Trump criticised after Muslim jibe

Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump faces more criticism after he declined to correct a questioner at a town hall event who incorrectly said US president Barack Obama is a Muslim.

Trump, who has a history of controversial remarks about immigrants and other groups, was kicking off a town hall event in Rochester, New Hampshire — his first since Wednesday evening’s second Republican primary debate.

The first man Trump called on to ask a question said: “We have a problem in this country. It’s called Muslims. We know our current president is one. You know he’s not even an American.”

Trump, who was a driver of the “birther” movement that falsely claimed Obama was not born in the US, first responded with feigned exasperation — “We need the question”, he said, to laughs — but let the man continue.

The questioner continued: “We have training camps growing where they want to kill us. That’s my question. When can we get rid of it?”

Trump did not dispute the man’s assertions and said he had heard others raise the issue.

The incident evoked a moment during the 2008 campaign when Republican nominee John McCain took the microphone away from a woman who said she did not trust Obama because he was an “Arab”.