Esquire Adds Note to 2004 Trump Interview on Iraq Because He ‘Won’t Stop Lying’
One piece of evidence Donald Trump keeps invoking in his insistence he opposed the Iraq War from the start is an old interview he gave to Esquire, and Esquire has just about had it.
Trump invoked it yet again today and claimed the interview––in which he criticized the Iraq War––was at the start of the war. The war started in March 2003. Trump did that interview in 2004.
Here’s everything Trump had to say then about Iraq:
My life is seeing everything in terms of “How would I handle that?” Look at the war in Iraq and the mess that we’re in. I would never have handled it that way. Does anybody really believe that Iraq is going to be a wonderful democracy where people are going to run down to the voting box and gently put in their ballot and the winner is happily going to step up to lead the county? C’mon. Two minutes after we leave, there’s going to be a revolution, and the meanest, toughest, smartest, most vicious guy will take over. And he’ll have weapons of mass destruction, which Saddam didn’t have.
What was the purpose of this whole thing? Hundreds and hundreds of young people killed. And what about the people coming back with no arms and legs? Not to mention the other side. All those Iraqi kids who’ve been blown to pieces. And it turns out that all of the reasons for the war were blatantly wrong. All this for nothing!
Well, Esquire has added this editor’s note to the top:
Editor’s note: The following story was published in the August 2004 issue of Esquire. During the 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed to have been against the Iraq War from the beginning, and he has cited this story as proof. The Iraq War began in March 2003, more than a year before this story ran, thus nullifying Trump’s timeline. More details can be found here.
And Esquire‘s deputy editor said they’re doing it for one obvious reason:
Because Donald Trump won't stop lying, we've updated our 2004 story with an editor's note: https://t.co/dhHfecJkaz pic.twitter.com/6rp7da1Sod
— John Hendrickson (@JohnGHendy) September 8, 2016
[featured image via Shutterstock]
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