Donald Trump Stumbles and Bristles During Foreign Policy Interview

[Doingto]

Source: New York Times

Donald J. Trump revealed gaps in his mastery of international affairs during a radio interview on Thursday, appearing to mistake the Quds Force, an Iranian military group, for the Kurds, a Middle Eastern people, and growing testy over questions about foreign leaders.

“You’re asking me names that — I think it’s somewhat ridiculous,” Mr. Trump told Hugh Hewitt, a popular conservative radio show host. “As far as the individual players, of course I don’t know them. I’ve never met them. I haven’t been, you know, in a position to meet them.”

At one point, according to the interview’s transcript, Mr. Hewitt asked Mr. Trump if he was familiar with Gen. Qassim Suleimani, the shadowy commander of Iran’s paramilitary Quds Force.

“Yes, but go ahead, give me a little, go ahead, tell me,” Mr. Trump replied.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2015/09/03/donald-trump-stumbles-and-bristles-during-foreign-policy-question/?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=1

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That's right. Trump asked the interviewer to give him a hint, because he "never met" the Quds Force leader.

[underpants]

1. You see meeting, just being in the room with Trump is a game changer.

All he has to do is meet people and use his respectful informed charm to negotiate a deal wherein he wins and they lose. Simple as that. Now you may say 'No other world leader has met with the Quds General or other leaders on the opposing side but they still have to deal with them" but that is beside the point. One meeting with the Donald and this Quds General will find HIS head spinning and realize that he should re-evaluate his life and maybe follow his dreams to open that Bed n Breakfast he's been thinking about or that consignment shop he's had his eye on.

[SpankMe]

2. Well, Trump was right about one thing...

Many of those people the radio host was asking about will soon be replaced by someone else. Those terrorist leadership positions are a revolving door. Trying to keep track of them all is tough.

[jalan48]

3. Trump, you're fired!

[BillH2]

5. I wish.

Maybe the Republicans will fire him.

[jalan48]

6. He's a sideshow. He'll fade as quickly as he rose.

[hedgehog]

4. I was going to say it's unlikely that any candidate knows

all the players. However, any candidate opposed to the treaty with Iran should know all the players.

[riversedge]

7. Hugh Hewitt is a nasty RW radio

show host. In all fairness--IMHO he would not ask others such as Scott Walker (who got softball questions) this -what I see as a gotch-cha type question. But the Donald's response is priceless.

[yellowcanine]

17. Yeah he should definitely NOT try to fake it when he hasn't a clue.

Even if he didn't know who the the leader of the Quds is (who does?), it is kind of preposterous to pretend he does and then confuse them with the Kurds.

[hamsterjill]

8. His dog and pony show is starting to show.

He's faked and bullied his way further than I think anyone ever expected.

[ananda]

9. Why should he know their names?

All that matters is that they kowtow to him
when the time comes to meet.

[Ford_Prefect]

10. Stupid is as...

How anyone can take him seriously at this point???

[yeoman6987]

12. It really isn't that he doesn't know names,

It how he reacts to questions. He could have said that I don't know individual names but understand that dangers we face or something like that. I doubt most candidates except Hillary could answer some of those questions. It's how they respond that makes the difference.

[libdem4life]

11. That's why I think we should actually be rooting for Trump.

He can start a new/old party...the Know Nothings.

"Know-Nothing party [Credit: Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (Digital File Number: LC-DIG-pga-02603)]U.S. political party that flourished in the 1850s. The Know-Nothing party was an outgrowth of the strong anti-immigrant and especially anti-Roman Catholic sentiment that started to manifest itself during the 1840s. A rising tide of immigrants, primarily Germans in the Midwest and Irish in the East, seemed to pose a threat to the economic and political security of native-born Protestant Americans. In 1849 the secret Order of the Star-Spangled Banner formed in New York City, and soon after lodges formed in nearly every other major American city.

Members, when asked about their nativist organizations, were supposed to reply that they knew nothing, hence the name. As its membership and importance grew in the 1850s, the group slowly shed its clandestine character and took the official name American Party. As a national political entity, it called for restrictions on immigration, the exclusion of the foreign-born from voting or holding public office in the United States, and for a 21-year residency requirement for citizenship"

Has a familiar ring, no? Same group of bigoted people...different century...somethings do not change.

http://www.britannica.com/topic/Know-Nothing-party

[navarth]

19. the 'Pull The Ladder Up With You' Party

definitely has a familiar ring....when will humans ever learn

[Sunlei]

13. silly some media tries to make people stumble. Trump should skip the game show radio

Act more Presidential instead of like a cartoon.

[LibDemAlways]

14. Latest tactic to get Trump's numbers to take a nosedive.

Won't happen. Trump fans don't care if he knows his Kurds from his Quds. Hell, neither do they. They only care that he wants to get rid of "illegals" and that's reason enough to vote for him.

[yellowcanine]

16. Yeah but he didn't know the diff between Hamas and Hezbollah either.

The knuckle draggers might not care if he doesn't know that but a lot of voters will.

