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  • 2016-09-27 (xsd:date)
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  • Was Trump Against the Iraq War from the Beginning? (en)
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  • One bone of contention between 2016 GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump and his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, is that she, famously, voted in favor of the 2003 invasion of Iraq as a member of the U.S. Senate, and he, supposedly, opposed it. Trump made much of his alleged opposition to the Iraq War throughout the presidential campaign, calling the incursion a mistake. During a Republican debate in February 2016, Trump said, I'm the only one on this stage that said, 'Do not go into Iraq, do not attack Iraq.' Nobody else on this stage said that. And I said it loud and strong. In June 2016, Trump declared that the Iraq War set in motion a chain of events that led to the rise of the terrorist group ISIS, saying that Hillary Clinton's vote in favor of it was indicative of her poor judgment. In short, Hillary Clinton’s tryout for the presidency has produced one deadly foreign policy disaster after another, Trump said. It all started with her bad judgment in supporting the War in Iraq in the first place. Though I was not in government service, I was among the earliest to criticize the rush to war, and yes, even before the war ever started. Despite mainstream media challenges to the accuracy of the latter claim, Trump repeated it during the first presidential debate in September 2016. I was against the Iraq war, he fired back after moderator Lester Holt said he Trump had supported it. The record shows that I'm right. Is he? Does the record show that Trump was against the Iraq War before it started? Let's examine his public statements, beginning with his first known comment on the notion of invading Iraq, made during a 2002 radio talk show interview. The Howard Stern Show, 11 September 2002 (six months before the war): If that remark wasn't exactly a wholehearted endorsement of the notion of invading Iraq, it clearly wasn't an expression of opposition to the idea either. Fox News interview with Neil Cavuto, 31 January 2003 (two months before the war): In January 2003, with an invasion of Iraq looming, Fox News interviewer Neil Cavuto asked Trump what kind of advice he would give to President Bush. Trump waffled, expressing neither support nor opposition to the concept of invading Iraq and offering no more cogent an opinion than that President Bush should make up his mind one way or the other: Fox News interview with Neil Cavuto, 21 March 2003 (one day after the war began): One day into the invasion of Iraq, Trump appeared again on Neil Cavuto's Fox News program. He again did not criticize or condemn the war effort, calling it instead a tremendous success: Esquire Magazine interview, August 2004 (18 months after the war began): Here, finally, are Trump's first published remarks critical of the Iraq War, which appeared almost a year and a half after the military action began. By then, this was not a particularly controversial stand to take: The record shows that Donald Trump's public stand against the Iraq War did not occur until August 2004, long after the war was underway, and only after he had on multiple previous occasions expressed either support for the war or non-committal opinions about its merits. The record does not support his contention that he was against the Iraq War from the beginning. (en)
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