Trump Plans ‘Extreme Vetting’ of Immigrants From Terror States

(Bloomberg) -- Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said his administration would introduce “extreme vetting” of potential immigrants from certain “territories,” as his blanket ban on Muslims entering the U.S., proposed in December, continues to evolve.

“If people want to come in, there’s going to be extreme vetting,” Trump said in an interview broadcast Sunday on CBS News’ “60 Minutes.” “They’re going to come in and we’re going to know where they came from and who they are.”

Trump mentioned Syria but didn’t specify which other areas might fall under the proposed policy. The real estate developer was speaking in his first joint interview with Indiana Governor Mike Pence, his choice for vice president. Portions of the interview were shown earlier on “Face the Nation.”

On the eve of the Republican National Convention, the party’s new standard-bearer pledged to declare war on Islamic State with a “few” troops on the ground, while blaming the Obama administration, and specifically former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, for its rise.

“I am going to have very few troops on the ground,” he said when pressed to explain what he meant by declaring war. “We’re going to have unbelievable intelligence, which we need, which right now we don’t have.”

Trump argued that Islamic State could be vanquished if Turkey were “incentivized” in an unspecified way to defeat the terrorist group, but laid the blame for the jihadist group’s expansion on his presumptive Democratic competitor.

‘Stupid Policies’

“Hillary Clinton invented ISIS with her stupid policies,” he said, using an acronym for the jihadist group. “She led Barack Obama because I don’t think he knew anything. I think he relied on her.”

Pence also blamed Obama and Clinton for the instability in Turkey that led to an attempted military coup on July 15. He said that “weakness arouses evil” and that the foreign policy of Obama and his former top diplomat “sent an inexact, unclear message about American resolve.”

The Republican ticket skirted questions on policy differences between the pair, including Pence’s vote in 2003 in favor of the U.S. invasion of Iraq -- a measure Clinton also voted for while serving in the Senate.

“He’s entitled to make a mistake every once in a while,” Trump said of Pence, laughing. “But she’s not,” he said of Clinton.

Trump said the “very establishment” Indiana governor would help him fully lock down support from social conservatives in the Republican Party, which he said was “very close to unified” already.

To contact the reporter on this story: Michelle Jamrisko in Washington at mjamrisko@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: Carlos Torres at ctorres2@bloomberg.net, Ros Krasny, Bernard Kohn