Donald Trump's endorsers still with him after proposed Muslim entry ban
There's been plenty of outrage about Donald Trump's proposal to temporarily bar Muslims from entering the United States, but neither the comments nor the public backlash seem to have driven away most of the people who endorsed him.
The celebrities who have endorsed Trump, ranging from basketball's Dennis Rodman to Duck Dynasty reality show star Willie Robertson to actor Gary Busey, have not weighed in on the controversy in public or on Twitter.
Boxer Mike Tyson, who is Muslim, has also kept quiet. He has not responded either to Trump's plan or to his tweet Sunday casting doubt on President Obama's assertion there are Muslim sports heroes in the United States.
New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady has also said nothing publicly, although the website Deadspin is offering $100 to any reporter who is able to ask Brady about his allegiance to Trump (although Brady did walk back an offhanded September remark that he hoped Trump would become president).
Pro wrestler Hulk Hogan, who said in early September that he wants to be Trump's running mate, has also said nothing so far.
Predictably, though, Trump's white supremacist supporters are cheering, led by Andrew Anglin, who publishes a neo-Nazi website called Daily Stormer.
"Heil Donald Trump - THE ULTIMATE SAVIOR," Anglin wrote in a blog post entitled, "Glorious Leader Calls for Complete Ban on All Moslems."
"Why were these monkeys ever allowed in in [sic] the first place? What an insane, stupid concept," he wrote.
The Daily Stormer endorsed Trump in June. Anglin wrote at the time that he had "many disagreements" with Trump, but the businessman was "absolutely the only candidate who is even talking about anything at all that matters."
The neo-confederate group League of the South, which hasn't endorsed Trump but is sympathetic to his positions, suggested that he doesn't go far enough. Instead of the temporary ban espoused by Trump, the league, led by Michael Hill, calls for "the permanent banning of Muslims and all other Third World immigrants into the USA, and particularly into the South," he wrote on the website, in response to a CBS News query. He also said his organization wants "the immediate deportation of all Muslims and all other Third World immigrants from the USA, and particularly from the South."
What may seem more surprising is that Trump retains much of his support among state elected officials, as well.
"A temporary moratorium on this is something I totally agree with," New Hampshire State Rep. Fred Doucette, who is one of Trump's co-chairs in the state, told CBS News. "His heart's in the right place. He's worried about American safety and maybe that's what we should be talking about.
Instead, Doucette blames the media for misrepresenting Trump's proposal by saying he is banning all Muslims, including American citizens (Trump's proposal called for a "total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States," but he later amended the idea while talking to Fox News. People currently living in the U.S. and traveling abroad would be allowed to come home, he said).
"When I talk to the constituents, they understand after I spend a few minutes on the phone with them that it's getting misread. I totally support his position, I'm sure in the coming days it will be cleared up," he said.
Georgia State Sen. Michael Williams, who endorsed Trump in October, said that Trump supporters in his state "are behind" the idea.
"It's protecting our country from those that are trying to do us harm, and its not that we're trying to keep all Muslims out -- it's just that we want to keep those people who have come to hurt us," he told CBS News.
Williams said that not all Georgians support Trump's proposal, but he's not worried it will make it more difficult for Trump to attract supporters.
"As we look back this could be seen as the moment that Donald Trump stood out as the Republican presidential nominee," he said.
That's not to say there hasn't been any buyer's remorse. Khalaf al Habtoor, a businessman from the United Arab Emirates who wrote an article backing Trump in a Gulf newspaper over the summer, told NBC News he made an error in judgment.
"When he was talking about Muslims, attacking them....I had to admit I made a mistake in my supporting Mr. Trump," he said. "He is creating a hatred between Muslims and the United States of America."
And the son of a Muslim immigrant, New Hampshire real estate investor Adeel Tahir, said he was "100 percent Donald Trump" until his recent comments.
"I think it's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard in my life," Tahir told WMUR.
His concern is that he might not be able to re-enter the U.S. if he travels overseas to check on his family's properties.
"It's scary. We are American citizens here, we contribute to society, we employ people, we pay taxes here, and for someone to say you were born and raised in this country but you're not allowed here because you're Muslim -- it hurts," he said.