Trump's new normal

Trump's new normal
The floundering Republican nominee packs his foreign policy speech with go-to half-truths and divisive policy ideas.
By ELI STOKOLS and NOLAN D. MCCASKILL 08/15/16 03:10 PM EDT Updated 08/15/16 06:47 PM EDT

Donald Trump again blamed President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton for the rise of ISIS. He questioned his opponent’s “physical stamina” to eradicate the terrorist group. And he again interspersed what his campaign hyped as a major foreign policy speech — his third to date — with falsehoods and half-truths, promising an end to nation building abroad by obscuring his past positions on the subject.

He criticized an Iraq invasion that, contrary to his own retelling, he previously called the “right decision.” He bashed a war in Libya and a government overthrow in Egypt, both of which he supported. He lamented putting boots on the ground in the Middle East and also that the U.S. did not keep more troops in Iraq to “take the oil.”

He criticized Clinton’s ties to governments of countries that deny women and gays broader human rights—and then again suggested how “nice” it would be to have improved relations with Russia, a country where gays are routinely persecuted. In speaking about the threat of homegrown terrorists, Trump again asserted — wrongly — that people saw bombs all over the San Bernardino shooter’s apartment.

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/trump-clinton-moral-clarity-227023