Trump attacks China, says US has greatest military

New York, Oct 28: In a confrontation with China, “we will kick their ass”, Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Trump has said at a campaign rally, asserting, “We have the greatest military in the world”.

Speaking out against what he asserted was the weakening of respect for the US under President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, he said on Sunday, “A report that they issued that if we end up in a war with China, we cannot win. We’re not strong enough”.

“We have the greatest military in the world,” he declared.

“You don’t put out reports like that – and it’s not true. We would kick their ass,” he said.

Even “assuming that’s true, how stupid are you to put out a report like that,” he said. He did not say which report he was referring to, but it was likely a report from the Commission on the National Defence Strategy to the Senate Armed Services earlier this year.

It said, “The Commission finds that the US military lacks both the capabilities and the capacity required to be confident it can deter and prevail in combat” and that “in many ways, China is outpacing the United States and has largely negated the US military advantage in the Western Pacific”.

Trump’s strong statement tinged by a colloquial vulgarity was in keeping with his theme of asserting that he would reclaim America’s greatness which he said had been devalued by Biden and Harris.

“If we win, our enemies won’t be laughing anymore,” Trump said.

The Madison Square Garden was packed to its capacity of about 19,000 about 90 minutes before his campaign rally was to begin, and thousands were left stranded outside after waiting for hours to get in and watched him on giant screens.

Inside, whipped to bouts of frenzy, the crowd punctuated his speech with screams of, “USA, USA”, and “Four more years”.

Although most of his nearly 90-minute speech focused on immigration and inflation, he presented himself as the keeper of world order.

His 2016 Democratic Party rival Hillary Clinton, he said, had warned that he would start World War III, but he was the first president in 82 years not to have launched a foreign military intervention.

He said that if he were the president, Russia would not have invaded Ukraine or Hamas attacked Israel.