When confronted at the Fox News debate with a video reel showing him changing his position on three separate topics, Donald Trump said there was nothing wrong with being "flexible," adding: "If you're going to be one way and think it's wrong, does that mean the rest of your life, you have to go in the wrong direction because you don't want to change?"
Moderator Megyn Kelly teed up the video by saying people like Trump because he "tells it like it is," but he's also known to "reverse" himself later. The video featured Trump talking about sending troops to Afghanistan, allowing Syrian refugees to enter the United States, and whether President George W. Bush lied leading up to the war in Iraq. Each clip was followed by another interview or debate appearance, with Trump sharing the opposite viewpoint from earlier. Trump defended each of his responses, and launched into explanations of why he said what he did. On Syria, "the first time the question was put to me, it was very early on," he said. "We just started hearing a very small number, days later the number was thousands and thousands."
Trump said it was okay for him to change his mind because he has a "very strong core," and he's "never seen a successful person who wasn't flexible, who didn't have a certain degree of flexibility. You have to be flexible because you learn." Marco Rubio piped up to say that there's a "difference between flexibility and telling people what you think you need to say to get them to do what you want them to do. That is what Donald has done throughout his career."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
August 16 editorial cartoonsCartoons Saturday’s political cartoons include football season anticipation, and Donald Trump angling for Putin's autograph
-
5 hilariously cold cartoons about the Alaska summitCartoons Artists take on the Alaskan totem pole, a peace flag, and more
-
Journalists killed in Gaza: a chilling assaultIn the Spotlight Anas al-Sharif and three of his Al Jazeera colleagues were targeted by the IDF
-
Border agents crash Newsom redistricting kickoffSpeed Read Armed federal Border Patrol agents amassed outside the venue where the California governor and other Democratic leaders were gathered
-
Man charged for hoagie attack as DC fights takeoverSpeed Read The Trump administration filed felony charges against a man who threw a Subway sandwich at a federal agent
-
Trump BLS nominee floats ending key jobs reportSpeed Read On Fox News, E.J. Antoni suggested scrapping the closely watched monthly jobs report
-
Trump picks conservative BLS critic to lead BLSspeed read He has nominated the Heritage Foundation's E.J. Antoni to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics
-
Trump takes over DC police, deploys National GuardSpeed Read The president blames the takeover on rising crime, though official figures contradict this concern
-
Trump sends FBI to patrol DC, despite falling crimeSpeed Read Washington, D.C., 'has become one of the most dangerous cities anywhere in the world,' Trump said
-
Trump officials reinstating 2 Confederate monumentsSpeed Read The administration has plans to 'restore Confederate names and symbols' discarded in the wake of George Floyd's 2020 murder
-
Trump nominates Powell critic for vacant Fed seatspeed read Stephen Miran, the chair of Trump's Council of Economic Advisers and a fellow critic of Fed chair Jerome Powell, has been nominated to fill a seat on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors
