Trump's 'offensive and incendiary' comments disqualify him from presidency: White House

Washington: The White House on Tuesday criticised the Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump for his remarks that Muslims be “banned” from entering the United States and said that the comments “disqualify” him from serving as the president. “What Trump said yesterday disqualifies him from serving as president of the United States,” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said at his daily news conference. Trump had a day earlier said Muslims should be banned from entering the US till such time policy makers and agencies make a sense of the current security situation in the wake of Paris and San Bernardino attacks. The White House, which so far, has maintained silence and refrained from making comments on election campaign, was very harsh on Trump for his anti-Muslim rhetoric. It is contrary to US national security interest, Earnest said adding that Trump’s remarks are not only offensive but also undermines the values of the country. [caption id=“attachment_2537992” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Donald Trump. AFP[/caption] It has consequences for the US national security, he said. “Trump risks pulling the entire Republican party into the dustbin of history,” Earnest said urging Republican leaders to come out in open against such anti-Muslim rhetoric. “They should say right now that they would not support Donald Trump for presidency. What he said is disqualifying and any Republican who is too fearful of their (Republican) base to admit it has no business serving as president either,” he said. Earnest said Trump’s campaign, for months now, has had a “dustbin of history-like” quality to it, from the “vacuous sloganeering to the outright lies to even the fake hair, the whole carnival barker routine that we’ve seen”. “The question now is about the rest of the Republican party and whether or not they’re going to be dragged into the dustbin of history with him. And right now, the current trajectory is not very good,” he said referring to the statement by Paul Ryan, speaker of the House of Representatives, that he would vote for Trump if he wins the party’s nomination. “Now, I know that each of the Republican candidates has already taken an oath pledging to support Trump for presidency if he wins nomination. But the fact is, the first thing a president does when he or she takes the oath of office is to swear an oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States,” he said. “The fact is that what Donald Trump said yesterday disqualifies him from serving as president, and for Republican candidates for president to stand by their pledge to support Mr. Trump, that in and of itself is disqualifying,” Earnest said. Earnest said there has been an accumulation of offensive and incendiary comments from Trump and this is the latest. “…the kind of policy, if I could call it that, that Mr Trump is advocating is entirely inconsistent with the values enshrined in our Constitution,” he argued. Trump’s rhetoric, he said, is harmful to the country. “Let me just say that as offensive and toxic as Mr Trump’s rhetoric is, it does not condone or justify any act of violence,” he said. “But the concern that we have is that the US government and our national security officials are going to be most effective if they’re able to work in partnership with leaders of the Muslim-American community to prevent those who are most vulnerable to this radical (Islamic State) ideology from being incited and aspired to carry out an act of violence,” he said. “Rhetoric like the offensive bluster that we hear from Mr Trump makes it much harder to build and solidify that relationship,” Earnest said. PTI