Trump calls for tough U.S. border security after Brussels attacks

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump called again for tougher U.S. border security following Tuesday’s deadly attacks on the Brussels airport, saying “we have to be very vigilant and careful about who we allow into our country.”

 

Trump’s comments, in an interview on NBC’s “Today” program, came a day after he expressed skepticism about the U.S. role in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and said the United States should significantly cut spending on the defense alliance.

 

“As president … I would be very, very tough on the borders, and I would be not allowing certain people to come into this country without absolute perfect documentation,” he told NBC.

 

Republican rival John Kasich, the governor of Ohio, struck a different tone, pledging to “redouble our efforts with our allies” and saying the United States “must strengthen our alliances” in the face of acts of terror.

 

U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, who is running second to Trump in the Republican delegate count, called the blasts in Belgium “the latest in a string of coordinated attacks by radical Islamic terrorists.”

 

“Radical Islam is at war with us,” he said in a statement posted online.

 

Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the U.S. House Intelligence Committee, said the Brussels attacks that killed at least 26 people at the airport and a rush-hour metro train, “bear all the hallmarks of an ISIS-inspired, or ISIS-coordinated attack,” using an acronym for Islamic State.

 

The attacks will likely revive national security as a key issue in the 2016 race for the White House, at least for now.

 

Read More: Trump calls for tough U.S. border security after Brussels attacks

1 reply

Comments are closed.