AP Photo Trump: Shift on Muslim ban an ‘expansion’

Donald Trump says that recent changes to his proposed ban on foreigners entering the U.S. from countries “compromised by terrorism” is an expansion of his Muslim ban.

“I actually don't think it's a rollback. In fact, you could say it's an expansion,” Trump said on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” in an interview that was to air Sunday morning.


Trump has changed his rhetoric from an initial temporary ban on all Muslims from entering the U.S. to one that focused on countries compromised by terrorism, which was how he phrased it in his speech accepting the Republican presidential nomination Thursday in Cleveland.

“I'm looking now at territory,” he said Sunday. “People were so upset when I used the word Muslim. Oh, you can't use the word Muslim. Remember this. And I'm OK with that, because I'm talking territory instead of Muslim.”

NBC’s Chuck Todd tried to nail down the GOP nominee on specifics, such as whether such a ban would apply to countries, like Germany and France, that have suffered terrorist attacks.

Trump said he wants “extreme vetting.”

“We're going to have tough standards,” he said. “And if a person can't prove … that they're from an area, and if a person can't prove what they have to be able to prove, they're not coming into this country. And I would stop the Syrian migration and a Syrian from coming into this country in two seconds.”