The New York businessman, who has struggled at times to demonstrate a command of foreign policy, also seemed to acknowledge he does not now have a plan to address cyber security or the Islamic State group. According to notes released from Clinton’s interview with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, she said she relied on others with knowledge about handling classified files. And he would ask the joint chiefs of staff to conduct “a thorough review” of the nation’s cyber defenses to determine all vulnerabilities, according to a fact sheet distributed by his campaign. Later on Wednesday, both were due to lay out their stalls at a so-called “commander-in-chief” forum on the NBC network.
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With these proposals, Trump is seeking to convince sceptics, many of them within the Republican Party, that he is prepared to be the U.S. commander in chief, EFE news added.
The appearances mark an intense, two-day focus on national security by Trump, who has offered tough rhetoric on the nation’s challenges overseas but few details. “Only five North Atlantic Treaty Organisation countries, including the United States, are now meeting their minimum requirements to spend 2 percent of G.D.P. on defense”.
In a speech in Philadelphia that was created to rebuff claims from Hillary Clinton that he is unfit to be commander-in-chief, Mr Trump also repeated the assertion that he would order United States generals to offer a plan to defeat Isis within thirty days of his taking office.
He said that, if he wins the presidency, he will ask Congress to “completely” eliminate the automatic defence spending cuts that entered into force in 2013 to reduce the deficit and he will present a new budget to “rebuild” the country’s Armed Forces.
But Trump is trying to stir up similar questions about Clinton, who spent four years as President Barack Obama’s secretary of state.
During her time, Clinton also addressed ISIS during the event on Wednesday night, calling it her “highest counter-terrorism goal”.
Trump and Clinton will square off directly at the first presidential debate on September 26 at Hofstra University. But before he could embark on a military buildup, he would have to convince Congress to rescind mandatory defense-spending cuts, part of what is known as sequestration, or the sequester.
“Additionally, I will be respectfully asking countries such as Germany, Japan, South Korea and Saudi Arabia to pay more for the tremendous security we provide them”.
His position on the sequester has been even more murky.
“This will require military warfare, but also cyberwarfare, financial warfare and ideological warfare”, he said during an address in Philadelphia.
As for how he would pay for it, Trump insisted on Wednesday that he would fully offset the costs of his new spending through savings and new revenue.
The US now spends more than US$600bn a year on the military, more than the next seven countries combined.
A senior aide said he would outline a plan for new ships, planes, submarines, combat troops and missile defense systems. Earlier this week, his campaign also released a letter from 88 retired generals and admirals offering him their support and citing an urgent need for a “course correction” in America’s national security policy. It was aimed at rebutting Clinton’s arguments that she would be best positioned to lead the military and reassuring Republicans who have openly anxious that his provocative statements might undermine USA alliances.
But questions remain, even in his party.
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“I think one thing you’ll see at the debates is him suggesting that he’ll be a careful commander-in-chief and that it’s Hillary more likely to get us into war”, he said. “We’re going to make America great again”. “They will have 30 days to submit to the Oval Office a plan for soundly and quickly defeating ISIS”, he said.
