Washington: US President Trump was interviewed on CNN four years back when he was running the presidential election. In one of his speeches during the campaigns, he was heard saying that the world was a better place with Saddam in power. He also said that Middle East would be better off with Gaddafi, Saddam Hussein and Assad in power.
The interviewer raised these two questions in the interview and Trump replied that he didn’t refer to Assad. Speaking about Libya and Iraq, he said there were no terrorists in those countries. He said now, Iraq has become the training ground for terrorists, Saddam used to kill the terrorists immediately. He stressed that by saying this, he did not mean that Saddam was a nice guy.
With regards to Gaddafi he said that the world did not gain anything with him, but today, Iraq and Libya are all broken up.
The interviewer asked again the same question to reconfirm whether the world would be better off with Saddam Hussein and Gaddafi to which Trump replied instantaneously ‘hundred percent’.
The interviewer questioned him about the human rights abuses. Trump retorted, “are they not happening now?” He added, human right abuses are far worse now, than they were under Saddam Hussein and Gaddafi. He gave the example of the US ambassador [who was killed in Benghazi in 2012].
He said ‘Libya is a disaster, Iraq is a disaster, Syria is a disaster. The whole Middle East! And it all blew up around Hillary Clinton and around Barack Obama —it all blew up’.