YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — Likening the fight against terrorism to the Cold War and the battle against Nazism, Donald Trump pledged Monday to tighten restrictions on immigration from Muslim countries and assess allies based on their commitment to defeat “radical Islam.”
“All actions should be oriented around this goal, and any country which shares this goal will be our ally,” Trump said in what aides billed as a major foreign policy address. “Very important — some don’t share this goal. We cannot always choose our friends but we can never fail to recognize our enemies.”
The Republican nominee declared his opposition to “nation building” and other efforts to spread democracy in the Middle East, attacking the Obama administration — particularly former secretary of State Hillary Clinton — for policies toward nations like Iraq, Iran, Libya, Syria and Egypt.
Trump also blamed President Obama and Clinton for the rise of the Islamic State, the Middle-East-based extremist group also known as ISIS.
“The Obama-Clinton foreign policy has unleashed ISIS, destabilized the Middle East, and put the nation of Iran — which chants, ‘death to America’ — in a dominant position,” Trump told an invited audience gathered at Youngstown State University in Ohio, a key state in his election battle against his Democratic opponent in November.
He also said Clinton “lacks the mental and physical stamina to take on ISIS and all of the many adversaries we face.”
In his prepared speech, Trump advocated a foreign policy overhaul in three general areas: Diplomacy, immigration, and national security (particularly cyber-security).
