President Obama has launched a scathing attack on the presumed Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump.
In angry comments to reporters, he accused Mr. Trump of threatening to place America's Muslim community "under suspicion and under attack".
He said the Republican leader's proposed ban on immigration would only make the country "less safe".
But Mr. Trump responded on Twitter, saying America must impose what he called "extraordinary screening" on would-be immigrants.
Our Washington Correspondent Simon Marks reports on a political row fueled by the massacre in Orlando last weekend.
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TEXT:
Anyone wondering what the US Presidential election campaign is going to be all about, now has the answer.
A visibly furious Barack Obama took to the microphones after a meeting with his national security team.
Officially he was planning to update the country on the battle against Islamic State….but instead, he waged battle….rhetorically….with Donald Trump.
He poured scorn on the Republican Presidential contender's claim that the President recoils from using the phrase "radical Islam" when defining America's enemies.
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Answering his own question, President Obama said it wouldn't reduce the threat to America, but instead would play into the hands of the leaders of Islamic State and the country's other enemies.
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What appears to have seem to have stuck in President Obama's craw is a speech Donald Trump made on Monday, in the aftermath of the Orlando massacre.
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Citing the gunman's Afghan father who moved to New York several decades ago, he said he now doesn't just favor closing America's doors to Muslims….but intends to suspend immigration entirely from any country that is tied to acts of terrorism.
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And that led President Obama to warn that in this Presidential election America's fundamental freedoms and values are at stake.
And he posed questions directly to those Republicans who pledged support for Donald Trump.
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At least one answer came from Congressman Paul Ryan, the most powerful elected Republican in Washington.
He's the Speaker of the House of Representatives….and since the moment he endorsed Donald Trump 10 days ago, he's found himself time-and-again distancing himself from his party's presumed Presidential candidate.
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Which leaves open the question of whether Donald Trump can keep the support of those senior Republicans that he's already secured.
Among several, Senator Bob Corker, a Republican from Tennessee, described himself as "disappointed" by Mr. Trump's response to events in Orlando - it wasn't, he said, the kind of speech you'd expect a potential President to make.
And that's all grist to Hillary Clinton's mill….with Barack Obama leading the charge against Donald Trump and many of his fellow Republicans now joining in.
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