This coming from a person who advocated waterboarding, among others, during the presidential campaign.

After months of calling for torturing terrorism suspects, United States President-elect Donald Trump suggested he now did not support bringing back torture tactics in his latest interview with The New York Times.

Mr. Trump’s reversal on the stance of torture came after his meeting with retired Marine Corps General James Mattis over the weekend, whom, according to Mr. Trump, was being “seriously, seriously considered” to be the next U.S. Defence Chief, Xinhua news agency reported.

“He [General Mattis] said, ‘I’ve never found it [torture] to be useful,” The Times quoted Mr. Trump as saying.

“Give me a pack of cigarettes and a couple of beers, and I’ll do better,” Mr. Trump quoted General Mattis as saying.

He was bowled by the reply

“I was very impressed by that answer,” said Mr. Trump, adding that he concluded that torture was “not going to make the kind of a difference that a lot of people are thinking.”

Mr. Trump constantly called for reintroducing waterboarding and other torture when interrogating terrorism suspects in his presidential campaign. He once even floated the idea of killing family members of terrorist suspects.

So far, Mr. Trump’s picks for Vice President, CIA Director and National Security Advisor had all called for re—introduction of torture tactics to the upcoming Trump administration’s counterterrorism toolbox.