Donald Trump may frequently tout his opposition to the Iraq War as a cornerstone of his campaign, but a 2002 interview with Howard Stern has revealed otherwise.
In the interview, Stern asks the property mogul if he supports invading Iraq.
“Yeah I guess so,” Mr Trump replies. “I wish the first time it was done correctly.”
He was confronted with the old interview, which was uncovered by Buzzfeed, during a CNN town hall discussion.
When asked about his statement, Mr Trump replied: “I could have said that.
“Nobody asked me. I wasn't a politician. It was probably the first time somebody asked me the question.
”But by the time the war started I was against the war, and there are articles, I mean there are headlines in 2003, 2004, that I was totally against the war.“
Although the Republican frontrunner has repeatedly claimed he was against the Iraq War before the invasion, he has failed to provide any concrete evidence for his position.
In his 2000 book, The America We Deserve, Mr Trump was outspoken about his tough polices towards “outlaw” states such as Iraq.
“Even when we finally decide to go after a rogue state, we often stop well short of finishing the job. Consider Iraq. After each pounding from US warplanes, Iraq has dusted itself off and gone right back to work developing a nuclear arsenal,” he wrote.
Mr Trump was also clear about the threat he felt Iraq posed at the time.
“We still don’t know what Iraq is up to or whether it has the material to build nuclear weapons," he said.
"I’m no warmonger. But the fact is, if we decide a strike against Iraq is necessary, it is madness not to carry the mission to its conclusion.
"When we don’t, we have the worst of all worlds: Iraq remains a threat, and now has more incentive than ever to attack us.”
