Donald Trump would pose "a radical risk" to the United States if he were elected president in November, The Washington Post says
in an editorial.
The Republican front-runner met with the newspaper's editorial board for an hour on Monday.
"Unfortunately, the visit provided no reassurance regarding Mr. Trump’s fitness for the presidency," the Post said, adding that his answers to their questions "left little doubt how radical a risk the nation would be taking in entrusting the White House to him."
While commending Trump for agreeing to the session, the Post attacked him on several fronts, including "a breezy willingness to ignore facts and evidence" on such issues as race and law enforcement, global warming, national security and illegal immigration.
"No one can match the chasm between his expansive goals and the absence of proposals to achieve them," the Post said.
"An empty policy basket makes almost impossible the kind of substantive debate on which democracies depend," the editorial later added. "And while it is true that ambiguity sometimes can be useful in diplomacy, a lack of clarity also can be dangerous, enticing rivals to be aggressive and allies to seek new friends."
The editorial board
posted audio and a transcript of the session online, "given Mr. Trump’s belief that we don’t treat him fairly" — adding that board members were most disturbed by his responses to questions about violence at his rallies and "the seemliness of trading insults and threatening critics.
"His defense of the latter was telling: 'I mean, actually I think it is presidential because it is winning,'" the Post noted.
"Which suggests one more difference between us: our definition of what is presidential."