BAFFLED ? Easy enough. The GOP machine doesn't want Trump to win. Can't stop him from running, but can keep him from the GOP nomination

Trump backers baffled by criticism of his Muslim proposal    

Associated Press By JILL COLVIN and BILL BARROW,

Tracy Hooker talks about Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at Rosie's Hot Dogs in Greer, S.C., Thursday, Dec. 10, 2015. Trump's supporters don't see his plan to ban Muslims from entering the U.S. as "xenophobic" or an "appeal to hate," but rather as an entirely reasonable response to a clear and present threat.                                

GREER, S.C. — As she's working the counter at a hole-in-the-wall hot dog stand named Rosie's in upstate South Carolina, Tracy Hooker isn't interested in debating the merits of Donald Trump's proposal to temporarily block Muslims from coming into the United States.
She knows some people think it's bigoted. That others argue it's impractical, legally dubious or both. And that every other Republican running for president has, in some way or another, rejected the idea that the plan is even worth talking about.
That's why she says Trump is "my guy."
He's the only one who gets it.
"Think about it. You don't know what you've got here. You've got no clue," she said of the Muslim tourists, immigrants and refugees Trump wants to temporarily bar from coming to the U.S.
"You don't know if they like us. You don't know if they hate us," said Hooker, 47, of Greer, South Carolina. "You don't know why they're here."
To Hooker and the dozens of Trump supporters interviewed in the past week by The Associated Press in the first-to-vote states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, the near universal condemnation of the billionaire's plan is simply baffling.

MORE