--- title: Trump Forgets That Muhammad Ali is a Muslim Sports Hero description: The presidential candidate was criticizing President Obama's speech on rejecting discrimination against Muslims canonical: https://time.com/4139087/donald-trump-muhammad-ali/ author: NBC News article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-12-07T19:30:57.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T13:10:14.131Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump Forgets That 'Friend' Muhammad Ali is a Muslim Sports Hero og:description: He was criticizing President Obama's speech on terrorism og:url: https://time.com/4139087/donald-trump-muhammad-ali/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt44c2e09a0ca3504d/6988741d196cf4ec3003954e/donald-trump3.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Donald Trump during a town hall meeting in Newton, Iowa on Nov. 19, 2015 in Newton, Iowa. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump Forgets That 'Friend' Muhammad Ali is a Muslim Sports Hero twitter:description: He was criticizing President Obama's speech on terrorism twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt44c2e09a0ca3504d/6988741d196cf4ec3003954e/donald-trump3.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Forgets That 'Friend' Muhammad Ali is a Muslim Sports Hero by [NBC News](/author/nbc-news/) ## NBC News Dec 7, 2015 7:30 PM CUT  Donald Trump during a town hall meeting in Newton, Iowa on Nov. 19, 2015 in Newton, Iowa. Donald Trump during a town hall meeting in Newton, Iowa on Nov. 19, 2015 in Newton, Iowa.Scott Olson—Getty Images by [NBC News](/author/nbc-news/) ## NBC News Dec 7, 2015 7:30 PM CUT Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump seemed to suggest Sunday on Twitter that he couldn’t recall any of America’s great Muslim athletes — despite having met “The Greatest” on several occasions. > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/673741357190615040) The business mogul, as has become custom during his presidential campaign, took to Twitter to offer his thoughts on [President Barack Obama’s national address](http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/obama-nation-terrorist-threat-u-s-evolving-beatable-n475176 "undefined"). Obama used the speech — just his third delivered from the Oval Office — to outline his strategy for defeating ISIS, and implore Americans to reject discrimination against Muslims. > [](https://twitter.com/ParkerMolloy/status/673748669716430849) [Read the rest of the story from our partners at NBC News](http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/donald-trump-forgets-muslim-champions-during-obama-criticism-n475306?cid=par-time%5F20151207 "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4139087/donald-trump-muhammad-ali/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4139087/donald-trump-muhammad-ali/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Forgets That 'Friend' Muhammad Ali is a Muslim Sports Hero","datePublished":"2015-12-07T19:30:57.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T13:10:14.131Z","description":"The Republican presidential candidate considers Ali his \"friend\"","url":"https://time.com/4139087/donald-trump-muhammad-ali/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election topic","Donald Trump","Muhammad Ali"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt44c2e09a0ca3504d/6988741d196cf4ec3003954e/donald-trump3.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"NBC News","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nbc-news/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt44c2e09a0ca3504d/6988741d196cf4ec3003954e/donald-trump3.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Donald Trump during a town hall meeting in Newton, Iowa on Nov. 19, 2015 in Newton, Iowa.","caption":"Donald Trump during a town hall meeting in Newton, Iowa on Nov. 19, 2015 in Newton, Iowa.","creditText":"Scott Olson—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/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4139087/donald-trump-muhammad-ali/","name":"Donald Trump Forgets That 'Friend' Muhammad Ali is a Muslim Sports Hero"}}]}] ```