Obama Rebukes Trump 'Yapping' On Radical Islam

"There's no magic to the phrase 'radical Islam'," Mr Obama says as he dismisses "yapping" by "politicians who tweet".

Barack Obama has lashed out at Donald Trump's claim that the President's avoidance of the term "radical Islam" has hampered US counter-terrorism efforts.

A visibly irritated Mr Obama dismissed "yapping" from "politicians who tweet" as he confronted the Republican White House hopeful's criticism, without mentioning him by name.

The Democratic president sought to debunk the critique, levelled by many other Republicans, that he has ducked saying "radical Islamic terrorism" out of political correctness.

"There's no magic to the phrase 'radical Islam,'" said Mr Obama at the Treasury Department in Washington DC, as he discussed Sunday's Orlando nightclub attack.

"It's a political talking point.



"If someone seriously thinks we don't know who we're fighting, if there's anyone out there who thinks we're confused about who our enemies are, that would come as a surprise to the thousands of terrorists we've taken off the battlefield."

Mr Obama said Mr Trump's calls for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the US and tougher talk on terrorism were "dangerous" and "not the America we want".
He said Mr Trump's proposals would merely serve as a recruiting tool for the Islamic State and leave Muslim Americans feeling betrayed by their government.



"We've gone through moments in our history before when we acted out of fear and we came to regret it," Mr Obama told reporters.

"We've seen our government mistreat our fellow citizens and it has been a shameful part of our history."

"Where does this stop?" he said.

"Are we going to start treating all Muslim-Americans differently? Are we going to start subjecting them to special surveillance?"



Mr Obama said there is no evidence that a foreign terrorist group directed the Florida nightclub attack.

He said the gunman appears to have been "an angry, disturbed, unstable young man who became radicalised".

On Monday, Mr Trump said Mr Obama was in "total denial" about radical Islam.
America's top elected Republican, House Speaker Paul Ryan, distanced himself on Tuesday from Mr Trump's Muslim ban idea.

It was seen as another sign of conservative establishment unease with the agenda of their standard-bearer for November's election.