In the past, Donald Trump has been intentionally vague about his plan to “beat ISIS,” simply saying it will be done “very, very quickly.” On Tuesday, however, the Republican nominee finally revealed his secret weapon in the War on Terror: the word “cyber,” which, according to Trump, “is becoming so big today.”




During an appearance in Virginia, retired Army Lt. General Michael Flynn asked the presidential candidate to expand on the four components of his national security strategy, naming them as “military, cyber, financial and idealogical.” Always the good sport, Trump happily obliged.

“Well, that’s it,” said Trump, according to CBS News’ Sopan Deb. “And you know cyber is becoming so big today. It’s becoming something that a number of years ago, a short number of years ago, wasn’t even word. And now the cyber is so big, and you know you look at what they’re doing with the internet. ”


“But cyber has been very, very important and it’s becoming more and more important as you look and a lot of it does have to do with ideology and psychology and a lot of other things,” Trump continued. “You know, we’re in a very different world than we were in 20 years ago, 30 years ago.”

In many ways, Tuesday’s comments represent a significant refinement of Trump’s views on cybersecurity: Back in December, the candidate told supporters he planned to fight jihadists by reaching out to Bill Gates, among others, about “closing up the internet in some way.”