--- title: Donald Trump's Biggest Campaign Flip-Flops description: Donald Trump has flip flopped and reversed multiple policy positions since he began his campaign. Here's how he does it. canonical: https://time.com/4249568/donald-trump-flip-flops-issues/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-03-07T19:21:38.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:41:58.915Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump's Biggest Campaign Flip-Flops og:description: Donald Trump has flip flopped and reversed multiple policy positions since he began his campaign. Here's how he does it. og:url: https://time.com/4249568/donald-trump-flip-flops-issues/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaa9e172c8e3b5591/69888056ab6d77b0196a8b8b/donald-trump-debate-rules.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: GOP Presidential Candidates Debate In Detroit og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump's Biggest Campaign Flip-Flops twitter:description: Donald Trump has flip flopped and reversed multiple policy positions since he began his campaign. Here's how he does it. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaa9e172c8e3b5591/69888056ab6d77b0196a8b8b/donald-trump-debate-rules.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How Donald Trump Flip-Flopped on 3 Major Issues > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Why It's So Hard to Attack Trump [Watch (HLS stream): Why It's So Hard to Attack Trump](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/X3BpgQ9x.m3u8) (3:13)  _Published 2016-03-02. Now, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio are attempting to beat him at his own game—but will any attacks against Trump actually stick?_  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Mar 7, 2016 7:21 PM UTC  Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump participates in a debate sponsored by Fox News at the Fox Theatre on March 3 in Detroit, Michigan. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump participates in a debate sponsored by Fox News at the Fox Theatre on March 3 in Detroit, Michigan. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Mar 7, 2016 7:21 PM UTC Accusations of flip-flopping can be a death knell for political campaigns. Just ask John Kerry about his 2004 run or Mitt Romney about 2012. But Donald Trump has shown time and again that the usual rules of campaigning don’t apply to him. Because the real estate mogul has never held elected office, he’s never been pinned down on his positions on some major issues. Before he became a candidate, Trump reversed course on several issues. He used to be pro-choice; now that he’s running in a Republican primary, [he’s pro-life](http://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/2016/02/18/rush-transcript-donald-trump-cnn-republican-presidential-town-hall-columbia-sc/). He used to support assault weapons bans; [now he’s against them](http://www.politico.com/blogs/2016-gop-primary-live-updates-and-results/2016/03/donald-trump-assault-weapon-ban-220238). He [told Howard Stern in 2002](http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/in-2002-donald-trump-said-he-supported-invading-iraq-on-the#.osDMlo3K5) that he supported the invasion of Iraq; now he calls it a mistake. When pressed, Trump is dismissive of his old statements. “I could have said that,” he [told CNN’s Anderson Cooper](http://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/2016/02/18/rush-transcript-donald-trump-cnn-republican-presidential-town-hall-columbia-sc/) when asked about his past support for the Iraq war. “I wasn’t a politician. It was probably the first time anyone has asked me that question.” But even during the time that he’s been a candidate for president, Trump has flip flopped on some pretty big issues, something he defends as a sign of flexibility. “If you’re going to be one way and you think it’s wrong, does that mean the rest of your life you have to go in the wrong direction because you don’t want to change?” Trump [asked at the recent Republican debate](http://time.com/4247417/republican-debate-donald-trump-ted-cruz-argument/). Here’s a look at how Trump reversed himself on three major issues since his campaign began, in two cases changing course more than once. **1\. Torture** To strike out a strong stance against ISIS and prove that he’s the “most militaristic person,” as he often likes to say, Trump said he would reinstate waterboarding, institute further torture practices and kill the family members of terrorists. “The other thing with the terrorists is you have to take out their families, when you get these terrorists, you have to take out their families,” Trump [said in December 2015](http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/02/politics/donald-trump-terrorists-families/). “They care about their lives, don’t kid yourself. When they say they don’t care about their lives, you have to take out their families.” Even as recently as March 2016, Trump was still defending torture, which is considered a war crime along with the killing of civilians. **Read More:** [_President Trump’s Illegal Military Orders_](http://time.com/4244608/donald-trump-military-orders-illegal/?xid=homepage) “You look at the Middle East, they’re chopping off heads, they’re chopping off the heads of Christians and anybody else that happens to be in the way, they’re drowning people in steel cages, and now we’re talking about water boarding. … It’s fine, and if we want to go stronger, I’d go stronger too,” [he said](http://time.com/4247397/donald-trump-waterboarding-torture/) at the most recent Republican debate. But the following day, when reminded of the fact that the military is duty-bound not to follow unlawful orders, Trump reversed himself in [a statement to the Wall Street _Journal_](http://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-reverses-his-stance-on-torture-1457116559?tesla=y). “The United States is bound by laws and treaties and I will not order our military or other officials to violate those laws and will seek their advice on such matters,” he told the newspaper. “I will not order a military officer to disobey the law. It is clear that as president I will be bound by laws just like all Americans and I will meet those responsibilities.” And in an even bolder shift in stance, Trump then went ahead and promised to make torture legal. “We’re going to stay within the laws,” [he said](http://fortune.com/2016/03/06/trump-torture-laws/) about torture at a recent campaign rally. “But