AP Photo Trump doesn't correct man who says Obama is Muslim 
 
 Confronted with a questioner who called Muslims a "problem" and asserted that President Obama is a Muslim and not American, Donald Trump did not correct him on Thursday night. 
 
 "We have a problem in this country, it’s called Muslims. Our current President is one. We know he’s not even an American,” said a questioner at a town hall in New Hampshire. “We have training camps growing where they want to kill us. That’s my question, when can we get rid of them?” 
 
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 “A lot of people are saying that and a lot of people are saying that bad things are happening out there. We’re going to be looking at that and a lot of different things,” Trump responded. 
 
 Trump has been a leading proponent of the discredited theory that Obama was not born in the United States. 
 
 "The media wants to make this issue about Obama. The bigger issue is that Obama is waging a war against Christians in this country. Christians need support in this country. Their religious liberties are at stake," a Trump campaign spokeswoman said in an email. 
 
 Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton hit back at Trump on Twitter, tweeting: "Donald Trump not denouncing false statements about POTUS & hateful rhetoric about Muslims is disturbing, & just plain wrong. Cut it out. -H” ||||| Photo 
 
 DES MOINES – In front of several hundred evangelical Christians on Saturday, Donald J. Trump took a dig at Senator John McCain for a well-known incident in which Mr. McCain took away a microphone from a woman to correct her after she said that Barack Obama was an Arab. 
 
 Mr. Trump compared that episode to his own response on Thursday, when a man accused Mr. Obama of being a Muslim and not an American. Mr. Trump was widely criticized for not correcting the man, but he told the Iowa crowd that if he had, he would have been attacked for violating the man’s right to free speech. He referred to the 2008 episode when Mr. McCain, then the Republican presidential nominee, corrected a voter by telling her: “No, ma’am, no ma’am. He’s a decent family man, citizen.’’ 
 
 “Remember the famous day when John McCain just ripped that microphone out of the woman’s hands,’’ Mr. Trump said, calling it “a little bit harsh.’’ 
 
 “Does anybody really think it’s harsh?” he asked the crowd, and was answered by a round of applause. 
 
 Mr. Trump spoke at a candidate forum hosted by the Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition, a branch of the conservative organization founded by Ralph Reed. 
 
 In July, at another gathering of evangelicals in Iowa, Mr. Trump said Mr. McCain was “not a war hero” because he was captured in North Vietnam. He also raised some eyebrows at that event by saying he had never sought God’s forgiveness and seemed to make light of communion. 
 
 Mr. Trump, who leads among Republicans in Iowa polls, has recently lost some support among evangelicals to Ben Carson, a former surgeon. 
 
 Mr. Trump came to build bridges to evangelicals, who hold outsize influence in this state. He displayed a Bible and said: “I brought my Bible. You see, I’m better than you thought.” 
 
 The crowd responded with applause throughout a five-minute speech and 15 minutes of questions. Mr. Trump promised several times to protect religious liberty if he becomes president. “I will be great, I will protect you,’’ he said. “Believe me, I will protect you.’’ ||||| Donald Trump Donald John TrumpAccuser says Trump should be afraid of the truth Woman behind pro-Trump Facebook page denies being influenced by Russians Shulkin says he has White House approval to root out 'subversion' at VA MORE on Monday cast doubt on President Obama's commitment to fighting radical Islamic terrorism, saying “there’s something going on.” 
 
 "We're led by a man that either is not tough, not smart, or he's got something else in mind," the presumptive Republican presidential nominee said during a phone interview on "Fox and Friends." 
 
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 "And the something else in mind, you know, people can't believe it, people cannot believe that President Obama is acting the way he acts and can't even mention the words 'radical Islamic terrorism,' " he said. "There's something going on — it's inconceivable. There's something going on. 
 
 "He doesn't get it, or he gets it better than anybody understands. It's one or the other, and either one is unacceptable." 
 
 The businessman has in the past raised questions about Obama's birthplace and suggested he is not a Christian. The White House responded to Trump’s “birther” claims in 2011 by releasing the president's long-form birth certificate. 
 
 Trump went further with his comments on NBC's "Today" show, arguing Obama was intentionally pursuing ignorance on the topic of Islamism. 
 
 Although the GOP candidate said he personally considers the president to be clueless, he gave consideration to conspiracy theories that the president has ulterior motives. 
 
 "There are a lot of people who think maybe he doesn't want to get it. A lot of people think maybe he doesn't want to know about it," Trump said. 
 
 Trump has repeatedly blasted Obama's handling of terrorism and in February accused the president of apologizing to Muslims after he visited a mosque to combat rhetoric against Muslim-Americans. 
 
 Several journalists highlighted Trump's comments on Monday, a day after Omar Mateen killed 49 people and injured dozens more in a shooting at an Orlando, Fla., nightclub. 
 
 Trump tosses dogwhistle, busts out a foghorn on TODAY: "Well there are a lot of people that think maybe [Obama] doesn't want to get it." — Benjy Sarlin (@BenjySarlin) June 13, 2016 
 
 What Trump did this am is arguably equivalent to a Dem suggesting 9/11 is an inside job the day after 9/11. https://t.co/A1rf9Xhi4r — Sam Stein (@samsteinhp) June 13, 2016 
 
 "The president doesn't know [about radical Islamic terrorism] because he certainly doesn't do much about it in terms of intelligence, in terms of intelligence gathering," Trump said on the "Today" show. 
 
 "I'm not sure that the president knows, if you want to know the truth. He won't even use the term 'radical Islamic terrorism.' I think he thinks that everyone's just a sweetheart," Trump said. 
 
 "He won't even use the term 'radical Islamic terrorism,' which I think is insulting to our country and it's insulting to everybody," he added.
– When Donald Trump initially took flak for not challenging a questioner's assertion that President Obama is a non-American Muslim, his campaign explained that he hadn't heard that part of the question. This morning, however, Trump himself took to Twitter in a far more defiant tone: "Am I morally obligated to defend the president every time somebody says something bad or controversial about him? I don't think so!" he tweeted. Then he pointed out that "this is the first time in my life that I have caused controversy by NOT saying something." He reeled off three more, one asserting that president Obama wouldn't have defended him if the situation were reversed, another saying the media would have castigated him on free-speech grounds if he had challenged the man, and another saying that Christians' "religious liberty is at stake" around the world. (Still, critics are pouncing, including the White House.)