Donald Trump: When battling terrorists, you have to 'fight fire with fire'

(Image credit: Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)

last updated 29 June 2016

When it comes to combating terrorism, Donald Trump believes the United States needs to fight "fire with fire."

During a campaign stop Tuesday in Ohio, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee said waterboarding is "peanuts" compared to acts committed by terrorists, and waterboarding isn't "tough enough." Unfortunately, he continued, we have laws that prevent us from doing whatever we want against terrorists, even those who are "chopping off people's heads." You have to "fight fire with fire," he said. "We have to be so strong. We have to fight so viciously. And violently because we're dealing with violent people viciously."

Trump then asked the crowd to imagine terrorists sitting down "around the table or wherever they're eating their dinner," and the discussions they must have. "They probably think we're weak, we're stupid, we don't know what we're doing, we have no leadership. You know, you have to fight fire with fire." When his campaign was asked by NBC News if Trump was suggesting the United States conduct the same barbaric tactics employed by ISIS and other terrorist organizations, their question went unanswered.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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