you know what we’re going to do? We’re going to have those laws broadened.” **2\. Skilled worker visas** In last Thursday’s Republican debate, Trump said he had ‘softened’ his position on H-1B visas for skilled workers. Trump’s website calls for increasing the prevailing wage for H-1B visas and instituting a requirement that American workers be hired first. “More than half of H-1B visas are issued for the program’s lowest allowable wage level, and more than eighty percent for its bottom two. Raising the prevailing wage paid to H-1Bs will force companies to give these coveted entry-level jobs to the existing domestic pool of unemployed native and immigrant workers in the U.S., instead of flying in cheaper workers from overseas,” his position states. When asked about the language on his website at the debate, Trump said his views were shifting. “I’m changing, I’m changing,” [he said](http://time.com/4247417/republican-debate-donald-trump-ted-cruz-argument/?xid=tcoshare) bluntly about his stance on the skilled worker visas. “I’m softening the position because we have to have talented people in this country.” But after the debate on the same night, his campaign released an email statement in which he seemed to reverse himself again, back to an anti-H-1B stance. “The H-1B program is neither high-skilled nor immigration: these are temporary foreign workers, imported from abroad, for the explicit purpose of substituting for American workers at lower pay,” the statement said. “I will end forever the use of the H-1B as a cheap labor program, and institute an absolute requirement to hire American workers first for every visa and immigration program. No exceptions.” (According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the H-1B visa _is_ for highly skilled workers. “This visa category applies to people who wish to perform services in a specialty occupation, services of exceptional merit and ability relating to a Department of Defense (DOD) cooperative research and development project, or services as a fashion model of distinguished merit or ability,” the UCIS website reads.) **3\. Syrian refugees** In September of 2015, Trump said the United States should accept refugees from Syria. “I hate the concept of it, but on a humanitarian basis, you have to,” he [said on Fox News](http://www.politico.com/story/2015/09/donald-trump-syrian-refugees-213430#ixzz41u30eCx2). “It’s living in hell in Syria. There’s no question about it. They’re living in hell, and something has to be done.” But Trump quickly changed his tune, swinging to the other side of the issue and becoming one of the most vocal candidates against accepting the refugees. Less than a month later, Trump was back [on Fox News saying](http://www.foxnews.com/transcript/2015/11/18/trump-syria-refugees-could-be-ultimate-trojan-horse/) he would kick out any Syrian refugees admitted to the country and accepting the refugees could prove to be “the ultimate Trojan horse.” “I tell you, if they come into this country, they’re going out,” he said in November 2015\. “If I win, they’re going out. We can’t take a chance.” By December, Trump had gone ever farther, calling for a “[complete shutdown](http://time.com/4139476/donald-trump-shutdown-muslim-immigration/)” of all Muslims entering the United States, even beyond the Syrian refugees. ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] Everybody knows what they're getting in Donald Trump. You've seen him on TV and interviews, so it's hard to attack him like you would a conventional politician because everybody has heard of him already. And it's pretty hard to reset that with a single jibe. [ MUSIC ] Over the next couple of weeks we're going to see all of these candidates and outsiders launching massive last ditch effort to stop Donald Trump, before the March 15th winner take all primary's. It' really too soon to tell if this will work, but ultimately It's now or never. When Donald Trump first started running a lot of the other candidates didn't really take him seriously, and so they didn't bother attacking him. They were much more concerned with fighting each other for the particular spot, whether it be the establishment or the conservative spot. There it is, the memorized twenty five second speech. Donald Trump is the master of insults and it's hard to beat him at his own game. When Mexico sends it's people. They're bringing drugs. Their rapists and some I assume are good people. And he has a particular gift at figuring out what is the thing that is going to most bother you. Low energy individual. So if you are going up against Trump they have to figure out. How to insult him in an equally devastating way and I don't know that the attacks that we've heard so far are actually going to work. Let me ask for a full length mirror. Maybe to make sure his pants weren't wet. I don't know. Then He's not a politician so there's not a record of votes that he took or bills that he sponsored or actions that he took. So a lot of that just becomes like well, yeah, I said that one time and now I'm saying this. And so people don't mind. Would never do that. [ LAUGH ] Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio have spoken up a lot more directly going after him. He's not faced some of these attacks. So some of them we just don't know whether they will work or not. Or it's possible that they may work but they could turn out to be more useful to Democrats down the road. I think you already see Clinton's campaign portraying Trump as the divider and Hillary is the Uniter . >> America never stopped being great we have to make America whole. I was told by the campaign that they felt that the republican field had tried to define Trump a little too late and if they would not make the same mistake I don't think you're going to see Hillary herself attacking Trump. I think you're gonna see Bill Clinton and her surrogate certainly, attacking Trump. She wants to remain a very positive messenger. Almost in a Ronald Reagan kind of sense, the optimism of morning in America. Today is more love and kindness. Whereas, they would portray Donald Trump as night in America. The thing though is that Trump is wining the Republican primaries based largely off of white support and when it comes to general election, given all the constituencies that he's offended, will he still have the same power. Will he still be able to win, and will any of these attacks start to stick? And I think the Clinton campaign is betting on that they will. 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