On Monday evening, Donald Trump spoke in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina. The event was a Pearl Harbor rally on the USS Yorktown, and Trump talked for an hour. His speech took place a few hours after his mission statement (calling for a “complete shutdown” of Muslims in the U.S.) surfaced. A number of Trump’s fellow presidential candidates weighed in on Trump’s stance with varying results.
Trump used part of this speech to detail his Muslim “friends,” who (according to Trump) support keeping Muslims out of the United States: “I have friends that are Muslims. They’re great people, but they know we have a problem.” Trump asserted how most Muslims wish to “change your religion.” He referenced sketchy poll data (which has been proven to be biased and flawed) to back up his religion-changing claim. He then mentioned Sharia law, which prompted boos from the crowd.
Trump moved onto the San Bernardino mass shooting and said profiling would have been useful in preventing the attacks. He vowed to protect his fans from the consequences of favoring racial profiling:
“I watched the next door neighbor saying ‘oh well, we didn’t report them because we didn’t want to racially profile’ or ‘we didn’t want to profile.’ Give me a break. When we see violations, you have to report those violations and quickly. Don’t worry about profiling. I promise I will defend you from profiling.”
As Trump promised to be the great protector, he had other theatrics in mind. At about the 34-minute mark in the above video, Trump addressed the Paris attacks as “like target practice.” He used his right hand to imitate a firing gun:
“If some of the people in those places where it was slaughter, absolute slaughter, had guns, you wouldn’t have had the carnage that you had in Paris … It was like target practice. Come over here, boom, come over here, boom.”
Donald Trump on Paris: "It was like target practice. Come over here! Boom. Come over here! Boom.
— Matt Viser (@mviser) December 8, 2015
There are a few more Trump tidbits to discuss. His domain trolling of JebBush.com may have cost around $250,000, according to the April-listed domain price data. That’s some pretty expensive pranking.
One more thing: Trump started a tussle with Amazon.com’s Jeff Bezos:
The @washingtonpost, which loses a fortune, is owned by @JeffBezos for purposes of keeping taxes down at his no profit company, @amazon.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 7, 2015
If @amazon ever had to pay fair taxes, its stock would crash and it would crumble like a paper bag. The @washingtonpost scam is saving it!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 7, 2015
Bezos caught wind of the situation and logged onto Twitter for what was only his fourth tweet since joining the site in 2008. He chose the moment to hint at launching Trump into space:
Finally trashed by @realDonaldTrump. Will still reserve him a seat on the Blue Origin rocket. #sendDonaldtospace https://t.co/9OypFoxZk3
— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) December 7, 2015