Why people are calling American businessman Donald Trump Voldemort

  • Published
Donald TrumpImage source, Reuters

Donald Trump's name has been doing the rounds a fair bit recently.

You might recognise him as the American businessman who has his own tower in New York or as the host of the original version of The Apprentice.

You're also likely to have heard his name recently because he's hoping to be the Republican presidential candidate.

And if you've been on Twitter since he suggested Muslims should be banned from America, you might have seen him being compared to Lord Voldemort.

In a campaign statement, Donald Trump said a "complete" shutdown should remain until the US authorities "can figure out what the hell is going on" and if Muslims pose a threat to the US.

He later repeated the comments at a rally in South Carolina, where supporters cheered him loudly.

Image source, AP
Image caption,
Not Donald Trump but Ralph Fiennes as Voldemort in Harry Potter

But Jeb Bush, who is also from the Republican party and hoping to be president, said the New York businessman was "unhinged".

Donald Trump's comments, which he said were "common sense", were made in light of last week's shooting in California where a Muslim couple, believed to have been radicalised, opened fire and killed 14 people at a health centre in San Bernardino.

The White House said Mr Trump's comments were contrary to US values, while the internet compared him to Lord Voldemort from Harry Potter - a lot.

This isn't the first time in this campaign that Trump, who also thinks there should surveillance on some US mosques, has been criticised.

His idea to build a "great, great wall" between the US and Mexico didn't go down too well.

Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,
Jeb Bush also wants to be the Republican candidate for president

Mr Trump, a billionaire New Yorker who has been leading in the polls, defended his plan to build a wall on the US-Mexico border and deport all the people living illegally in the US.

"You're going to have a deportation force, and you're going to do it humanely," he told MSNBC's Morning Joe.

"You have millions of people that are waiting in line to come into this country and they're waiting to come in legally."

For more stories like this one you can now download the BBC Newsbeat app straight to your device. For iPhone go here. For Android go here.