GOP presidential candidate and billionaire mogul Donald Trump laid out his foreign policy plans on Monday, which included the United States being “very dependent on what Israel wants” and focusing on fixing itself rather than on “nation-building” overseas.
In an interview with The Guardian, Trump said that the United States’ attempt to turn Iraq into a democracy hasn’t worked, and has left the country worse off. “Iraq is a disaster right now and it’s going to be taken over by Iran and ISIS, so I think we have to focus on ourselves,” he explained.
“We’re nation-building. We can’t do it,” Trump said. “We have to build our own nation. We’re nation-building, trying to tell people who have [had] dictators or worse for centuries how to run their own countries.”
Trump also noted that the U.S. is $19 trillion in debt. “We have to straighten out our own house,” he said. “We cannot go around to every country that we’re not exactly happy with and say we’re going to recreate [them].”
While Trump said that when it comes to military intervention, “there are certain cases where you see things going on, atrocities going on, that are horrible,” and “ISIS is one of them.” He said that the U.S. should only deploy American military “if there’s a problem going on in the world and you can solve the problem.”
[RELATED: Trump: Rivals Want to Start World War 3 Over Syria]
Regarding Russia launching airstrikes in Syria, Trump noted that Russian President Vladimir Putin is “going to want to bomb Isis because he doesn’t want Isis going into Russia and so he’s going to want to bomb Isis.”
“Vladimir Putin is going to want to really go after Isis, and if he doesn’t it’ll be a big shock to everybody,” Trump added. He said that Putin “is an Assad person” in regards to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and “the United States doesn’t like Assad,” which could create conflict.
The Obama administration recently ended its $500 million program arming moderate Syrian rebels to fight ISIS, and Trump criticized the administration for “backing people who they don’t know who they are,” noting that the rebels “could be ISIS.”
“Assad is bad,” Trump said. “Maybe these people could be worse.”
[RELATED: Obama Administration Ends $500 Million Syria Rebel Training Program]
In terms of the current conflict between Israel and Palestine, Trump told The Guardian that he “would love to see something happen,” and that he thinks “there is an answer to it, but it’s a complicated answer.”
Trump said that he believes the U.S. should “stay with Israel,” because it has been the U.S.’s most reliable partner in the Middle East. “Israel has been terrific to us,” he said. “Obama has treated Israel horribly. We have to stay with Israel and stay with them big time.”
“I’d really call up Bibi,” Trump said, referring to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “who is a friend of mine and I’d call up some people and be very dependent on what Israel wants. You know if they really want certain things and they are deserving of certain things.”
For more election coverage, click here.