Trump reverses position on torture, killing terrorists' families

[yankeesfan]

http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/04/politics/donald-trump-reverses-on-torture/index.html

Republican front-runner Donald Trump said Friday that he would not order the U.S. military to violate international laws to fight terrorism, a stark reversal from his statements at Thursday's Republican debate.

Trump said in a statement that he understands "that the United States is bound by laws and treaties" and said he would "not order our military or other officials to violate those laws and will seek their advice on such matters."

He added, "I will not order a military officer to disobey the law. It is clear that as president I will be bound by laws just like all Americans and I will meet those responsibilities."

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Apparently he now realizes that you can't order the military to conduct unlawful actions like killing the families of terrorists

[#TheShadowyAbyss]

Trump has no set policies, I honestly don't see how anyone can take him seriously at this point.

[Ronnie]

Trump has no set policies, I honestly don't see how anyone can take him seriously at this point.

[Lincoln Republican]

Proving, once again, that Trump has absolutely no clue as to the extent of Presidential powers.

He believes Presidential powers are limitless, like he had on his reality show where he fired people at will.

[Inmate Trump]

Trump has no set policies, I honestly don't see how anyone can take him seriously at this point.

[Vosem]

What's hilarious is that not only does _trump have no policies, he clearly has no idea what's made his campaign remotely successful. He just repeats whatever the voices in his head that predominate at a given moment are saying.

[Likely Voter]

Step by step Trump will drop the extreme positions he took in the primary. Backing off from deporting all undocumented is coming. Same thing with the Muslim ban. 

Romney was mocked for the "Etch-A-Sketch" reset, but he never really did pivot and what pivoting he did, he did very late.  By the California primary Trump will be well on his way to transitioning to Mr. Moderate. Will general election voters buy it? That remains to be seen.

[Vosem]

Step by step Trump will drop the extreme positions he took in the primary. Backing off from deporting all undocumented is coming. Same thing with the Muslim ban. 

Romney was mocked for the "Etch-A-Sketch" reset, but he never really did pivot and what pivoting he did, he did very late.  By the California primary Trump will be well on his way to transitioning to Mr. Moderate. Will general election voters buy it? That remains to be seen.

_trump has not yet won the nomination, and many of the votes he has won so far he won through bloodthirstiness. This will demotivate his primary supporters -- and at a time in mid-March when the nominating contest is in full swing and he desperately needs them.

[Inmate Trump]

I wonder how his crazy supporters will react to his changing position.

I personally know of a Trump groupie who thinks doing more than water boarding is long overdue--that killing families of terrorists is a good thing.

I wonder how those dumb supporters will just gloss over his changing views.

[#TheShadowyAbyss]

If Trump's intentions are to reverse his earlier extreme positions, I don't know how well that will work with his supporters. Many worship him like a god so I doubt they'd leave en mass. Even if he moved to the center from his extreme right wing positions on immigration, national security policy....I doubt non-Trump supporters will buy it.

[°Leprechaun]

You can be sure that Cruz will continue to say that he is really still a liberal Democrat.

[Asian Nazi]

I like how the anti-TRUMP trolls are trying to paint this as a bad thing.  Also love the Sandernistaesque idea that politicians should never change their views lol

[#TheShadowyAbyss]

I like how the anti-TRUMP trolls are trying to paint this as a bad thing.  Also love the Sandernistaesque idea that politicians should never change their views lol

We're not saying it's a bad thing, this is a good thing if he is sincere about actually giving up an extreme-right position on an issue like this and moving into sensible territory. But on the other hand it makes him look like a flip-flopper much like Romney.

[Asian Nazi]

We're not saying it's a bad thing, this is a good thing if he is sincere about actually giving up an extreme-right position on an issue like this and moving into sensible territory. But on the other hand it makes him look like a flip-flopper much like Romney.

I don't really understand how being a "flip-flopper" is a bad thing.  I prefer my politicians to be responsive to the wishes of the general population and willing to admit when they are wrong.

[ElectionsGuy]

With this and changing his position on 'skilled workers' in the debates, it shows he has no real backbone and he's looking ahead to the general election.

[#TheShadowyAbyss]

We're not saying it's a bad thing, this is a good thing if he is sincere about actually giving up an extreme-right position on an issue like this and moving into sensible territory. But on the other hand it makes him look like a flip-flopper much like Romney.

I don't really understand how being a "flip-flopper" is a bad thing.  I prefer my politicians to be responsive to the wishes of the general population and willing to admit when they are wrong.

Because it shows you lack a core ideology if you drastically change your policy such as in the case of Trump here. It's fine if you admit you were wrong on something after doing the research and said research led you to conclude that your view was wrong and you're changing your view based on the factual evidence.

[Asian Nazi]

Because it shows you lack a core ideology if you drastically change your policy such as in the case of Trump here. It's fine if you admit you were wrong on something after doing the research and said research led you to conclude that your view was wrong and you're changing your view based on the factual evidence.

And what makes you think that TRUMP didn't conduct further research before changing his position?

[Likely Voter]

Step by step Trump will drop the extreme positions he took in the primary. Backing off from deporting all undocumented is coming. Same thing with the Muslim ban. 

Romney was mocked for the "Etch-A-Sketch" reset, but he never really did pivot and what pivoting he did, he did very late.  By the California primary Trump will be well on his way to transitioning to Mr. Moderate. Will general election voters buy it? That remains to be seen.

