In the case of businessman Donald Trump circa 2002 and 2003, chalk up his perspective on the Iraq War before it started as the following:
— At first — months before it began to get any real traction in the American mindset — Trump’s thought process was one of ambivalence via having not given it almost any thought before being asked about it by Stern, which was nothing more than a quick tangent in an interview focusing on 20 other things.
— And then in January 2003, Trump’s public “stance” was one of caution-before-proceeding by stating a need to wait for the United Nations before rushing in. Note: There weren’t declarations around the threat of weapons of mass destruction, spreading democracy or the need to remove a brutal dictator. Trump never cites any of those common arguments for war even once, as Republicans and even some Democrats did.
In March of 2003, as the war just began, Trump declares “the war’s a mess.”
Bottom line: There’s was nothing to indicate Trump supported the war, as the so-called record showed.
He didn’t seem 100 percent against it either.
“On the fence” would be another apt way to describe it.
Cooler heads need to prevail here.
But “sanity,” “media,” and “this year’s election” are five words rarely seen in the same sentence anymore.