Appearing on Sean Hannity’s Fox News program Thursday evening, President Donald Trump had some choice words for the Islamic State.
We have evil that lurks around the corner without the uniforms. Ours is harder because the people that we’re going against, they don’t wear uniforms. They’re sneaky, dirty rats. And they blow people up in a shopping center. And they blow people up in a church. These are bad people.
When you’re fighting Germany, they had their uniforms, and Japan, and they had their uniforms and they had their flags on the plane and the whole thing. We are fighting sneaky rats right now that are sick and demented. And we’re going to win.
Trump also discussed the use of enhanced interrogation techniques, after Hannity argued opponents of waterboarding would endorse the technique if their own loved ones had been kidnapped by terrorists.
The President contended that waterboarding was used “because they said it really wasn’t torture. It was one step slightly below torture.”
“I mean, torture is real torture, OK? Waterboarding is – I’m sure it’s not pleasant, but waterboarding was just short of torture. When you know, all of a sudden, they made it torture,” Trump elaborated.
He went on to say he was convinced the technique “absolutely works,” a point Hannity supported by pointing to the waterboarding of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
Trump described waterboarding as a rough, but justifiable and effective, response to the savagery of terrorism. He talked about the thousands killed in the World Trade Center attack, and people that “go into a club and they blow everyone up” or “machine-gun everybody down.”
“And then, they say we’re not allowed to waterboard? It seems so foolish and so naive. But that is what we have to put up with,” he mused.
However, Trump said Defense Secretary James Mattis “doesn’t intend to use it,” and “I’m with him all the way.”
Trump also looked forward to a good relationship with Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who has been strongly critical of radical Islam. “He went into a tough situation, and all I can say is, I like him,” Trump declared.
As for Saudi Arabia, Trump suggested he was biting his tongue in the interests of maintaining a good relationship with the Kingdom, but he is not pleased with their past activities: “A lot of money is being spent from certain countries on radicalizing people. I don’t like that. I don’t like that.”