flopping on many issues that he used to win the Republican presidential nomination, but he's lying about what he actually said previously. Trump is now saying that his call to ban all Muslims from entering the US was simply "a suggestion". But when Trump first introduced the proposed ban in December last year he explicitly said in both a speech and in a press release: "Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on." That's a very definitive stance to take and Trump's campaign spelled it out very precisely. Trump called for the ban on Muslims shortly after the terrorist attacks in Paris which killed 130 people. Despite international outrage, he refused to apologize or retract his comments. But this week the turnaround began, first following a response from the new London Mayor Sadiq Khan, a Muslim, who told reporters he will not be Trump's Muslim "exception". The businessman also made the U-turn the same day he was expected to meet with House Speaker Paul Ryan for Republican peace talks in Washington after Ryan refused to endorse him. Trump put new emphasis on the temporary nature of his proposed ban in an interview with Fox News. "No, it was never meant to be - I mean that's why it was temporary," he said, when asked if he would consider backing off the controversial ban. "Sure I'd back off on it. I'd like to back off on it as soon as possible." So Trump has softened his stance on the most controversial proposal of the 2016 election campaign, criticized as potentially unconstitutional, and the focus of his very first TV campaign ad. Does that raise concerns? Do Trump's campaign promises speak to earnest proposals or are they simply the opening salvos in negotiations? Can he be trusted? It's not a surprise that Trump is lying about something. He put paid to a core pillar of his candidacy earlier this week by agreeing to accept outside funding in the general election after months of saying that he was uniquely trustworthy because he didn't let anyone give him money. He flip-flops with abandon on issues like taxes and breaks with GOP orthodoxies because, as much as anything, he just doesn't care about policy. What is surprising is that one of the two things that it was thought he would never back down on – the other is kicking out 11 million illegal immigrants and building a wall between Mexico and the US which Mexico will pay for - is one of the first things that, as he pivots to the general election, he's signaling a willingness to move away from. So building the wall - is that a suggestion too? In fairness, Trump has said over and over that he's a dealmaker, a negotiator, and that therefore any policy he proposed should be taken no more seriously than an opening bid — a "suggestion". With six months left in the campaign, what else might Trump promise to do once elected president? What is he asking his voters to trust him for? In his latest interview, Trump said: "Look, anything I say right now, I'm not the president. Everything is a suggestion, no matter what you say, it's a suggestion." It remains to be seen how Trump's supporters react to this backtracking and, consequently, how long it will last. For now, Trump is getting all kinds of credit (depending on one's viewpoint) for apparently softening his stance on his proposed ban on Muslims. But faced with just a bit of resistance from the Republican establishment, Trump is already couching one of his boldest statements as something people maybe shouldn't take too seriously after all.
