Donald Trump appeared to subtly soften his tone on his proposed ban on foreign Muslims entering the United States Wednesday, in apparent response to criticism from the newly elected Muslim mayor of London.
The planned ban, Trump said on Fox News Radio’s “Kilmeade and Friends,” is only “temporary.”
“It hasn’t been called for yet. Nobody’s done it,” the presumptive Republican nominee said.
“This is just a suggestion until we find out what’s going on.”
Trump stood by his proposal, which has been criticized as potentially unconstitutional, as he has repeatedly since emerging as the presumptive GOP nominee last week.
Yet the slight softening could suggest a change in rhetoric following protracted criticism from Sadiq Khan, the new London mayor. Khan, who is Muslim, has launched perhaps the most direct attacks on Trump’s policies in recent days.
“My message to Donald Trump and his team is that your views of Islam are ignorant,” Khan said in an interview with CNN that aired on Wednesday. “It is possible to be a Muslim and live in the West. It is possible to be a Muslim and love America.”
“I assume he denies that there’s Islamic terrorism,” Trump responded on Wednesday. “I mean, if you look at this Islamic radical terrorism all over the world right now, it’s a disaster what’s going on. I assume he is denying that.”
Trump has previously offered caveats to his proposal, and suggested that diplomats, foreign leaders and other prominent Muslims could be allowed into the country despite the overarching prohibition.