An MSNBC panel of foreign and domestic policy guests praised Republican front-runner Donald Trump for a speech he delivered Wednesday in Washington that laid out his campaign’s philosophy on foreign policy.
“This speech, I thought he hit it out of the ballpark,” said retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey, who served in the first Iraq war. “From a domestic political viewpoint, I think it was very powerful, very sensible.”
McCaffrey, who served in the Clinton administration, said Trump “did a tremendous job” and said the speech was a “very significant presentation.”
Michael Feehery, a veteran GOP operative, described Trump’s address as a “real politik type of speech” that is “somewhat popular with a lot of Republican voters.”
“It was really an outsider’s foreign policy speech,” said Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, an author and fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. “It was aimed at people who either already agreed and were in camp Trump, or people looking for reassurances that he would govern reasonably.”
Trump said in his speech that should he become president, he would advocate for “stability” in foreign countries and not “radical” change, a reference to regime change that former president George W. Bush pushed for in the Iraq War.
The billionaire also assured that the U.S. would be “respected” and “a friend” to its allies” the world over.
