Trump says comment on Obama founding IS was sarcasm

Moments after Donald Trump told supporters at a rally in Erie, Pennsylvania on Friday that he was “obviously being sarcastic” when he repeatedly called President Barack Obama “the founder of ISIS”, he seemed to backtrack on backtracking, by adding, “but not that sarcastic, to be honest with you”. What’s now known as ISIS began as the al-Qaeda affiliate in Iraq in the early aughts, before Obama was president and Clinton was secretary of state.

Donald Trump is backing off his shocking claims about President Obama being the founder of ISIS saying it was just “sarcasm”.

“We’re having a problem”, Trump told the ministers, adding that the next president could get to nominate up to five high court justices.

“In many respects, you know, they honor President Obama”, Trump said Wednesday during a raucous campaign rally outside Fort Lauderdale, Florida. That’s what Trump was alluding to, but what he actually said was, “He’s the founder of ISIS. Most valuable player”, he said.

That’s pretty much it. Zarqawi was a man so extreme that even Al-Qaeda chided him over his tactics. “I give her, too, by the way, Hillary Clinton”, Trump said. “It’s absurd for him to say that Obama and Clinton are founders of ISIS – and he can’t blame the media for this”.

Straying from his trademark bravado, Donald Trump acknowledged Thursday that his presidential campaign is facing challenges and could ultimately fall short – a rare expression of humility by the Republican presidential nominee. Trump said he wasn’t anxious Republicans would cut him off – and threatened to stop fundraising for the party if they do.

“It was a style that none of his Republican opponents could cope with”, Gingrich said.

Trump says he won’t release them until Internal Revenue Service completes audits of his returns.

Before killing American-Israeli journalist Steven Sotloff in 2014, one IS militant said: “I’m back, Obama, and I’m back because of your arrogant foreign policy toward the Islamic State. despite our serious warnings”.

At a rally Friday, Trump recalled the pledge all of the Republican contenders signed to support the eventual nominee.

“BTW, Trumps line that Obama founded ISIS echoes exactly a myth propagated by Russian state-controlled media and bloggers”, McFaul tweeted.

The tweet was the first move by Trump to moderate his comments, which he had repeated multiple times since he featured them in a speech Wednesday night and which came under fire from the Clinton campaign and many Democrats.

Trump then suggested that the USA should withdraw as quickly as possible even though the deteriorating security situation could bring someone worse than Saddam to power.

And when pressed to clarify in interviews Thursday, Trump insisted he had said what he meant.

In a hard hitting editorial, “The New York Times” described Trump charges as false.

“He was the founder, absolutely the founder”, Trump said on CNBC. Those concerns are compelling enough that dozens of anxious Republicans gathered signatures Thursday for a letter urging the GOP chairman to stop helping Trump and focus on protecting vulnerable House and Senate candidates.

Republicans frequently trace the birth of Islamic State to the Obama administration’s decision to withdraw the last US forces from Iraq by the end of 2011.