Dubai Businessman Says He Regrets Backing Trump After Muslim Ban

Mr Khalaf Al Habtoor Hosted in Atlanta by Former President Carter for a Tour of the Carter Center (PRNewsFoto/Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor) THIS CONTENT IS PROVIDED BY PRNewsfoto and is for EDITORIAL USE ONLY**
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Khalaf Al Habtoor, a billionaire from the United Arab Emirates who backed Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, told NBC News Tuesday that he regrets supporting the real estate mogul after he proposed a ban on Muslim immigration.

Al Habtoor, who chairs the Al Habtoor Group conglomerate, expressed his support for Trump in an August op-ed for The National, an English-language newspaper published in the UAE. In it, he wrote that he thought “Mr. Trump is a man who wants America to be great again.”

“He believes in bringing back his country’s superpower status, has guts, determination and, most of all, is a true patriot,” Al Habtoor wrote.

But the Dubai businessman walked those comments back Tuesday after Trump called for a “total and complete shutdown” of Muslims entering the U.S.

“When he was talking about Muslims, attacking them … I had to admit I made a mistake in my supporting Mr. Trump,” he told NBC News. “He is creating a hatred between Muslims and the United States of America.”

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  1. And it IS pres. Carter in the picture… What a contrast to Trump…

  2. Much like those Black preachers, they realized too late that they had been used and then disposed of with nothing to show for it.

  3. Khalaf Al Habtoor and Trump must be mired in negotiations over land or a building project.

  4. This illustrates why foreigners should stay out of our politics. Now, I wish someone would draw a line, which I can follow, around the legal boundaries between this guy and Trumph. Somebody may need to be in jail.

  5. But he had no problems with Trump when he called Mexicans rapists? But now he does? Hypocrisy.

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