Clinton’s Syria plan will lead to World War III: Trump

In an interview focused largely on foreign policy, Trump said defeating Islamic State is a higher priority than persuading Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down, playing down a long-held goal of US policy. Trump questioned how Clinton would negotiate with Russian President Vladimir Putin after demonising him; blamed President Barack Obama for a downturn in US relations with the Philippines under its new president, Rodrigo Duterte; bemoaned a lack of Republican unity behind his candidacy, and said he would easily win the election if the party leaders would support him. 

On Syria’s civil war, Trump said Clinton could drag the United States into a world war with a more aggressive posture toward resolving the conflict. Clinton has called for the establishment of a no-fly zone and “safe zones” on the ground to protect non-combatants. Some analysts fear that protecting those zones could bring the United States into direct conflict with Russian fighter jets. “You’re not fighting Syria any more, you’re fighting Syria, Russia and Iran. Russia is a nuclear country, but a country where the nukes work as opposed to other countries that talk,” he said.

Clinton’s campaign dismissed the criticism, noting that both Republican and Democratic national security experts have denounced Trump as unfit to be commander-in-chief. “Once again, he is parroting Putin’s talking points and playing to Americans’ fears, all while refusing to lay out any plans of his own for defeating IS or alleviating humanitarian suffering in Syria,” Clinton spokesman Jesse Lehrich said in a statement. 

Trump said Assad is much stronger now than he was three years ago and said getting Assad to leave power was less important than defeating Islamic State. On the deterioration of ties with the Philippines, Trump aimed his criticism at Obama, saying the president “wants to focus on his golf game” rather than engage with world leaders. Since assuming office, Duterte has expressed open hostility toward the United States, rejecting criticism of his violent anti-drug clampdown, using an expletive to describe Obama and telling the United States not to treat his country “like a dog with a leash.”