“Immediately after taking office, I will ask my generals to present to me a plan within 30 days to defeat and destroy ISIS”.
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The military arms race comes as the candidates are preparing for a nationally-televised “Commander-in-Chief” forum tonight on NBC.
“We will make America strong again, we will make America safe again and we will make America great again”, said Trump, as he ended his speech.
The appearances mark an intense, two-day focus on national security by Mr Trump, who has offered tough rhetoric on the nation’s challenges overseas but few details.
Right now the USA government is dedicating more than 600 billion dollars a year on military expenses.
For years, the Clinton Foundation has drawn intense scrutiny from journalists, right-wing watchdogs and candidates like Trump, who described the charity a “vast criminal enterprise” last month and has called for a special prosecutor to investigate Hillary Clinton’s connection to the foundation.
For her part Clinton pointed out Tuesday that the electorate knows that they can not count on Trump to protect the United States and its military forces, because they see him as a danger for the country.
Kaine also did not hold any punches back in his criticism of Trump. Arguing that in a Trump Administration, US actions in the Middle East will be tempered by realism, he said the current strategy of toppling regimes, with no plan for what to do the day after, only produces power vacuums that are filled by terrorists.
“I’m actually old enough to remember the good old days, and they weren’t all that good in many ways”, Clinton said at a rally in Orlando.
They will not be on the stage at the same time, but it could serve as a warm-up for their first debate, which is scheduled for 26 September.
Donald Trump, the presidential nominee from the Republican Party, talked religion and the need for unifying Americans during a speech in Greenville, North Carolina.
“I will ask Congress to fully offset the cost of increased military spending”.
That Mr Trump says he will ask U.S. military leaders how to defeat IS appears to be a change of approach. “The military will not be exempt, either”.
He called for hundreds more new US ships, planes and submarines, and vowed to train thousands more combat troops as well as develop a “state of the art” missile defense system, starting with modernizing 22 Navy cruisers at a cost of about $220 million apiece.
But questions remain, even in his party.
Retired Rear Admiral Philip Anselmo, who’s backing Trump, says it would unwise to telegraph that plan too far in advance. “Donald Trump believes it is better for dictators to be in power rather than support people who want to have more social justice and have more of a Democratic life”. He added that, “we’ll all make our assessments”, in the candidates’ foreign affairs abilities by early November.
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Trump was in Cleveland to explain a military preparedness plan when he will request the callback of compulsory defense spending cuts.
