During an interview with the Miami Herald on Thursday, Trump was asked if he would push to get US citizens accused of terrorism tried by military commissions at the USA military base in Cuba, a change that would require action from Congress.
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It is not now legal for the United States to try Americans in military tribunals, and doing so would require Congress changing the law.
Trump criticized the President for wanting to try terrorist suspects in traditional courts. “I don’t like that at all”, he told the Herald.
“I would say they could be tried there, that would be fine”, Trump told the newspaper in an interview.
President George W. Bush authorized the trial of non-citizens who engage or support acts of terrorism after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, but a United States citizen has never been tried in military courts under that order, according to CNN.
Most constitutional experts and several senior Republican senators – including Sen. John McCain, have spoken out in the past about trying U.S. citizens in military court.
In a rare show of humility by the boastful billionaire, Donald Trump is acknowledging that his presidential campaign faces challenges and could ultimately fall short. Of Guantanamo, Trump has previously suggested he would “load it up with bad dudes”.
In an interview with the Miami Herald newspaper Trump said it would be “fine” to try Americans at the center as he wanted to ensure the USA has a “safe place” to keep a “radical Islamic terrorist”.
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Trump praised the military base a good place to keep terrorists. “I would say they could be tried there, that would be fine”.
