Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump built his fortune by looking out for number one, and that is exactly what he thinks the U.S. should do.
In a recent interview with The Guardian, the billionaire real estate mogul said the U.S. should shift its focus nation-building inward.
“We’re nation-building and we can’t do it,” Trump told The Guardian’s Ben Jacobs. “We have to build our own nation.”
“We’re trying to tell people that have had dictators and worse for centuries how to run their own countries,” he added.
Trump, who maintains his lead in the Washington Examiner’s presidential power rankings, went on to reference to the U.S. effort to stabilize Iraq in order to foster a democracy in the Arab nation.
“Look at what happened in Iraq,” he told Jacobs. “We got rid of Saddam Hussein — I don’t think that was a very helpful thing. Iraq is a disaster right now, and is going to be taken over by Iran and ISIS.”
“So then foreign policy intervention should be dictated, strictly, by national interest rather than any other considerations?” Jacobs pressed the candidate.
“Certainly you can say humane if there’s a problem in the world and you can solve the problem,” Trump said.
Jacobs then asked whether he would considers former President Bill Clinton’s decision to intervene in Kosovo an example of necessary foreign intervention. In 1999, Clinton announced the U.S. would join forces with its 18 NATO allies to launch airstrikes against a “mounting military offensive” in the Serbian province, describing the situation as a “moral imperative.”
“Ending this tragedy is a moral imperative. It is also important to America’s national interest,” Clinton said at the time.
“That’s okay, sure,” Trump said. “There are certain cases you see things going on, atrocities going on that are horrible — ISIS is one of them. I mean this is why we’re there.”
“But there is a humane reason and there’s also a reason that we have to build our own country and that’s what we have to focus on,” he added.
In comparison to several of his GOP opponents, Trump has yet to demonstrate a strong understanding of U.S. foreign policy and global affairs. Critics, including Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who is polling at third place in the Republican field, have criticized the businessman for skirting around the often complicated subject area with rambling answers and vague suggestions.
“National Security is the most important obligation of the federal government. If you are going to be a presidential candidate, you need to take this seriously. And I think that is important,” Rubio told CNN in September.
