WASHINGTON – Donald Trump, in a
Wednesday interview on “Morning Joe” on MSNBC, doubled down on his previous
calls to stem the tide of Muslim immigration – calls that set him at fierce
odds with civil-rights activists and pro-Muslim organizations – and said he
didn’t care so much about hurting his presidential chances as about protecting
America from danger.

The question posed to Trump was
this: Do you still believe “Muslims should be banned from entering the country
until we can figure out what’s going on?”

And Trump’s response was blunt.

“I don’t care if it hurts me,” he
said. “I’m doing the right thing when I do this. And whether it’s Muslim or
whether it’s something else, I mean, I have to do the right thing and that’s
the way I’ve been guided. And I’ve been guided by common sense, by what’s
right.”

He referenced the mass
immigration from Muslim-dominated countries that’s hit hard at Europe.

And he went on: “Look at what’s
happening. It’s terrible what they have done to some of these countries … They
are destroying Europe. I’m not going to let that happen to the United States.”

Trump then derided President
Obama for his refusal to even use the phrase “radical Islamic terrorism,” and
said under his watch – under a Trump presidency – “common sense” would prevail.

“We have to be careful,” Trump
said. “We’re allowing thousands of people to come into our country, thousands
and thousands of people being placed all over the country that frankly nobody
knows who they are. They don’t have documentation in many cases. In most cases.
We don’t know what we’re doing. Let’s see what happens. This could be a very
serious problem for the future.”