[yellowcanine]

15. So you can't know who someone is if you haven't met them? Interesting concept.

Too bad Mr. Hewitt didn't say, "I am not talking about knowing in the Biblical sense."

[seafan]

18. “Look, the more I get into this stuff, there are some things you just go, you know, ‘Holy schnikes.’

So says Jeb! Bush, on admitting that his foreign policy knowledge is 'still in the training phase'.


Next to Jeb Bush, Donald Trump sounds positively sane on foreign policy

Donald Trump dares to stand between Jeb Bush and an election.

We've got to allow him to press on, in his myriad untidy ways.

[Jack Rabbit]

20. Put you thinking caps on and ponder this. Use Google if you have to . . .

Can anybody think of one instance in the last three months where the Donald has bee asked a specific question requiring a detailed, factual answer where he has actually provided one?

It's unusual enough to hear such a question asked of any candidate from an MSM journalist, but this didn't come from Andrea Mitchell, who, unlike Chuck Todd, is somebody one might expect to ask a serious question. It came from Hugh Hewitt, a conservative radio host who may be no worse than or even a cut above the fakers and corporate shills in the MSM nowadays.

What we have here is Trump's Sarah Palin moment, like that moment when Charlie Gibson asked her to explain the Bush Doctrine and she started squirming like a high school student caught unprepared for class.

What is interesting is that this may be the first serious moment brought about by a journalist in the 2016 presidential campaign. What Mr. Hewitt has has shown the world is something most of us at DU knew, but needed to be demonstrated for those less inclined to scrutinize those who run for president. Mr. Hewitt has exposed Donald Trump as a phony. For that we should all be eternally grateful to him. From this point on, there is something else to say about Trump than "look at his poll numbers" or "what he said about racial minorities today was really outrageous." If anyone still thinks he's a well qualified presidential candidate, then that person is not paying attention.

[Ford_Prefect]

23. Amen. My Point Exactly! (see above)

Donald hasn't got a clue and that has been clear for a long time. Too many have been distracted by all the attitude, bigoted bluster, and the myth of Trump's successes. The blowhard has been pinned!

[silverweb]

21. He doesn't need to know them to bomb them.

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]And that's the whole of his foreign policy, as I understand it: "If they don't do what I want or they dis me, I'll just bomb them into oblivion." He wouldn't be Commander in Chief, he'd be "Murderous Bully in Chief."





[font color="purple"]Go, Bernie!
Ride the purple wave and join The Purple Revolution!

[mahatmakanejeeves]

22. I swore I'd never make another post about Donald Trump.

So sue me. You got nuthin'. Ya hear me?

Who is Hugh Hewitt?

The Fix
By Janell Ross September 4 at 12:39 PM

The list of people Donald Trump has lambasted, ridiculed and publicly derided is notoriously long. On Friday, The Donald added another name when he called the much-respected conservative radio host and constitutional law professor Hugh Hewitt a "third-rate announcer," after a Thursday interview with Hewitt exposed what would appear to be some gaps Trump's knowledge bank.

{Donald Trump just tripped up, over foreign policy. Again and again.}

Hewitt brings something relatively rare to the talk radio space. In the 15 years that "The Hugh Hewitt Show" has been on the air, he has run an often-calm operation, closely monitored by politicos and reporters alike. It's a show where guests can expect tough but typically fair questions that ultimately reveal not just what they think, but how they think. And what they say to Hewitt, more and more, will likely also be reported elsewhere.

[PSPS]

24. In what respect, Charlie? I read all of them.

[penndragon69]

25. Sounds like Herman Cain !

I don't know what is happening in " Uzebecki beckieStan)
that's why i have expert advisers on call.

[penndragon69]

26. T-Rump

Does not realize that he cannot use
his MAFIA muscle to force other nations to do his bidding.

[madaboutharry]

27. Well, Katie....

I read them all, whatever ends up on my desk. All of them......

Err.....

Another poseur and fraud.

[randys1]

28. Not knowing at this stage of the game bothers me less than KNOWING what he would do when

he was president.

He would literally tell China "I am over you" and expect them to change.

He would literally tell the military to carry out assassinations or invasions, meaning your children would be dying left and right.

Nope, this is one dangerous man because he literally has not a single clue about anything, never has

[livetohike]

29. His charade is just about over. He is Palin part 2. It's not even funny.

He isn't serious about actually wanting to be President. He's campaigning to stroke his ego.

[SummerSnow]

30. He doesn't know a damn thing. Trump and Palin, twins.

but they love him.

[moondust]

31. Overreaction gone wild.

I just saw the exchange on Nightly News. Virtually nobody knows who General Suleimani is; I'm positive none of the other GOP candidates would know that or much of anything else about the Quds forces. Mistaking "Quds forces" for "Kurds forces" over a phone connection is not a giant screwup.

Of course all the other candidates overreact and try to capitalize on it. TheRump naturally overreacts to all the overreaction, dumping on the "third-rate radio announcer."