Trump’s soft spot for authoritarians dates at least to his presidential campaign, when he praised Saddam Hussein for being “good” at killing terrorists and suggested that the world would be better off were Col. Moammar Gadhafi, the deposed Libyan dictator who was killed in a violent uprising in 2011, “in charge right now.” Trump then suggested the ouster of both men was ultimately worse for the Middle East because the Islamic State had filled the void.