--- title: Donald Trump's Iraq War Stance Contradicted by 2002 Tape description: Donald Trump's opposition to the invasion of Iraq is under scrutiny canonical: https://time.com/4230312/donald-trump-iraq-war-howard-stern-interview/ author: NBC News article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-19T10:09:06.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T15:12:49.638Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump's Iraq War Stance Contradicted by 2002 Interview og:description: "I guess so," Trump said when asked if he supported the invasion og:url: https://time.com/4230312/donald-trump-iraq-war-howard-stern-interview/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltab8e56a790082e9f/69887e480b72e362826e8350/donald-trump-south-carolina.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Donald Trump in South Carolina og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump's Iraq War Stance Contradicted by 2002 Interview twitter:description: "I guess so," Trump said when asked if he supported the invasion twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltab8e56a790082e9f/69887e480b72e362826e8350/donald-trump-south-carolina.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump's Iraq War Stance Contradicted by 2002 Interview by [NBC News](https://time.com/author/nbc-news/) ## NBC News Feb 19, 2016 10:09 AM UTC  Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump greets people while making a stop for lunch between campaign events at Fratello's Italian Tavern in North Charleston, S.C. on Feb. 18, 2016. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump greets people while making a stop for lunch between campaign events at Fratello's Italian Tavern in North Charleston, S.C. on Feb. 18, 2016.Jabin Botsford—The Washington Post/Getty Images by [NBC News](https://time.com/author/nbc-news/) ## NBC News Feb 19, 2016 10:09 AM UTC Donald Trump’s opposition to the invasion of Iraq is under scrutiny. A 2002 interview with Howard Stern shows Trump saying that he did, in fact, support the invasion. “Yeah, I guess so,” Trump told Stern when asked directly. “I wish the first time it was done correctly.” [Buzzfeed News](http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/in-2002-donald-trump-said-he-supported-invading-iraq-on-the) tracked down the interview, and it [put the audio online](https://soundcloud.com/buzzfeedandrew/trump-on-the-howard-stern-show-on-sept-11-2002). One of the consistent claims made by Trump during his presidential campaign has been his early opposition to the war, although no records of that position have been found by news organizations… [Read the rest of the story from our partners at NBC News](http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/2002-interview-contradicts-trump-early-opposition-iraq-war-n521406) Donald Trump's Iraq War Stance Contradicted by 2002 Tape ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4230312/donald-trump-iraq-war-howard-stern-interview/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4230312/donald-trump-iraq-war-howard-stern-interview/"},"headline":"Donald Trump's Iraq War Stance Contradicted by 2002 Interview","datePublished":"2016-02-19T10:09:06.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T15:12:49.638Z","description":"\"I guess so,\" Trump said when asked if he supported the invasion","url":"https://time.com/4230312/donald-trump-iraq-war-howard-stern-interview/","keywords":["Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltab8e56a790082e9f/69887e480b72e362826e8350/donald-trump-south-carolina.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"NBC News","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nbc-news/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltab8e56a790082e9f/69887e480b72e362826e8350/donald-trump-south-carolina.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Donald Trump in South Carolina","caption":"Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump greets people while making a stop for lunch between campaign events at Fratello's Italian Tavern in North Charleston, S.C. on Feb. 18, 2016.","creditText":"Jabin Botsford—The Washington Post/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/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4230312/donald-trump-iraq-war-howard-stern-interview/","name":"Donald Trump's Iraq War Stance Contradicted by 2002 Interview"}}]}] ```