Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump took the stage for American foreign policy in a speech Tuesday evening on the USS Iowa in Los Angeles, while protestors chanted their disapproval nearby.
As soon as the event got underway, several hundred protesters were allowed into the parking lot about 200 feet from the ship, chanting “Racist, go home” and “Donald Trump is a racist.”
But the GOP front-runner began his remarks by praising veterans and pledging to reform the Department of Veterans Affairs.
“We’re going to create a whole new system. We’re going to take the system apart. You’re going to get the greatest service of any country because you deserve it,” he said.
“We have illegal immigrants that are treated better, by far, than our veterans,” Trump said, turning to the campaign topic of immigration that has fueled his rise to the top of the Republican field.
Trump’s speech comes one day before he is expected to be on the defensive Wednesday at CNN’s debate. Several rival GOP candidates have said they plan to take aim at the real estate mogul, to press him on policy specifics.
Trump has recently struggled with some basic foreign policy questions, most prominently in an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt — who will be one of the questioners at the CNN debate at the Reagan Library.
Speaking to Hewitt on Sept. 3, Trump said that the difference between Hamas and Hezbollah, the groups that pose the most direct threat to Israel, does not yet matter to him.
“It will when it’s appropriate,” Trump responded.
Trump was also flustered early in the interview when he appeared not to know the name of General Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds Forces who has played a critical role in Iraq and in the fight against ISIS. He is also believed to be responsible for the deaths of hundreds of U.S. troops in Iraq.
Trump initially thought Hewitt said “Kurds” and not “Quds” and began saying that the Kurds, who have been crucial allies in the fight against ISIS, “have been horribly mistreated.”