Donald Trump said Monday that he would have never invaded Iraq, and thought that Sen. Marco Rubio, a candidate for the 2016 GOP nomination, "made a total fool of himself" over the weekend while answering a rhetorical question about the war.
"We shouldn't have been there, but once were there, we probably should have stayed," Trump, who has been flirting with a campaign announcement of his own, told
Fox News' "Fox & Friends" program Monday. "The Middle East has been decapitated. It's a mess; the balance has been lost between Iraq and Iran. Things were better in the old days."
On Sunday,
Rubio told Fox News' Chris Wallace that he does not think former President George W. Bush made a mistake to attack, based on the intelligence he had on hand, and refused to answer a rhetorical question based on 20/20 hindsight.
"A president cannot make a decision on what someone might know in the future," Rubio, a Florida Republican, said. Also, the president still would have had to deal with Saddam Hussein, "but the process would have been different."
But as the Obama administration has left a vacuum by pulling out to leave Iraq to defend itself, "what happened is Iraqi soldiers run away and they (the Islamic State or ISIS) pick up brand-new army tanks and guns and weapons and helicopters," Trump said.
"The Iraqi soldiers ran away, as usual. They have no leadership. They probably don't know what they're fighting for ... it's hard to say they're cowards, but they have nothing to fight for."
"What would I do?" the outspoken real estate billionaire said. "It's a situation that's a disgrace. We can't rebuild our own cities. Look at Yemen, we left $700 million worth of equipment behind for the enemy to take."
Trump also dismissed Rubio's comment about Hussein, telling the show that the late Iraqi leader "killed terrorists. He was good at that."
Trump also complained that ISIS is now busy building luxury hotels through oil money.
"I always said as long as we're there, when we're there, keep the oil," he said. "Everyone said that's such a horrible thing to say. I said it from the beginning. You know who has the oil? ISIS. They're building hotels. They're competing with Trump. I don't like that. I pay 2 percent for my money. They pay nothing."
Also on Monday's program, Trump spoke about ABC news anchor George Stephanopoulos, who has apologized twice for not disclosing his $75,000 donation to the Clinton Foundation.
"He's always treated me nice," Trump said of the newsman, who lead President Bill Clinton's campaign and served as an adviser. "I've always liked him."
But he doesn't think Stephanopoulos should have apologized, as "once you apologize you're saying you're wrong. He should not have done that ... but he's always treated me nicely. When people treat me nicely I have to be respectful."
He does think Stephanopoulos will regain his credibility, but it will take time.
"The apology was a pretty profuse apology and he's done it three or four times," said Trump. "Sometimes you have to stop apologizing, get back to work, and do your thing. But certainly, it was something he should have revealed and he knows that."
And as far as his own presidential campaign?
"I have made up my mind," he said. "I [will] just tell you we're going to make this country great again ... and sadly I have to use the word again. Right now, we are a laughingstock all over the world."