_trump has not yet won the nomination, and many of the votes he has won so far he won through bloodthirstiness. This will demotivate his primary supporters -- and at a time in mid-March when the nominating contest is in full swing and he desperately needs them.

The GOP delegate races passes the halfway point in less than 2 weeks. It enters the fourth quarter in mid April with the last set of delegates dominated by 'blue' states like NY, PA, CT, DE, MD, RI, WA, OR, NM...and last but very much not least, CA.  His transition away from the dark side will mostly take place during this period so he can go into the con as a 'uniter'...this will be even more important if it is a contested con as he has to convince delegates he can compete in the general.   

The thing that killed Romney was that in the summer of 2008 Team Obama just brutalized him and redefined him as an extreme heartless oligarch. Trump (if he is smart) will come before the con to convince the elites he can win and to counter the coming Clinton ad machine to take him on as an extremist.

[#TheShadowyAbyss]

Because it shows you lack a core ideology if you drastically change your policy such as in the case of Trump here. It's fine if you admit you were wrong on something after doing the research and said research led you to conclude that your view was wrong and you're changing your view based on the factual evidence.

And what makes you think that TRUMP didn't conduct further research before changing his position?

He did all that research in the span of less than 24 hours?

[Asian Nazi]

He did all that research in the span of less than 24 hours?

Or more likely he paid someone to do it for him.  Some adviser probably sent him a memo telling him why his views were in violation of international law, what the consequences would be, how the general electorate was receiving his position and he decided to respond accordingly.  Frankly, I for one am glad that my candidate doesn't support torture.

[Reginald]

I wonder how his crazy supporters will react to his changing position.

Honestly I'm not as interested in this as I am in how the Republicans who oppose Trump (or support Cruz/Rubio) will react if there's an overall pivot to the center, as I expect there to be. His supporters will probably just recognize any moderation as prepping for the general electorate. Cruz/Rubio supporters -- particularly the former -- will likely be infuriated.

It's all disarray and it's amazing to watch.

[Vosem]

I like how the anti-TRUMP trolls are trying to paint this as a bad thing.  Also love the Sandernistaesque idea that politicians should never change their views lol

We're not saying it's a bad thing

Speak for yourself, I'm saying it's a bad thing. Politicians should not flip-flop on the issues they are most closely associated with when the direction the wind blows from changes.

We're not saying it's a bad thing, this is a good thing if he is sincere about actually giving up an extreme-right position on an issue like this and moving into sensible territory. But on the other hand it makes him look like a flip-flopper much like Romney.

I don't really understand how being a "flip-flopper" is a bad thing.  I prefer my politicians to be responsive to the wishes of the general population and willing to admit when they are wrong.

On the extreme off-chance that _trump is elected, you'll find out exactly why flip-flopping is a bad thing.

Step by step Trump will drop the extreme positions he took in the primary. Backing off from deporting all undocumented is coming. Same thing with the Muslim ban. 

Romney was mocked for the "Etch-A-Sketch" reset, but he never really did pivot and what pivoting he did, he did very late.  By the California primary Trump will be well on his way to transitioning to Mr. Moderate. Will general election voters buy it? That remains to be seen.

_trump has not yet won the nomination, and many of the votes he has won so far he won through bloodthirstiness. This will demotivate his primary supporters -- and at a time in mid-March when the nominating contest is in full swing and he desperately needs them.

The GOP delegate races passes the halfway point in less than 2 weeks. It enters the fourth quarter in mid April with the last set of delegates dominated by 'blue' states like NY, PA, CT, DE, MD, RI, WA, OR, NM...and last but very much not least, CA.  His transition away from the dark side will mostly take place during this period so he can go into the con as a 'uniter'...this will be even more important if it is a contested con as he has to convince delegates he can compete in the general.

Republican voters in these states are still very conservative, however. (Note that polling from early January showed Cruz winning California, and we know _trump has never overperformed in any primary poling). _trump could do well in the Northeastern ones, but those are mostly proportional states, and we know those are bad for him. Trying to pivot will cost him vital delegates and make it likelier for us to take him to Cleveland. 

[Leinad]

Well, it's certainly good that he's changed this. Hopefully it's sincere. This was honestly one of my biggest qualms with the Donald.

I don't really understand how being a "flip-flopper" is a bad thing.

It's a question of judgement. How do we know he's not going to flip-flop on everything else?

When you run for freaking President of the United States, you should already have solid positions on most of the issues. Trump doesn't. Of course, this isn't the most important thing--I'd vote for a flaky libertarian over a solid statist any day--but it is a very important issue.

If he needs research to get that killing innocent people because their parent/spouse is a terrorist is, you know, wrong, I'm very wary of what he might do as President.

Not all flip-flops are those kind, however, the kind where they genuinely didn't know, did research, and learned. Some flip-flops are the kind where they look at the polls and change their position--like Hillary Clinton, who supported "traditional marriage" before popular opinion changed, now she's acting like a freaking gay rights pioneer. Honestly, this is the worst type of flip-flop.

While I'd rather vote for an honest expert, I'd vote for an ignorant person like Trump over a liar like Clinton

[Mehmentum]

Going back on this issue is necessary for him in the general election, but I have no doubt that Cruz will try to take advantage of it.

[Deblano]

Donny Trumpy is such a principled man.