Donald Trump said Wednesday that President Obama “founded” the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
“ISIS is honoring President Obama,” he said during a rally in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. “He’s the founder of ISIS. He founded ISIS.”
“I would say the co-founder would be ‘Crooked’ Hillary Clinton,” Trump added of Obama’s former secretary of State and his Democratic rival.
Trump criticized Obama’s decision to withdraw U.S. military forces from the Middle East and leaving behind a void ISIS could fill.
“We should never have gotten out the way we got out,” he said. “We unleashed terrible fury all over the Middle East.”
“Instead of allowing some small forces behind to maybe, just maybe, keep it under control, we pulled it out,” the GOP’s presidential nominee added.
“Then Obama came in, and normally you want to clean up and he made a bigger mess. We’re not respected. We’re laughed at all over the world.”
