Trump bails on Heritage forum in South Carolina

Donald Trump’s campaign announced Friday that the Republican frontrunner will be skipping the Heritage Action Presidential Forum scheduled for Friday afternoon in Greenville, South Carolina.

“Mr. Trump has a significant business transaction that was expected to close Thursday”, his campaign said in an email.

Evan Vucci/ASSOCIATED PRESS Jim DeMint, president of the Heritage Foundation, remains hugely influential in his home state of South Carolina, and Trump canceling at the last minute may not sit well with him.

Trump, a longtime “birther” who led a crusade to force Obama to present his birth certificate to prove he was born in the US , didn’t argue with a man at a Thursday night rally when he made some offensive comments about Muslims and the President.

“If someone brought that up at a town hall meeting of mine, I would’ve said, ‘No, listen”.

“Due to the delay he is unable to attend today’s Heritage Action Presidential Forum”, the statement said.

One man in the crowd told Trump, “We have a problem in this country – it’s called Muslims …” You know our current President is one. We know he’s not even an American … “We couldn’t be more excited to welcome our candidates to South Carolina and offer them the chance to talk face to face with our voters”. “A lot of people are saying that bad things are happening out there”. Trump did not correct the voter, but said simply that “we’re going to be looking at that”. “Mr. Trump’s base”, Earnest said. “He sends his regrets”, the campaign said in a statement.

Ten other Republican hopefuls are still set to address the crowd: Fiorina, Jeb Bush, Ben Carson, Chris Christie, Ted Cruz, Bobby Jindal, Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, Rick Santorum and Scott Walker.