During an interview with Howard Stern (discovered by the left-wing site BuzzFeed), back on September 11th, 2002, six months before the Iraq War began, Donald Trump was asked about his support for the war, which at that point was still in the debate stage, “Yeah, I guess so,” Trump replied. “I wish the first time it was done correctly.”
A large part of Trump’s campaign has centered on his stated opposition to the war in Iraq; his claim that had he been president at the time, he never would have launched the war.
A “Yeah, I guess so,” six month before the invasion is hardly the smoking gun of support his critics would have you believe.
In fact, just days after the actual Iraq invasion began, Trump was on record calling the war “a mess.”
By the following year, Trump was calling for President Bush to be “fired” over his handling of the war.
When asked about the Stern quote by Anderson Cooper at a Thursday night town hall event, Trump dismissed it. “It was probably the first time I was asked that question. By the time the war started I was against it,” the Republican front-runner said.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC
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