Donald Trump’s Muslim Ban Somehow Got Worse

<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/marcn/24622320840/in/photolist-DvMQa7-BD3rgM-xGitau-9VT6fh-CtkRVA-zyLLPy-yUubdV-yUubNT-DrTAmo-yqiXpj-Dc1ymH-5nrmkz-CSb6NA-CmUnpV-DjhR3P-D9HSL5-DjhQUn-D9HSB7-xVQhrF-D9HSym-DjhR7B-D9HSQy-CSb6F1-CmMfWQ-CKN5Pk-CKN5Qn-CKN5Nt-wYPuFS-xVQrTM-DT6T8Z-aV86tg-CKpVmr-Dtthim-DttMNo-DvBPbe-CGns7o-DvC9rt-Dtt3FS-DtsYg9-D6oLvx-CGuoP6-DcLgsJ-Dtteiy-DDTuWH-CGuh3k-DtsS1o-DDSUnc-DDSPQB-DDSWmT-DDSVia">Marc Nozell</a>/Flickr

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Donald Trump told a Wisconsin town hall on Wednesday that his proposed ban on Muslims entering the United States would have an exception for the billionaire’s rich friends.

“I have actually—believe it or not—I have a lot of friends that are Muslim and they call me,” Trump said, when asked about his plan by MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, the event’s moderator. “In most cases, they’re very rich Muslims, okay?”

Matthews then asked Trump if his rich Muslim friends would be able enter the country under Trump’s Muslim ban. “They’ll come in,” Trump said. “You’ll have exceptions.”

But he didn’t stop there. A few moments later, when Matthews suggested a blanket ban might rub Muslims the wrong way, Trump flipped the script, arguing that it would instead have a galvanizing effect on Middle Eastern countries in the fight against ISIS.

“Maybe they’ll be more disposed to fight ISIS,” Trump said. “Maybe they’ll say, ‘We want to come back into America, we’ve got to solve this problem!'”

Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton wasted little time dismissing Trump’s comments:

If you are one of Trump’s rich Muslim friends, Mother Jones would love to speak with you. Shoot me an email at tmurphy@motherjones.com.

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We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

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