Donald Trump boasts he's tough enough to reject Syrian refugee children: "I can look in their faces and say you can't come"

Trump returns to fear-mongering in New Hampshire, warning that a five-year-old "could be a Trojan horse"

By Sophia Tesfaye

Senior Politics Editor

Published February 8, 2016 4:52PM (EST)

 Donald Trump (Reuters/Brendan McDermid)
Donald Trump (Reuters/Brendan McDermid)

At the height of the GOP fear-mongering over the arrival of Syrian refugees to the United States late last year, several Republican governors moved to block the relocation of war ravished refugees into their states. One such governor was Indiana's Mike Pence (R), who turned away a Syrian family en route, forcing a last minute diversion to Connecticut.

On Monday in New Hampshire, the leader of the GOP's anti-refugee rhetoric over many months, Donald Trump, was asked by a Connecticut resident if he could actually refuse a five-year-old Syrian child refuge in the United States.

"Are they here yet?" Trump asked the man at a Salem, New Hampshire town hall Monday morning. "I can look in their faces and say you can't come," Trump promised. "We don't know where their parents come from. They have no documentation."

"It could be a Trojan horse," he added. Trump then turned to the example of German Chancellor Angel Merkel to further fear monger over the crisis. "What she did with the refugees, is insane. Germany is in turmoil, there will be a revolution."

“If I win,” Trump said in October, the Syrian refugees are "going back.”

[H/T: TPM]

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By Sophia Tesfaye

Sophia Tesfaye is Salon's senior editor for news and politics, and resides in Washington, D.C. You can find her on Twitter at @SophiaTesfaye.

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