(Reuters) - Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump, who
frequently touts his opposition to the Iraq war, appeared to support the
idea in a newly unearthed 2002 interview, but said on Thursday he
became an opponent by the time the invasion occurred.
In the
interview before the war began, which was republished by Buzzfeed on
Thursday, radio personality Howard Stern asked Trump if he supported
invading Iraq. "Yeah I guess so," Trump said, according to the audio
clip.
During a town hall event in South Carolina on Thursday,
Trump said the interview was not relevant because his views changed
before the invasion. "By the time the war started, I was against it, and
shortly after, I was really against it," he said.
The
billionaire businessman and former reality TV star, who leads the field
seeking the Republican nomination for the Nov. 8 election to succeed
Democratic President Barack Obama, has cited his opposition to the 2003
invasion of Iraq as evidence of his foreign policy credentials.
But
his criticism of former Republican President George W. Bush's actions
has aggravated some in his party, including in South Carolina, which
holds its Republican primary on Saturday.
Trump's comments on
Thursday came after a participant at the CNN event said he was "stung"
when the real estate mogul in a recent Republican debate accused Bush of
lying about the reasons to go to war. He was referring to allegations,
later proven false, that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction.
Trump
walked back that criticism, saying the reasons for going to war were
unclear. But he said the invasion was not justified and contributed to
the destabilization of the Middle East.
"Going into Iraq,
it may have been the worst decision anybody has made, any president has
made, in the history of this country. That's how bad it is," Trump said.
