Donald Trump said Friday that the United States needed to get tough with Islamic jihadists — illustrating his position with a story about how U.S. Army Gen. John Pershing executed Muslim terrorists in the Philippines in the early 1900s.
"I read a story, it's a terrible story, but I'll tell you," Trump told a rally in North Charleston, S.C.,
The Weekly Standard reports. "Early in the century, last century, General Pershing — did you ever hear — rough guy, rough guy.
"And they had a terrorism problem," Trump continued, referring to how the U.S. was battling radical Muslims in the Philippines. "And there's a whole thing with swine and animals and pigs — and you know the story.
"They don't like that. They were having a tremendous problem with terrorism."
Pershing caught 50 terrorists, Trump said.
"He took 50 bullets, and he dipped them in pig's blood," he continued. "And he had his men load his rifles and he lined up the 50 people, and they shot 49 of those people.
"And the 50th person, he said, 'You go back to your people and you tell them what happened.' And for 25 years, there wasn't a problem.
"We better start getting tough and we better start getting vigilant," Trump said. "We better start using our heads or we're not gonna have a country."