The Republican Party nominee in the US Presidential elections, Donald Trump, is famous for being one of the most outspoken politicians of recent times. He has courted controversy in a variety of speeches, interviews and online comments. Here are five Trump statements that sent the media into a frenzy.
"They say I have the most loyal people, where I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose any voters." - Donald J Trump
This comment was made at a Trump rally in Dordt College, Iowa in January 2016. It was widely interpreted as Trump boasting about being immune to the laws of ordinary life and being able to literally get away with murder, probably because it was usually quoted as only starting with the words, "I could." Leaving in the reference to what "they" say about the loyalty of his followers changes the meaning of the words, but it was still an extremely controversial thing to say.
"ISIS is honoring President Obama. He is the founder of ISIS, and I would say the co-founder would be crooked Hillary Clinton." - Donald J Trump
Some people assumed that this outrageous comment was a kind of allegory, and a television interviewer suggested that it really meant that Obama, "created the vacuum, he lost the peace." Trump disagreed, saying that the comment he made at a rally in Sunrise, Florida in August was meant to be taken literally. Whatever he meant, it was untrue, as the Islamic terrorist organisation first called inself ISIS in 2004, five years before Obama became President.
"I think that her bodyguards should drop all weapons. She doesn't want guns. Take them, let's see what happens to her. It will be very dangerous." - Donald J Trump
The election for President often leads to rival candidates badmouthing each other, but no-one had gone as far as this comment that Trump made about Hillary Clinton. It was widely seen as a call to violence and as an undemocratic threat. He made the inflammatory comment at a rally in Miami, held in September 2016, when he was referring to Hillary Clinton's support for gun control. Clinton's campaign manager, Robby Mook, said that, "This kind of talk should be out of bounds for a Presidential candidate."
"Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what the hell is going on." - Donald J Trump
Trump read out this statement, referring to himself in the third person, as a reaction to the San Bernardino shootings, when an immigrant Muslim couple went on a shooting spree in the name of ISIS in December 2015. He made the comments immediately before he attended a rally onboard the USS Yorktown on the 74th Anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbour. Most commentators ignored the part of the sentence starting with "until" and presented the comment as a call for a blanket, permanent ban on Muslims entering the United States. After this approach was condemned as bigoted, Trump modified his statement and said instead that if he becomes President he will stop those entering the USA from "countries where Islamist militants are active."
"If it doesn't happen to be me that wins, they're going to build a plant and illegals are going drive those cars right over the border. And they'll probably end up stealing the cars." - Donald J Trump
Ever since the motor company giant, Ford, announced that it was planning to build a big new plant in Mexico, Trump has been criticizing the idea. At a rally in Iowa in October 2015, he made the above controversial statement. He followed it up with a Tweet saying, "Ford listened to me, great." His gloating was short-lived, however, as Ford's CEO, Mark Fields, announced in Septemberr 2016 that Ford would be moving all of their small car production to Mexico.