NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images(MELBOURNE, Fla.) — President Trump said he wants to establish “safe zones” in Syria and other places instead of taking people into the U.S., speaking at a campaign rally in Florida on Saturday evening.
He also said that the Gulf states would pay for those safe zones, saying that “they have nothing but money.”
“Take a look at Nice, take a look at Paris,” Trump said, referencing terror attacks in France and other European countries last year. Trump also repeated claims that thousands of people have entered the United States without vetting, saying that “we’re going to keep our country safe,” despite the fact that legal immigrants and refugees go through an extensive process before entering the country.
“We’ve allowed thousands and thousands of people into our country and there was no way to vet those people, there was no documentation there was no nothing. So, we’re going to keep our country safe,” the president said.
He did not elaborate on what the “safe zones” would be but said people would be able to “stay there and live safely in their cities” until Syria is stabilized. He went on to say that “we want people that love us,” in the United States, saying that “we don’t want people with bad, bad ideas.”
The United Nations estimates that more than 6 million people have been displaced by the civil war in Syria with almost 5 million in areas that are under siege.
Trump also repeated criticism of NATO, saying that other countries are “not paying their bills.”
The president also said he was a “NATO fan” but his comments contrasted with those made by Vice President Mike Pence, who told European allies that the U.S. strongly supports them on an overseas trip this weekend.
Trump also repeated popular promises from his campaign that he will “repeal and replace” Obamacare and pulling out of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), saying “jobs are starting to pour back in.” He also referenced several of the executive actions he has signed, like one intended to reduce government regulations. In praising newly confirmed EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, Trump said that regulations like those requiring environmental impact statements were “clogging up the veins of our country.”
At the beginning of the rally Trump told attendees he wanted to speak “without the filter of the fake news.”
“They have their own agenda and their agenda is not your agenda,” Trump said.
The rally is listed on Trump’s campaign website. Trump filed paperwork for his re-election in 2020 on the day he was inaugurated, though he also wrote that the filing was not an formal announcement. The filing allows Trump’s campaign to solicit donations and raise money for a possible 2020 bid for re-election.
Trump called news organizations like ABC News and The New York Times “the enemy of the American people” in a Tweet on Friday morning, the day after a combative press conference with White House reporters.
The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 17, 2017
Copyright © 2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.