The Slatest

Trump Says it Is “Common Sense” to Profile Muslims

Presumptive Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks during the Faith and Freedom Forum Coalition’s “Road to Majority” conference on June 10, 2016 in Washington, D.C.

Mark Wilson/Getty Images

Donald Trump said that the United States needs to seriously consider profiling Muslims in order to prevent terrorist attacks. “I think profiling is something that we’re going to have to start thinking about as a country,” Trump said during an interview with CBS’ Face The Nation. The presumptive Republican nominee said that “I hate the concept of profiling” but he insisted that “we have to start using common sense and we have to use, you know, we have to use our heads.”

Trump defended his idea, which he had mentioned before, by saying that other countries are not as skittish about the issue as the United States. “Other countries do it, you look at Israel and you look at others, they do it and they do it successfully.” And even though he may dislike the practice, Trump said that really, when it comes down to it, “it’s not the worst thing to do.”

In a separate part of the interview, Trump also appeared to backtrack a bit from a position that seemed to differ from that of the National Rifle Association. Last week, Trump had said that those who are on the terrorist watch list should not be allowed to buy firearms, a stance the NRA has spoken against in the past. On Sunday, Trump said he’s working with the NRA to figure the best way to move forward.

“We understand there are problems with that because some people are on the terror watch list that shouldn’t be on,” he said. “So I’m working with the NRA, we’re discussing it and again the NRA has the best interests of our country, it just has the absolute best interests of our country.”