Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump reacted to Tuesday’s terrorist attacks in Brussels by invoking the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and saying the United States has to be careful about who comes into the country.
“We have to be very careful. We’re not babies. We can’t do this anymore. We can’t have these attacks anymore. We can’t have World Trade Centers anymore, and…planes flying into the Pentagon,” Mr. Trump said on “Fox and Friends.”
“It’s time to be smart, it’s time to look carefully,” he said. “People will come in, but we have to be very, very careful as to who comes into our country or we’re going to have problems like you’ve never seen. We probably already will have, but we’re going to have problems like you’ve never seen before.”
The attacks at an airport and metro in Belgium have killed at least 26 people and wounded dozens of others.
“Frankly, look, we’re having problems with the Muslims, and we’re having problems with Muslims coming into the country and we are seeing it, whether it’s California where they killed 14 people,” Mr. Trump said in a separate appearance on Fox Business Network.
Mr. Trump was referring to last year’s San Bernardino terrorist attacks carried out by a radicalized husband-and-wife team, and he also mentioned last year’s attacks in Paris. A suspect in the Paris attacks in November was taken into custody last week in Belgium.
SEE ALSO: ISIS celebrates Brussels airport, subway blasts; supporters take to Twitter
Mr. Trump had called for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States in the wake of the San Bernardino attacks last year.
“You need surveillance. You have to deal with the mosques, whether we like it or not,” he said. “I mean, you know, these attacks aren’t coming out of — they’re not done by Swedish people, that I can tell you.”
“Look, we have to be smart. We have to be vigilant. We have to watch very closely what’s going on,” he said. “We have to look at the mosques. We have to study what’s going on.”
Mr. Trump’s Republican rivals in the presidential race also reacted to the news Tuesday.
In a statement on his Facebook page, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas said that “our hearts break for the men and women of Brussels this morning.”
“Make no mistake — these terror attacks are no isolated incidents,” Mr. Cruz said. “They are just the latest in a string of coordinated attacks by radical Islamic terrorists perpetrated by those who are waging war against all who do not accept their extreme strain of Islam.”
SEE ALSO: Obama condemns terror attacks in Brussels
Ohio Gov. John Kasich, also a 2016 GOP candidate, said in a statement he’s sickened by the pictures of the carnage, by the injuries and by the loss of life in Belgium.
“The wave of terror that has been unleashed in Europe and elsewhere around the world are attacks against our very way of life and against the democratic values upon which our political systems have been built,” Mr. Kasich said.
“We and our allies must rededicate ourselves to these values of freedom and human rights. We must utterly reject the use of deadly acts of terror,” he said.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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