances from Trump, there has been no indication that Trump’s changed his call for a Muslim ban. The candidate continues to talk about a ban, though he has defined it differently over time. When he first proposed such a ban last year, a spokesperson for his campaign clarified that it would apply to everyone who is Muslim — including Muslim Americans living abroad. In March, Trump changed the definition, saying there would be a few “exceptions” to the ban — mostly heads of state and very wealthy Muslims. In May, he again walked back the ban from a “call” to “just a suggestion.”
But as recently as eight days ago, Trump repeatedly refused to say if he still supports a ban or not.
“[I’m] very unhappy when I look at the world of radical Islam,” he said at a press conference in North Carolina. “We’re going to come up with a solution.”