Trump: Brussels an ‘armed camp,’ today’s Islamic State attacks ‘just the beginning’

“I will tell you, I’ve been talking about this a long time, and look at Brussels. Brussels was a beautiful city, a beautiful place with zero crime. And now it’s a disaster city. It’s a total disaster, and we have to be very careful in the United States, we have to be very careful and very vigilant as to who we allow in this country.” He is right about this — whatever else he is wrong about. This is why his campaign is resonating with so many people.

“Donald Trump: Brussels ‘just the beginning,’” by David Wright, CNN, March 22, 2016:

(CNN)Donald Trump reacted to the explosions that rocked Brussels Tuesday morning, describing the scene as a “disaster” and warning that “this is just the beginning.”

The Republican front-runner, who has made immigration and security issues central to his 2016 presidential bid, discussed the reported suicide attacks in an interview on Fox News’ “Fox and Friends.”

“I will tell you, I’ve been talking about this a long time, and look at Brussels,” Trump said. “Brussels was a beautiful city, a beautiful place with zero crime. And now it’s a disaster city. It’s a total disaster, and we have to be very careful in the United States, we have to be very careful and very vigilant as to who we allow in this country. ”

Trump ‘fine’ with waterboarding

In an another interview, Trump also said he would be “fine” with waterboarding Salah Abdeslam, one of the leaders of the Paris attacks several months ago who was just captured in Brussels, in order to get more information on potential future attacks.

“Well I’m not looking to break any news on your show, but frankly the waterboarding, if it was up to me, and if we changed the laws or have the laws, waterboarding would be fine,” the Republican front-runner said on NBC’s “Today” show. “I would say they should be able to do whatever they have to do.”

“You know, we work within laws. They don’t work within laws — they have no laws. We work within laws. The waterboarding would be fine, and if they could expand the laws, I would do a lot more than waterboarding,” he said.

Trump has vacillated in his campaign about whether or not he would pursue using waterboarding — which is considered torture and thus illegal. After getting criticized by former national security officials, Trump said he would instead seek to expand the laws, presumably to make such tactics legal.

‘Armed camp’

On Fox, he described Brussels now as an “armed camp.”

“If you went into Brussels 20 years ago, it was like a magical city. Now you look at it, it’s an armed camp,” Trump said. “You want to lead your life, you don’t want to be living in an armed camp for your whole life. And there is a certain group of people that is making living a normal life impossible.”

Though the identity of any suspects related to the explosions is not yet known, Trump was quick to link the attacks to Muslim refugees and migrants from the Middle East who have flooded into Europe as a result of Syria’s civil war and turmoil in the region.

“It’s going to get worse and worse. In my opinion, this is just the beginning. It will get worse and worse because we are lax and we are foolish — we can’t allow these people, at this point we cannot allow these people to come into our country. I’m sorry,” he said. “This is a story that just seems to be more and more happening and it’s really not very pretty to watch.”…

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EDITORS NOTE: The featured image is of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump listening during a news conference after speaking at the TD Convention Center, in Greenville, S.C.  (AP Photo/Richard Shiro)

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