Trump says Merkel ‘migrant policy insane’

WASHINGTON

Republican US presidential frontrunner Donald Trump branded Angela Merkel’s welcoming of migrants to Germany “insane” and said the policy will only spark riots in the country.

“What’s happening in Germany, I always thought Merkel was, like, this great leader,” Mr Trump said in comments aired Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

“What she’s done in Germany is insane. It’s insane.”

Mr Trump — whose popularity has soared in some quarters on his anti-immigration platform — said that Europe was “going to have to handle” the migration crisis, but warned: “They’re going to have riots in Germany.”

Germany is expected to receive between 800,000 and one million asylum seekers this year, and Chancellor Merkel has insisted that her country can manage the large numbers, part of a surge of migrants to Europe.

Mr Trump reiterated his position that the United States should not take in the refugees, repeating previous comments that he believes the migrants look to be mostly “strong men” who look like “prime-time soldiers” from the jihadist cause.

“This could be the greatest Trojan horse,” he added, echoing what has become a talking point for him over the past week.

“This could make the Trojan horse look like peanuts if these people turned out to be (Islamic State group fighters).”

GUN VIOLENCE
Instead, Trump backed the idea of a no-fly safe zone in northern Syria where refugees could take shelter from the country’s bloody civil conflict.

The idea has long been backed by Turkey, currently hosting more than 1.8 million Syrian refugees, and has been discussed by US State Department officials, but Washington has not yet taken a public position.

At the same time, Mr Trump said he sometimes carries a gun to protect himself, after a spate of shootings at colleges ramped up debate about firearms in the United States.

The revelation is likely to spark a backlash from advocates calling for tighter control of guns, after three separate shootings at US universities or colleges this month left 11 people dead.

Asked why years ago he obtained a concealed weapons permit, Mr Trump told the CBS programme “Face the Nation”: “Because I like to have myself protected.” Host John Dickerson then asked Trump: “Do you carry?” “Sometimes,” replied Mr Trump.

Last week, days after a gunman shot dead nine people at a college in Oregon on October 1, Mr Trump said that gun laws had “nothing to do” with the spate of shootings and that such incidents were simply a fact of life.

HORRIBLE ACT
The mass shooting at the community college in Roseburg was “horrible,” Trump told CBS.

“Had somebody in that room had a gun, the result would’ve been better,” he said, adding that “I feel much better being armed.”

Meanwhile, backing for German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party has fallen to its lowest point in two years, a survey published Sunday showed, as dissatisfaction over a record refugee influx spreads.

Support for her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has dropped two percentage points to 38 per cent — its lowest since the last parliamentary election in September 2013, according to the latest weekly polls by newspaper Bild am Sonntag.

Almost one in two Germans (48 percent) believe that Merkel’s decision to open the country’s doors to those fleeing war was wrong.

Those who back her stance stood at 39 percent.

The survey also showed political parties that have been pressing for Germany to shut its doors to refugees as gaining ground, with the populist-nationalist Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the liberal FDP both gaining one percentage point to six percent each.