The mayor of Philadelphia said Tuesday that his city is no longer open to GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump.
“Certainly if I had the power to do so, the only banning that should be done is of [Trump] not being allowed in the city of Philadelphia,” said Mayor Michael Nutter (D), according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.
{mosads}“[There is] nothing more vile or ignorant,” he said of Trump’s call for a ban on Muslims entering the U.S. a day earlier.
“We have no place for that kind of ignorance and intolerance and lack of understanding of what our country is about,” Nutter added.
“Unfortunately, many are playing a political game for their own gain, which undermines the fundamental values of what the United States of America is about.”
Nutter made the remarks while also addressing the vandalism of a mosque in northern Philadelphia, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Tuesday.
A severed pig’s head was left outside the Al Aqsa Islamic Society, the news publication said early that morning.
Nutter said Tuesday that the incident does not reflect how his city views its Muslim residents.
“You will be safe and secure in the city,” he told Philadelphia’s Islamic faithful, also calling them “brothers and sisters.”
Nutter added that Muslims’ “involvement in the life of Philadelphia is desperately needed…We will have continued vigilance with regard to the desecration of the mosque.”
Trump sparked global outrage late Monday by suggesting a “total and complete shutdown” of Muslims entering the U.S.
The Republican White House hopeful proposed the ban, which he said would be temporary, as a means of countering radical Islamic terrorism.
The mayor of St. Petersburg, Fla. responded by blacklisting the outspoken billionaire from his city that same evening.
“I am hereby barring Donald Trump from entering St. Petersburg until we fully understand the dangerous threat posed by all Trumps,” St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman (D) tweeted.
City officials in Toronto and Vancouver, meanwhile, began pushing Tuesday for buildings in their city to remove the real estate tycoon’s branding.