It seems almost pointless to poke at Don Trump’s foreign policy for inconsistencies. First, it assumes that Trump has any sort of coherent structure that can be viewed as a policy (something bigger than “bomb the crap out of them.”) It also assumes that Trump doesn’t change his positions six times more often than he changes his gold lamé undertrumps. Even so, when Trump keeps hammering on the same point about Libya, it’s worth noting that Trump’s record of having perfect amnesia on anything he said in the past remains intact.
Trump 2016
On Libya? I never discussed that subject. I was in favor of Libya? We would be so much better off if Qaddafi were in charge right now. … You look at Libya right now, ISIS as we speak is taking over their oil. We would have been better off if the politicians took a day off instead of going into war.
Trump 2011
Qaddafi, in Libya, is killing thousands of people. Nobody knows how bad it is. And we’re sitting around, we have soldiers all over the Middle East, and we’re not bring them in to stop this horrible carnage. That’s what it is. Carnage. You talk about all the things that have happened in history, this could be one of the worst. Now, we should go in. We should stop this guy, which would be very easy and very quick.
But as bad as it is that Trump won’t own up to what he said, what’s worse is that no one makes him. He can appear on one show after another, making the same claims over and over, and no one calls him out.
Oh, and Trump’s often repeated statement that ISIS is making millions from Libyan oil? That's a lie, too.
David Mack, an expert on Libya and terrorism with the nonpartisan Middle East Institute, called Trump’s claim "absolutely untrue."
But you wouldn’t know it from watching Today, or Morning Joe, or Fox, or a Republican debate, or any of the other shows that have allowed Trump to make these statements over, and over, and over...
