--- title: Donald Trump Praises Saddam Hussein: "He Killed Terrorists" description: House Speaker Paul Ryan denounced the comments Wednesday morning after Trump made them at a North Carolina rally. canonical: https://time.com/4394487/trump-saddam-hussein-terrorists-paul-ryan/ author: Daniel White article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-07-06T12:24:55.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:45:58.678Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump Praises Saddam Hussein: "He Killed Terrorists" og:description: House Speaker Paul Ryan denounced the comments og:url: https://time.com/4394487/trump-saddam-hussein-terrorists-paul-ryan/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8f2da84955226960/69889ac3196cf4117403c4ac/donald-trump-raleigh.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: donald-trump-raleigh og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump Praises Saddam Hussein: "He Killed Terrorists" twitter:description: House Speaker Paul Ryan denounced the comments twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8f2da84955226960/69889ac3196cf4117403c4ac/donald-trump-raleigh.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Is a Big Fan of How Saddam Hussein Dealt With Terrorists > Sponsored content. 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Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Jul 6, 2016 12:24 PM UTC  Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump during an appearance in Raleigh, N.C., on July 5, 2016 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump during an appearance in Raleigh, N.C., on July 5, 2016 Gerry Broome—AP by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Jul 6, 2016 12:24 PM UTC Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump offered some unexpected praise of deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein Tuesday night for his technique in ridding his country of terrorists. Speaking at a Raleigh, North Carolina rally—where the Republican [accused opponent Hillary Clinton of bribery in the investigation into her emails](http://time.com/4394225/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-bribery-email-investigation/)—Trump told supporters that Hussein did at least one thing well. “Saddam Hussein was a bad guy, right? He was a bad guy, really bad guy,” said Trump. “But you know what he did well? He killed terrorists. He did that so good. They didn’t read them the rights, they didn’t talk. They were a terrorist – it was over.” The line was meant as [a dig at the Obama administration’s handling of terrorism](http://time.com/4272082/obamas-wave-and-tango-trump-terrorism/), however, House Speaker Paul Ryan [pushed back against the comments](http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/286607-ryan-pushes-back-against-trumps-praise-for-hussein) Wednesday morning, flatly calling Hussein “evil,” according to the _Hill_. “He was one the 20th century’s most evil people,” Ryan said in an interview with Fox News when asked about the statement. “He was up there. He committed mass genocide against his own people using chemical weapons.” This isn’t the first time Trump has praised Hussein, according to the _Hill_, having made the same argument in February and in October saying that the world would [“100 percent”](http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/25/politics/donald-trump-moammar-gadhafi-saddam-hussein/) be better off if the former Iraqi president were still alive and in power. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4394487/trump-saddam-hussein-terrorists-paul-ryan/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4394487/trump-saddam-hussein-terrorists-paul-ryan/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Is a Big Fan of How Saddam Hussein Dealt With Terrorists","datePublished":"2016-07-06T12:24:55.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:45:58.678Z","description":"\"They didn't read them the rights, they didn't talk\"","url":"https://time.com/4394487/trump-saddam-hussein-terrorists-paul-ryan/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election","Paul Ryan","Donald Trump","Saddam Hussein"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8f2da84955226960/69889ac3196cf4117403c4ac/donald-trump-raleigh.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel White","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-white/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8f2da84955226960/69889ac3196cf4117403c4ac/donald-trump-raleigh.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"donald-trump-raleigh","caption":"Donald Trump during an appearance in Raleigh, N.C., on July 5, 2016.","creditText":"Gerry Broome—AP","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/4394487/trump-saddam-hussein-terrorists-paul-ryan/","name":"Donald Trump Is a Big Fan of How Saddam Hussein Dealt With Terrorists"}}]}] ```