As a London, Ontario native currently playing for the Toronto Maple Leafs of the National Hockey League, Nazem Kadri has had cause to keep only perfunctory focus on the goings-on in the still-developing 2016 American presidential race. Kadri though, was asked this week to offer his thoughts on Donald Trump, the pompous, vitriolic Republican candidate who recently championed a country-wide moratorium on Muslin immigration in the name of national security.
Kadri, a practicing Muslim, admitted that he was aware of Trump's remarks.
"I think he's hurting his own campaign, to be honest," Kadri told Sean Fitz-Gerald of the Toronto Star. "I mean, I think he's pretty delusional. But his opinion's his opinion."
The 25-year-old Kadri went on, indicating that he considered himself fortunate to live outside the reach of Trump's political sphere.
"It's unfortunate that this is what it's come to," Kadri said. "But I mean, that being said, I'm lucky to live in a country like Canada, where people of political stature don't say those kinds of things to make people feel out of place."
With the presidential field unsettled and Republican primaries another two-plus months away, there's still plenty of time for Trump's shock and awe campaign to take another handful of dumbfounding twists and turns. His latest tactic has involved taking on his own party, threatening to run as an independent if he's not "treated fairly" by the GOP, proving yet again that Trump won't let any threat - real or perceived - stand in his way, as he bullies himself into the White House.
There has been no clarification to this point whether Trump's plan, outlined here, would extend to athletes like Kadri, who regularly travel to the United States on business.
