{"slug":"campaign-advocacy-torture-and-killing-terrorists-families-2015","title":"2015–2016 Campaign: Trump Advocates Waterboarding 'and Much Worse' and Killing Terrorists' Families","date":"2015-11-22","lastUpdated":"2026-10-04","description":"As a candidate for the Republican nomination, Donald Trump repeatedly said he would bring back waterboarding and go 'much stronger,' and that the United States must 'take out' the families of terrorists. On ABC's 'This Week' (November 22, 2015) he said 'waterboarding is peanuts compared to what they do to us.' On Fox & Friends (December 2, 2015) he said 'you have to take out their families.' Experts in the law of war told PolitiFact that deliberately targeting non-combatant family members would be 'a gross violation of the law of war and a war crime.' Former CIA director Michael Hayden said the agency would refuse such orders. These were statements by a candidate who held no office, and no act followed from them during the campaign.","summary":"During the 2016 primary campaign Trump promised to restore waterboarding and harsher methods, and said the US should kill terrorists' families. Both would violate the Geneva Conventions and the Convention against Torture. As a candidate's statements, they are recorded here as evidence of stated intent, not as conduct.","category":"foreign-policy","severity":"significant","ongoing":false,"sources":[{"url":"https://abcnews.com/Politics/donald-trump-bring-back-waterboarding/story?id=35354443","title":"Donald Trump Says He Would Bring Back Waterboarding","publisher":"ABC News"},{"url":"https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2015/dec/17/rand-paul/rand-pauls-right-geneva-conventions-bar-donald-tru/","title":"Geneva Conventions bar Donald Trump's idea of killing terrorists' families, as Rand Paul says","publisher":"PolitiFact"},{"url":"https://edition.cnn.com/2015/12/03/politics/donald-trump-dodges-questions-terrorist-families/","title":"Donald Trump dodges specifics on killing terrorist families","publisher":"CNN"},{"url":"https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-needs-his-own-damn-bucket-waterboard-ex-cia-chief-n523576","title":"Trump Needs His 'Own Damn Bucket' to Waterboard: Ex-CIA Chief","publisher":"NBC News"}],"draft":false,"status":"published","tags":["torture","waterboarding","Geneva Conventions","civilians","2016 campaign","intent evidence"],"relatedEntries":["yakla-yemen-raid-civilian-massacre","iran-war-no-quarter-declaration"],"timeline":[{"date":"2015-11-22","title":"'Waterboarding is peanuts'","summary":"On ABC's 'This Week', Trump says he would 'absolutely' bring back waterboarding as a form of 'strong interrogation'."},{"date":"2015-12-02","title":"'You have to take out their families'","summary":"On Fox & Friends, Trump says that when the US gets terrorists it must 'take out their families'."},{"date":"2015-12-03","title":"Trump declines to clarify","summary":"Interviewed by Bill O'Reilly, Trump repeatedly dodges whether he would order the killing of suspected terrorists' families, saying 'we have to be much tougher than we are' (CNN)."},{"date":"2015-12-17","title":"PolitiFact: the Geneva Conventions bar it","summary":"After the CNN debate in Las Vegas, where Trump said he would be 'very, very firm with families' and Sen. Rand Paul said the policy would require leaving the Geneva Conventions, PolitiFact rates Paul's statement True on the advice of international-law experts."},{"date":"2016-02-17","title":"'Torture works'","summary":"Trump says he is convinced 'torture works' and that the US should go 'much stronger than waterboarding'. Former CIA director Hayden and current and former CIA officials tell NBC News the agency would refuse such orders."}],"location":{"name":"United States (campaign statements)","lat":38.9072,"lng":-77.0369},"custom":{"era":"pre-presidency","posture":"documented","internationalLaw":[{"statute":"Geneva Conventions of 1949","article":"Common Article 3","provision":"Persons taking no active part in hostilities shall be treated humanely; violence to life and person, murder, cruel treatment and torture are prohibited at any time and in any place"},{"statute":"Protocol I Additional to the Geneva Conventions","article":"Article 51(2)","provision":"The civilian population and individual civilians shall not be the object of attack. The United States is not a party, but experts cited by PolitiFact note that it recognises much of the Protocol as customary law."},{"statute":"Convention against Torture","article":"Articles 1, 2 and 16","provision":"Absolute prohibition of torture and of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment; no exceptional circumstances may be invoked as a justification (the United States is a party)"}],"iccRelevance":false,"victims":"No victims. These were statements by a candidate, not acts. The groups they placed at risk were detainees in US custody and family members of suspected terrorists who take no part in hostilities.","perpetrators":"Donald Trump (then a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination)","structuredPerpetrators":[{"name":"Donald Trump","role":"Candidate for the Republican presidential nomination","institution":"Trump 2016 campaign"}],"keyPoints":["ABC 'This Week', November 22, 2015: 'I think waterboarding is peanuts compared to what they do to us … I would absolutely bring back interrogation and strong interrogation' (ABC News).","Fox & Friends, December 2, 2015: 'you have to take out their families, when you get these terrorists, you have to take out their families … When they say they don't care about their lives, you have to take out their families' (PolitiFact; CNN).","Pressed by Bill O'Reilly the next day, Trump repeatedly declined to say whether he meant killing the families (CNN). At the CNN debate in Las Vegas that month he said 'I would be very, very firm with families' (PolitiFact).","PolitiFact rated True Sen. Rand Paul's statement that killing terrorists' families would require pulling out of the Geneva Conventions. Professor Richard D. Rosen of Texas Tech called such a policy 'a gross violation of the law of war and a war crime.'","In February 2016 Trump said 'torture works' and 'we should go much stronger than waterboarding.' Former CIA director Michael Hayden replied: 'if you want somebody waterboarded, bring your own damn bucket' (NBC News).","Congress had already enshrined President Obama's ban on the CIA's enhanced techniques in law in 2015 (NBC News)."],"legalBasis":"Geneva Conventions Common Article 3; Additional Protocol I Article 51(2) (customary law); Convention against Torture Articles 1, 2 and 16; Rome Statute Article 8(2)(c)(i) and 8(2)(e)(i) (murder and attacks on civilians in non-international armed conflict) as the crimes the proposals describe","postureNote":"Documented public statements by a candidate. No act or order followed during the campaign. The statements are recorded as evidence of stated intent for later entries on conduct in office.","relatedIncidents":["yakla-yemen-raid-civilian-massacre","iran-war-no-quarter-declaration"]}}