--- title: Donald Trump Says He Would Bring Back Waterboarding description: Presidential hopeful Donald Trump says he would bring back waterboarding, which is widely considered a form of torture canonical: https://time.com/4123587/donald-trump-waterboarding/ author: Alexandra Sifferlin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-11-22T15:16:37.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:41:28.385Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump Says He Would Bring Back Waterboarding og:description: Trump said he'd bring back the practice, widely considered a form of torture og:url: https://time.com/4123587/donald-trump-waterboarding/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6ff524551638e4fe/6988725fcd1bba316d6fe3b8/trump-donald.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Donald Trump Holds Campaign Town Hall In Iowa og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump Says He Would Bring Back Waterboarding twitter:description: Trump said he'd bring back the practice, widely considered a form of torture twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6ff524551638e4fe/6988725fcd1bba316d6fe3b8/trump-donald.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Says He Would Bring Back Waterboarding > Sponsored content. 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Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Politicians React to U.S. Policy on Syrian Refugees [Watch (HLS stream): Politicians React to U.S. Policy on Syrian Refugees](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/xRGMbKjA.m3u8) (1:57)  _Published 2015-11-17_ by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Nov 22, 2015 3:16 PM UTC  Donald Trump speaks at Des Moines Area Community College Newton Campus in Newton, IO on Nov. 19, 2015. Donald Trump speaks at Des Moines Area Community College Newton Campus in Newton, IO on Nov. 19, 2015. Scott Olson—Getty Images by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Nov 22, 2015 3:16 PM UTC Presidential hopeful Donald Trump said he would bring back waterboarding in an interview on Sunday. In [an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos,](http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/week-transcript-donald-trump-ben-carson/story?id=35336008) Trump said that he would bring back the practice, which is widely considered a form of torture. “I would bring it back, yes. I would bring it back. I think waterboarding is peanuts compared to what they’d do to us, what they’re doing to us, what they did to James Foley when they chopped off his head. That’s a whole different level and I would absolutely bring back interrogation and strong interrogation,” he said in the interview, referring to the American journalist who was decapitated by the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS). Waterboarding was used to interrogate prisoners during the administration of George W. Bush, but was banned by the Obama administration in 2009. “You know, they don’t use waterboarding over there; they use chopping off people’s heads. They use drowning people,” Trump said. “I don’t know if you’ve seen with the cages where they put people in cages and they drown them in the ocean and they lift out the cage. And we’re talking about waterboarding. We have to be tough –” Trump also discussed having a database for refugees, and called candidate Jeb Bush a “weak person.” \[[_ABC_](http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/week-transcript-donald-trump-ben-carson/story?id=35336008)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4123587/donald-trump-waterboarding/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4123587/donald-trump-waterboarding/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Says He Would Bring Back Waterboarding","datePublished":"2015-11-22T15:16:37.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:41:28.385Z","description":"He also called Jeb Bush \"weak\"","url":"https://time.com/4123587/donald-trump-waterboarding/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election","Interview","jeb bush","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6ff524551638e4fe/6988725fcd1bba316d6fe3b8/trump-donald.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alexandra Sifferlin","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6ff524551638e4fe/6988725fcd1bba316d6fe3b8/trump-donald.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Donald Trump Holds Campaign Town Hall In Iowa","caption":"Donald Trump Holds Campaign Town Hall In Iowa","creditText":"Scott Olson—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4123587/donald-trump-waterboarding/","name":"Donald Trump Says He Would Bring Back Waterboarding"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Politicians React to U.S. Policy on Syrian Refugees","description":"","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/xRGMbKjA/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-11-17T23:15:05.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/xRGMbKjA.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4123587/donald-trump-waterboarding/","duration":"PT1M57S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4123587/donald-trump-waterboarding/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```