TRENTON -- Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, had praise Tuesday night for Saddam Hussein, saying that while the former Iraqi dictator was a "bad guy," he was "so good" at killing terrorists.

"Saddam Hussein was a bad guy. Right?" Trump said at a rally in Raleigh, N.C. "He was a bad guy, really bad guy."

"But you know what he did well? He killed terrorists," the billionaire businessman and former Atlantic City casino tycoon continued. "He did that so good. They didn't read them the rights -- they didn't talk, they were a terrorist, it was over."

Trump added that Iraq today is "Harvard for terrorism."

"You want to be a terrorist, you go to Iraq," he sad. "It's like Harvard. OK? So sad."

Trump has made similar comments during his campaign about Hussein, once considered one of the U.S.'s greatest enemies.

Most notably, the real estate mogul said during a television interview in October that the world was better off before dictators like Hussein and Moammar Gadhafi of Libya were toppled. Iraq and Libya are now strongholds for terrorist group the Islamic State, or ISIS.

Hussein was deposed during the U.S.'s 2003 invasion of Iraq and was later hanged to death after being convicted of committing crimes against humanity.

Trump has repeatedly stressed that the U.S. needs to be more aggressive in fighting terrorism, calling for the country to temporarily ban Muslims from entering and saying America should use waterboarding and "worse" on suspected terrorists.

But Trump's Hussein comments drew blowback Tuesday. U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) -- who has endorsed Trump -- noted in a Fox News interview that Hussein oppressed Iraqi people for decades.

"He was one of the 20th century's most evil people," said Ryan, the nation's leading Republican lawmaker. "He was up there. He committed mass genocide against his own people using chemical weapons. Saddam Hussein was a bad guy."

A spokesman for Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, slammed Trump's remarks.

"Donald Trump's praise for brutal strongmen seemingly knows no bounds," Jake Sullivan, a senior policy adviser for Clinton's campaign, said in a statement. "In reality, Hussein's regime was a sponsor of terrorism -- one that paid families of suicide bombers who attacked Israelis, among other crimes. Trump's cavalier compliments for brutal dictators, and the twisted lessons he seems to have learned from their history, again demonstrate how dangerous he would be as commander-in-chief and how unworthy he is of the office he seeks."

Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @johnsb01. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.