In Trump’s defense, Flynn said the real estate mogul sees the world from the perspective of a global businessman and suggested the billionaire’s bombastic rhetoric is just a starting point for negotiations. | Getty Lt. Gen. Flynn: I'm trying to improve Trump's foreign policy talk

Former Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn says he's trying to get Donald Trump to be more precise in how he talks about foreign policy, but he defended some of his hardline proposals as simply opening offers in negotiations on world affairs.

“First of all, I don’t agree with everything that he said. But he’s an individual who’s willing to take on a challenge,” the retired lieutenant general, a former President Barack Obama appointee who advises Trump on foreign policy, told Al Jazeera English’s “UpFront.” “The other aspect is there must be more precision in the use of the language that he uses as the potential leader of the free world. There has to be more precision, and those are the types of pieces of advice that I’m trying to get into him to say [to] be more precise, be more conscious about what you say about foreign policy issues because they are complicated.”


Trump’s proposals include placing a temporary ban on Muslims entering the U.S., building a wall on the southern border and having Mexico pay for it, deploying waterboarding as an interrogation technique and taking out the families of terrorists.

In Trump’s defense, Flynn said the real estate mogul sees the world from the perspective of a global businessman and suggested the billionaire’s bombastic rhetoric is just a starting point for negotiations.

Trump’s strategy is to “start really, really high and really, really hard, OK?” Flynn explained. “And then, be prepared to get down to where you think you can actually negotiate.”

Flynn also pushed back on the notion that a Trump administration would have the military kill terrorists’ families, before praising Trump for the type of people he surrounds himself with.

“We won’t see orders like that because he won’t give orders like that,” Flynn argued. “The other part about Donald Trump is — I think what he’s got a very good instinct on is the people that he chooses to have around him and allows to have this kind of debate to be able to come to the right decision.”