Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland Friday morning President Donald Trump took a swipe at the security situation in Europe, which has seen a number of bloody terror attacks in recent years.
Vowing that he would not allow the same attacks to take place in the United States, and that his administration would “keep radical Islamic terrorists the hell out of our country”, President Trump at first made light of press coverage he’d received over his comments on Sweden earlier in the week.
Referring to the Swedes who spoke out against the widespread perception that the migrant crisis has been well handled by their nation, among them Sweden Democrats leader Jimmie Åkesson, President Trump said that his comments were quickly vindicated by civil unrest and criminality in Sweden itself. He said:
“By the way, take a look at what’s happening in Europe. I took a lot of heat on Sweden, and then a day later, I said ‘has anyone reported what’s going on?’.
“And it turned out that not so many of them did. Take a look… I love Sweden, great country, great people. They understand, the people over there understand I’m right”.
Turning to other European nations struggling with the impacts of the migrant crisis and the Islamist terrorists it has enabled to gain access to Europe, President Trump also namechecked Germany and France. Germany saw an unprecedented two years of Islamist terror to the end of December 2016, when a Berlin Christmas market was ram-raided by a terrorist driving a stolen truck. 12 were killed.
Speaking of Nice, France — also attacked by an Islamist driving a truck at high speeds to mow down pedestrians — and of the French capital, the American president relayed an anecdote of a friend who once regularly visited Paris for pleasure. With the deteriorating security situation in the city, President Trump said his friend no longer visited at all.
The remarks come just days after the latest Paris tourism figures show visitors fell 1.5 million in 2016, which cost the French economy some €1.3 billion.
Looking at these problems in Sweden, Germany, France, and elsewhere, the President promised he wouldn’t allow the same fate to befall the United States. He said:
“Take a look at what is happening to our world, folks. We have to be smart, we can’t let it happen to us. Let me state this as clearly as I can, we are going to keep radical Islamic terrorists the hell out of our country.
“We will not be deterred from this course, and in a matter of days, we will be taking brand new action to protect our people and keep America safe. I will never, ever apologise for protecting the safety and security of the American people”.
Watch: The President Trump CPAC 2017 Speech in Full