Donald Trump got an earful from his Republican presidential rivals during Tuesday's fourth debate after he asserted that the United States did not need to defend Ukraine against Russian President Vladimir Putin, with Jeb Bush kicking off the lengthy round of attacks on the front-runner.
"Why are we always doing the work?" Trump asked in response to a question from Fox Business moderator Neil Cavuto. "I'm all for protecting Ukraine and working, but we have countries that are surrounding the Ukraine that aren't doing anything.
"They say 'keep going, keep going, you dummies. Keep going, protect us,' and we have to get smart," Trump added. "We can't continue to be the policeman of the world."
Throughout his response, Bush shook his head.
"Donald is wrong on this," he said. "Absolutely wrong on this.
"We're not going to be the world's policeman, but we'd better sure as heck be the world's leader," Bush said. "That's a huge difference."
He noted that the Islamic State had moved into the region — leaving its destruction to Putin would be "like a board game," he said — and called for a no-fly zone in Syria.
Trump hit back: "Look at mess we have after spending $2 trillion, thousands of lives, wounded warriors all over the place."
The remark brought in Carly Fiorina, who said that she would not negotiate with Putin because "we are speaking to him in a position of weakness brought on by this administration."
Fiorina said that she would take steps to build up U.S. military forces around the world and supported Bush on the no-fly zone.
But Rand Paul attacked those two contenders on the no-fly zone, saying that it would eventually lead to war in the region.
"When you have a no-fly zone over Iraq, realize that what you are saying it we're going to shoot own Russian planes … you should be ready to send your sons and daughters to war."
Marco Rubio then chimed in, calling Putin "a gangster" — adding that he was "testing the weakness" of Obama.
"He has seen what the president has done," he said. "The president has no strategy, our allies in the region do not trust us."