WASHINGTON - US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump would send all the Syrian refugees the United States accepts back to Syria if he is elected, he said on Wednesday at an event in Keene, New Hampshire.
"I am putting the people on notice that are coming here from Syria as part of this mass migration that if I win, if I win, they are going back, they are going back, I am telling you, they are going back," Trump said.
His statements contradict opinions expressed in an early September interview with Fox News, in which the presidential candidate said the US should accept more refugees on a "humanitarian basis."
“You know, it’s living in hell in Syria. There’s no question about it,” he had said in his Fox appearance. “They’re living in hell, and something has to be done.”
The US government has stated its intention to absorb 10,000 refugees.
Trump also criticized US President Barack Obama, saying he looked "JV" next to Russian President Vladimir Putin at the United Nations.
He reminded his audience that he opposed the war in Iraq when it began, and said that rebels forces "knocked the shit out of everybody" after Obama reduced American troop levels in Iraq.
Trump also criticized US Secretary of State John Kerry, calling him "the worst negotiator" who will "go down as a worse secretary of state than Hillary Clinton because of the deal."