Donald Trump made his big foreign policy speech today, and he devoted plenty of time to his early opposition to the war in Iraq. At one point, he cited an interview in Esquire from August 2004—more than a year after the American invasion began—in which he had railed against how the war was being handled:

Look at the war in Iraq and the mess that we're in. I would never have handled it that way. Does anybody really believe that Iraq is going to be a wonderful democracy where people are going to run down to the voting box and gently put in their ballot and the winner is happily going to step up to lead the county? C'mon. Two minutes after we leave, there's going to be a revolution, and the meanest, toughest, smartest, most vicious guy will take over. And he'll have weapons of mass destruction, which Saddam didn't have.

What was the purpose of this whole thing? Hundreds and hundreds of young people killed. And what about the people coming back with no arms and legs? Not to mention the other side. All those Iraqi kids who've been blown to pieces. And it turns out that all of the reasons for the war were blatantly wrong. All this for nothing!

That's all well and good, but Trump's big point throughout the speech and this entire campaign has been that he was always opposed to the war—even before it began. He has said this over and over again and used it to bash both his Republican primary opponents and Hillary Clinton for their "poor judgment." This claim has been debunked (over and over again), by multiple fact-checkers, magazines, and newspapers.

Trump came out against the war in Esquire almost a year and a half after the invasion began, when the situation on the ground had begun to deteriorate and popular support for the war was sinking. This was a reasonable position for him to take, but it does not mean he was always against the war.

In reality, Trump had this to say about Iraq during an interview with Howard Stern in the lead-up to the invasion:

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In his speech today, Trump repeated another claim about the lead-up: that he came out against invading Iraq on Neil Cavuto's show before the war began. As fact-checkers and BuzzFeed found after he made this claim earlier in the campaign, this is also false. He was presented with the opportunity to come out for or against the war, and he said this:

CAVUTO: If you had to sort of breakdown for the president, if you were advising him, how much time do you commit to Iraq versus how much time you commit to the economy, what would you say?

TRUMP: Well, I'm starting to think that people are much more focused now on the economy. They are getting a little bit tired of hearing, we're going in, we're not going in, the—you know, whatever happened to the days of the Douglas MacArthur. He would go and attack. He wouldn't talk. We have to—you know, it's sort like either do it or don't do it. When I watch Dan Rather explaining how we are going to be attacking, where we're going to attack, what routes we're taking, what kind of planes we're using, how to stop them, how to stop us, it is a little bit disconcerting. I've never seen this, where newscasters are telling you how—telling the enemy how we're going about it, we have just found out this and that. It is ridiculous.

CAVUTO: Well, the problem right there.

TRUMP: Either you attack or you don't attack.

CAVUTO: The problem there, Donald, is you're watching Dan Rather. Maybe you should just be watching Fox.

TRUMP: Well, no, I watch Dan Rather, but not necessarily fondly. But I happened to see it the other night. And I must tell you it was rather amazing as they were explaining the different—I don't know if it is fact or if it is fiction, but the concept of a newscaster talking about the routes is—just seems ridiculous. So the point is either you do it or you don't do it, or you—but I just—or if you don't do it, just don't talk about it. When you do it, you start talking about it.

CAVUTO: So you're saying the leash on this is getting kind of short here, that the president has got to do something presumably sooner rather than later and stringing this along could ultimately hurt us.

TRUMP: Well, he has either got to do something or not do something, perhaps, because perhaps shouldn't be doing it yet and perhaps we should be waiting for the United Nations, you know. He's under a lot of pressure. He's—I think he's doing a very good job. But, of course, if you look at the polls, a lot of people are getting a little tired. I think the Iraqi situation is a problem. And I think the economy is a much bigger problem as far as the president is concerned.

Not exactly a stinging rebuke of the administration's plan to invade. While we appreciate you driving people to our website, Donald, we can't pretend you were against the war before it began.

Jack Holmes Politics Editor Jack Holmes is the Politics Editor at Esquire, where he writes daily and edits the Politics Blog with Charles P Pierce.

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