Donald Trump once praised China's crackdown at Tiananmen Square as showing 'the power of strength'
![Trump with more to say on China.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/2CSFVkd8qoi7iw2JDmceNB-415-80.jpg)
Before he was getting into trouble for talking in circles on the KKK, Donald Trump was a straight shooter on another hot-button issue: China's martial law. Back in March 1990, Trump was interviewed by Playboy, and had this to say about China's leadership during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, during which unarmed students poured into Beijing's center square and were met by military troops and tanks:
When the students poured into Tiananmen Square, the Chinese government almost blew it. Then they were vicious, they were horrible, but they put it down with strength. That shows you the power of strength. Our country is right now perceived as weak... as being spit on by the rest of the world... [Playboy]
While perhaps Donald Trump's steadfast adherence to his message that America is weak and needs to be saved is admirable — this interview took place 26 years ago, after all — he might want to move away from heaping praise on questionable leadership.
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Kimberly Alters is the news editor at TheWeek.com. She is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.
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