Donald Trump has decided to really go big on the anti-Muslim rhetoric, and he is standing pretty firmly by his call to ban all foreign Muslims from entering the United States. But remember a few months ago when Trump didn’t think it was a good idea to provoke the Muslim world? Since Trump’s announcement yesterday, a couple of people have flagged this tweet of his from back in May:Yes, for all the talk of how Donald Trump “tells it like it is” and isn’t afraid to be politically incorrect, he sure sounded like he had some “politically correct” objections to Geller’s “Draw Muhammad” cartoon contest. Let’s back up for a second, since it was about a thousand news cycles ago and this happened before Trump announced his presidential run. You’ll recall that back in May, Geller organized that cartoon contest in Garland, Texas to make a statement about free speech and not giving in to the whims of terrorists. Two suspects targeted the event and were shot. This kicked off a huge debate about whether Geller’s event went too far in inviting an attack or, to a lesser degree, antagonizing the Muslim world. One of the people sharing that viewpoint was Trump. On Fox & Friends the day after, Trump condemned the shooting but also said, “It looked like she’s just taunting everybody. What is she doing drawing Mohammed?… Isn’t there something else they can draw?” He also tweeted that it’s not a good idea to “provoke possible death” like that. Gosh, that sounds pretty politically correct for someone who’s always saying we don’t have time to be politically correct. And then there’s the interview he did with Neil Cavuto the next day on Fox News. And in hindsight, when you hear what Trump said about Geller being overly provocative, you may yourself swimming in a vast pool of irony. The interview is below, followed by some choice quotes from The Donald (emphasis added): Donald Trump has decided to really go big on the anti-Muslim rhetoric, and he is standing pretty firmly by his call to ban all foreign Muslims from entering the United States. But remember a few months ago when Trump didn’t think it was a good idea to provoke the Muslim world? Since Trump’s announcement yesterday, a couple of people have flagged this tweet of his from back in May: Yes, for all the talk of how Donald Trump “tells it like it is” and isn’t afraid to be politically incorrect, he sure sounded like he had some “politically correct” objections to Geller’s “Draw Muhammad” cartoon contest. Let’s back up for a second, since it was about a thousand news cycles ago and this happened before Trump announced his presidential run. You’ll recall that back in May, Geller organized that cartoon contest in Garland, Texas to make a statement about free speech and not giving in to the whims of terrorists. Two suspects targeted the event and were shot. This kicked off a huge debate about whether Geller’s event went too far in inviting an attack or, to a lesser degree, antagonizing the Muslim world. One of the people sharing that viewpoint was Trump. On Fox & Friends the day after, Trump condemned the shooting but also said, “It looked like she’s just taunting everybody. What is she doing drawing Mohammed?… Isn’t there something else they can draw?” He also tweeted that it’s not a good idea to “provoke possible death” like that. Gosh, that sounds pretty politically correct for someone who’s always saying we don’t have time to be politically correct. And then there’s the interview he did with Neil Cavuto the next day on Fox News. And in hindsight, when you hear what Trump said about Geller being overly provocative, you may yourself swimming in a vast pool of irony. The interview is below, followed by some choice quotes from The Donald (emphasis added): “Our country has a lot of problems. We have got problems at every different level, whether it’s economic or war and money that we’re spending that we’re not getting anything. We spend billions and billions of dollars fighting and even trillions of dollars fighting. We end up getting nothing out of it. And the last thing we need is an obnoxious blowhard like Geller to go out and start trouble, when there’s no reason for it.” “What is she doing it for? This has nothing do with free speech. This is taunting. And all it does is cause trouble.”

• published: 09 Dec 2015
• views: 138