_____

On whether he would withdraw United States forces from Japan and South Korea if those countries do not increase their payments to cover the costs of those troops:

“Yes, I would. I would not do so happily, but I would be willing to do it... We cannot afford to be losing vast amounts of billions of dollars on all of this... And I have a feeling that they’d up the ante very much. I think they would, and if they wouldn’t I would really have to say yes.”

_____

On his standards for using American troops abroad, such as for homeland protection, for humanitarian intervention, or to aid allies:

“It sounds nice to say, ‘I have a blanket standard; here’s what it is.’ No. 1 is the protection of our country, O.K.? That’s always going to be No. 1, by far. That’s by a factor of 100... After that it depends on the country, the region, how friendly they’ve been toward us. You have countries that haven’t been friendly to us that we’re protecting. So it’s how good they’ve been toward us, etc., etc.”

_____

On recent American engagement in the Middle East:

“If you would go back 15 years ago, and I’m not saying it was only Obama, it was Obama’s getting out, it was other people’s getting in, but you go back 15 years ago, and I say this: If our presidents would have just gone to the beach and enjoyed the ocean and the sun, we would’ve been much better off in the Middle East, than all of this tremendous death, destruction, and you know, monetary loss.”

_____

On whether he would stop buying oil from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates if those countries refused to send ground troops to fight ISIS:

“There’s two answers to that. The answer is, probably yes, but I would also say this: We are not being reimbursed for our protection... You know, Saudi Arabia... the amount of money they have is phenomenal. But we protect countries, and take tremendous monetary hits on protecting countries. ... And yet, without us, Saudi Arabia wouldn’t exist for very long. It would be, you know, a catastrophic failure without our protection.”

_____

On the United States’ fight against ISIS and our efforts to seek a political accord between President Bashar al-Assad of Syria and rebel forces:

“Well, I thought the approach of fighting Assad and ISIS simultaneously was madness, and idiocy. They’re fighting each other and yet we’re fighting both of them. You know, we were fighting both of them. I think that our far bigger problem than Assad is ISIS, I’ve always felt that. Assad is, you know I’m not saying Assad is a good man, ’cause he’s not, but our far greater problem is not Assad, it’s ISIS.”