--- title: Donald Trump Defends Himself Over Anti-Muslim Comments description: Donald Trump defended himself against criticism that he let a town hall questioner say anti-Muslim comments on Muslims and President Obama canonical: https://time.com/4041457/donald-trump-muslim-comments/ author: Mandy Oaklander article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-09-19T17:57:59.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T11:05:11.028Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump Defends His Treatment of Anti-Muslim Comments og:description: "First time in my life that I have caused controversy by NOT saying something" og:url: https://time.com/4041457/donald-trump-muslim-comments/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfe719e00c4f1441a/698864568e06014f7e46268b/gettyimages-488803792.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3400 og:image:height: 1913 og:image:alt: Donald Trump Holds Town Hall In New Hampshire og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump Defends His Treatment of Anti-Muslim Comments twitter:description: "First time in my life that I have caused controversy by NOT saying something" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfe719e00c4f1441a/698864568e06014f7e46268b/gettyimages-488803792.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Defends His Treatment of Anti-Muslim Comments > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Mandy Oaklander](https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/)  ## Mandy Oaklander Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME. Sep 19, 2015 5:57 PM UTC  Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a town hall event at Rochester Recreational Arena in Rochester, NH on Sept. 17, 2015. Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a town hall event at Rochester Recreational Arena in Rochester, NH on Sept. 17, 2015. Darren McCollester—Getty Images  by [Mandy Oaklander](https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/)  ## Mandy Oaklander Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME. Sep 19, 2015 5:57 PM UTC Donald Trump defended himself on Twitter Saturday against criticism that he did not challenge a questioner at a recent town hall meeting who suggested the U.S. should “get rid” of Muslims and claimed that President Obama [is a Muslim born outside of the United States](http://time.com/4040435/trump-muslim-question/). “We have a problem in this country, it’s called Muslims,” said the questioner in the audience at the New Hampshire town hall meeting on Thursday. “Our current President is one. We know he’s not even an American,” he added. “We have training camps growing where they want to kill us. That’s my question, when can we get rid of them?” “We’re going to be looking at a lot of different things,” Trump said. “You know, a lot of people are saying that and a lot of people are saying that bad things are happening. We’re going to be looking at that and many other things.” After the meeting, Trump did not answer questions from reporters about why he didn’t challenge the comments, [according to CNN](http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/17/politics/donald-trump-obama-muslim-new-hampshire/index.html). But Trump’s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, later told the network that Trump didn’t hear the accusation that Obama was a Muslim. “All he heard was a question about training camps, which he said we have to look into,” Lewandowski told CNN. “The media want to make this an issue about Obama, but it’s about him waging a war on Christianity.” On Twitter today, Trump addressed the comments, questioning why he was expected to defend Obama from his supporter’s remarks: > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/645217260311855104) > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/645218898632146944) > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/645220326960443392) > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/645225684328165376) Trump’s failure to challenge the comments [drew strong criticism](http://time.com/4040435/trump-muslim-question/) from Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley. Republican candidate Chris Christie also said Trump had handled the situation poorly. “I would just tell you that if somebody at one of my town hall meetings said something like that, I would correct them and say, now, the president’s a Christian and he was born in this country,” Christie [said on NBC’s TODAY show](http://www.today.com/news/chris-christie-false-obama-claims-trump-rally-i-wouldnt-have-t44946) Friday. “Those two things are self evident.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4041457/donald-trump-muslim-comments/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4041457/donald-trump-muslim-comments/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Defends His Treatment of Anti-Muslim Comments","datePublished":"2015-09-19T17:57:59.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T11:05:11.028Z","description":"\"This is the first time in my life that I have caused controversy by NOT saying something\"","url":"https://time.com/4041457/donald-trump-muslim-comments/","keywords":["Election 2016","Hillary Clinton","Election","democrat","Bernie Sanders","Donald Trump","Republican","Martin O'malley","trump","presidential candidates"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfe719e00c4f1441a/698864568e06014f7e46268b/gettyimages-488803792.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mandy Oaklander","jobTitle":"Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfe719e00c4f1441a/698864568e06014f7e46268b/gettyimages-488803792.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Donald Trump Holds Town Hall In New Hampshire","caption":"Donald Trump Holds Town Hall In New Hampshire","creditText":"Darren McCollester—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/election-2016/","name":"Election 2016"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4041457/donald-trump-muslim-comments/","name":"Donald Trump Defends His Treatment of Anti-Muslim Comments"}}]}] ```