Trump asks Turkish man: 'friend or foe?'

US Republican candidate says he would like to see Turkey fight Islamic State

US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has provoked anger with his statements on numerous occasions and his address during a rally on Friday was no different.

Addressing a rally in Denver, Colorado, Trump asked a Turkish reporter whether he was friend or foe, days after suspected Islamic State suicide bombers killed 43 people at Istanbul's Ataturk Airport.

“I think he’s a friend. Are you a friend or foe? Huh? I think he’s a friend,” Trump said.

The exchange came as the Republican presidential nominee rattled off a string of countries with which he believed the US could strike better deals.



His statement could have either meant to question the friendship of the US and Turkey, or maybe what Trump really was asking the journalist was if he is a terrorist or not.

"And Turkey, by the way, should be fighting ISIS. I hope to see Turkey go out and fight ISIS, because ISIS has in a certain sense taken very serious advantage(s) of Turkey," said Trump. "And they could wipe ISIS out by themselves.

Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton's lead over Republican Donald Trump has dipped into the single digits among likely US voters for the first time in nearly two weeks, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Friday.

The June 27-July 1 poll showed a 9.4 percentage point lead for the former secretary of state over the New York businessman, down slightly from an 11.2 point lead in a previous five-day poll that ended on June 28.  Clinton had maintained a double-digit lead in the rolling poll since June 20, as she recovered from a brief boost in Trump's numbers in the wake of the mass shooting in Orlando, Florida, when he renewed a call for a ban on Muslim immigration.

Among likely voters, 43.9 per cent now support Clinton, compared with 34.5 per cent for Trump. Another 21.7 pe cent of likely voters wouldn't support either candidate.

 

This article originally appeared on Gawker.