Donald Trump said earlier Friday that he was being “sarcastic” in referring to President Obama as the “founder of ISIS,” and tweaking the media for not being able to tell the difference.
Then Trump not surprisingly reversed course at a campaign rally in Erie, Pa., later in the day.
“Obviously, I’m being sarcastic. Then, but not that sarcastic, to be honest with you,” he said, before acknowledging that some in his inner circle had tried to get him to instead say that Obama was an “enabler” in the ISIS matter.
“I said that doesn’t sound the same,” Trump said.
The origin of ISIS traces back to 1999 in Iraq, and the group rose in stature in the aftermath of the fall of the Saddam Hussein following the U.S. invasion in 2003.
Trump acknowledged the key role the invasion played in creating instability in the Middle East in the Republican primaries, using it as a talking point to kneecap Jeb Bush, the brother of former President George W. Bush, who authorized the invasion of Iraq on his watch.
Now the Republican nominee is trying to pin the rise of ISIS on Obama and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, while also claiming that he had been a vocal critic of the war before the 2003 invasion.
No evidence exists in the public record that Trump was a critic of the invasion ahead of time, and the only public comment from the businessman that exists, dating to 2002, indicated that he supported the invasion.
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