The United States should have never gone to war in Iraq to begin with, and American troops should not be sent back due to the current turmoil there, said real estate and entertainment billionaire Donald Trump.
"We should have never been there in the first place," Trump told "Fox & Friends" on Monday. "We should not go back. The problem with going back, and even being there, is the day we leave somebody else is going to take over."
Iraq, besieged by Islamist militant insurgents, was under threat of being "taken over," Trump said, adding that the Iraqi government, with a military that had seen many of its members flee rather than fight the insurgents, would also ultimately end up being "taken over."
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Trump said the United States should beware of Iran's offer to work on solutions to Iraq's internal conflict. Secretary of State
John Kerry on Monday expressed an interest in working with Iran on the Iraqi crisis.
Iran is "not even thinking about the United States right now. They have no respect for the United States. And they have no respect for our president. They do whatever they want. And that's the way it is," Trump said.