Donald Trump laughed and joked when a supporter suggested shooting immigrants to stop them crossing the US southern border.
Mr Trump complained about an influx of migrants entering the country via its border with Mexico as he addressed the crowds at a campaign rally in Panama City, Florida on Wednesday.
“You have 15,000 people marching up, and you have hundreds and hundreds of people, and you have two or three border security people that are brave and great — and don’t forget, we don’t let them and we can’t let them use weapons, we can’t, other countries do, we can’t, I would never do that.
"But how do you stop these people?" the 72-year-old added.
“Shoot ‘em!” a voice from the crowd immediately responded.
The president paused, chuckled and flickered a side-smile as the audience erupted into laughter.
“That’s only in the panhandle you can get away with that stuff,” he joked, using the informal term for northwestern Florida.
“Only in the panhandle!” he repeated, shaking his head to rapturous applause.
The president has never publicly endorsed the use of gunfire to deter migrants from crossing the border.
However, he described it as a “very effective” method in an interview with Fox News in March.
“Now we are capturing these people, we are getting them but we don't do it like other countries. Other countries stand there with machine guns, ready to fire,” he told presenter Sean Hannity.
“We can't do that. I wouldn't want to do that, OK? It's a very effective way of doing it but I wouldn't want to do it. We can't do it,” he added.
