Presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump on Friday declared he could "practically guarantee" that EgyptAir Flight 804 was brought down by a bomb and that he knows who "blew it up," pushing back on former Defense Secretary Robert Gates' criticism of his
early Thursday morning tweet that linked the deadly plane crash to terrorism.
"Another plane was blown up and I can practically guarantee who blew it up," Trump told
MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program.
Co-host Mika Brzezinski told Trump that "some might say" his tweet was "generating hatred, focusing on the hatred and fear that terrorism brings."
"Let me tell you what I'm thinking," said Trump. "I'm thinking of the future. We can't continue to let things like this happen. We are being taken advantage of by radical Islamic terrorists and we are, this world is changing."
And if more planes go down, he continued in the oft-contentious interview, "you'll have a depression worldwide, the likes of which you have never seen, because nobody is going to travel. There will be no anything. There will be no communication between countries."
Electing Hillary Clinton over him would be a mistake, he continued, as it would mean four more years of President Barack Obama's take on terrorism, and "it will not work."
"All I did was point it out," he said of the tweet. "I said when you find out what happened to the plane, it will be exactly what I said. That plane didn't go down because of mechanical failure."
Brzezinski commented to Trump in the telephone interview that Gates "is one of the greatest foreign policy minds in history," but Trump retorted, "Really, why? Because we're doing so well? You think we're doing well with his foreign policy?"
He also denied concerns that he might be "trigger happy" with his tweet and other statements he has made.
"I'm the one that didn't want to go into Iraq," he said.
And when it comes to Gates, who said Thursday he has concerns about Trump when it comes to his comments on Japan and South Korea and breaking off relations with China, Trump didn't mince words.
"He knows nothing about me," said Trump. "He knows nothing about what I said. I'm not a big fan of his...look at where our country is with years of him being involved. We are a mess, number one. I know he has a great reputation and all of that. All of these guys have a great reputation. They have been doing this stuff for 15 years."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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