Donald Trump appears to soften Muslim ban by vowing to target ‘bad dudes from terrorist countries’
Trump also hammered President Obama for his work in negotiating the TPP, an agreement seven years in the making.
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said on Saturday that he wouldn’t characterise his immigration policies as including “mass deportations” and that rather than a blanket ban on Muslims coming to the US he’d focus on those from countries with links to terrorists.
Trump, in an interview at his golf course in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, also said he would toss out the work done over several years on the Transpacific Partnership, a sweeping trade pact, and start from scratch.
People are going to find that I have not only the best policies, but I will have the biggest heart of anybody
The billionaire-turned-politician said his immigration policies would have “heart”, suggesting he may be shifting tone to transition into general election mode after the bruising primary season.
“President Obama has mass deported vast numbers of people – the most ever, and it’s never reported. I think people are going to find that I have not only the best policies, but I will have the biggest heart of anybody,” Trump said.
Pressed on whether he would issue “mass deportations,” Trump answered: “No, I would not call it mass deportations.”
In Trump’s immigration plan, released in 2015, the US will build a wall along its border with Mexico and make Mexico pay for the structure by, in part, impounding certain remittance payments. Trump has also said he would deport all undocumented immigrants, a number estimated at 11 million.