This morning in an interview with Jake Tapper, Donald Trump offered what might be the clearest vision a “Trumpist” foreign policy, a forthright endorsement of brutal dictators who keep order in their countries and keep Islamist terror groups in check. He said that under Saddam Hussein, “he would kill the terrorists immediately. Now it’s the Harvard of terrorism.”
TRUMP: Frankly, there is no Iraq, and there is no Libya. It’s all broken up, they have no control, nobody knows what’s going on.
TAPPER: The world would be better off with Saddam Hussein and Gaddafi in power?
TRUMP: 100 percent! 100 percent! Now as far as Assad is concerned-
TAPPER: What about the human rights abuses and-
TRUMP: You don’t think they’re happening now? They’re worse now than they ever were! People are getting their heads chopped off, they’re being drowned! Right now, they’re far worse than they ever were under Saddam Hussein or Gaddafi. Look what happened! Libya’s a catastrophe. You look at our ambassador as an example. Libya is a disaster. Iraq is a disaster. Syria is a disaster. And it all blew up around Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. It all blew up.