Most Americans disagree with Trump’s Muslim ban proposal

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump on Thursday canceled a plan to visit Israel, a trip for which even Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – widely seen as an ally of the Republican Party – had shown little enthusiasm. Trump says that if he’s elected president, he’ll know within six months whether he can achieve an elusive peace accord between Israelis and Palestinians, one of the world’s most vexing challenges. Appearing on Fox News, he said there were many reasons for the move, among them that he didn’t want to put Netanyahu in a bind.

“I wrote something today that I think is very very salient, very important and probably not politically correct, but I don’t care”, Trump said in regards to his proposed ban on Muslim immigration, addressing a crowd at a rally in SC on Monday, according to NPR. The interviews were conducted by a live caller on landlines and cellphones December 8 thru December 9.

Beyond that, Netanyahu has regularly expressed support for Republicans, and Republican candidates have made firm United States backing for Israel a central foreign policy plank of their campaigns.

Trump said his initial thought was, “Isn’t that disgusting for a presidential representative to make that comment?”

On CNN, he claimed, “I’m doing good for the Muslims”.

A petition calling for him to be barred from entering the United Kingdom has gathered more than 370,000 names, meaning it could be open to debate by members of Parliament.

The billionaire real estate magnate now leads Republican polls by double digit margins over his nearest rivals.

But views are mixed among Republicans: 42% of GOP respondents support Trump’s proposal to ban Muslims from entering the USA, while 36% oppose it.

Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson came in second among Republicans with 12 percent in the Reuters/Ipsos poll, and U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush tied with 10 percent.

By contrast, just 31 percent of Republican voters say Trump is at least somewhat compassionate, and 43 percent say he is at least somewhat likable.