Ex-Intel head trying to tame Trump comments

The former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency is trying to moderate extreme comments of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump to smooth his path to the White House, he said on Thursday.

“There must be more precision in the use of the language that he uses as the potential leader of the free world,” retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who is advising Trump, said in an interview on Al Jazeera’s “UpFront.”

{mosads}“Those are the pieces of advice that I’m trying to get into him: be more precise, be more conscious about what you say about foreign policy issues, because they are complicated.”

The former intelligence official described the businessman’s radical proposals — such as a ban on foreign Muslims, targeting the families of suspected terrorists and employing forms of torture “more worse” that waterboarding — as part of a headline-grabbing strategy that would become more subdued as the campaign evolves.  

“Read his book, ‘The Art of the Deal,’” Flynn said.

The theme of that book, he said, was to “start really, really high and hit really, really hard and then be prepared to get down to where you think you can actually negotiate.”

Trump’s unorthodox positions, some of which have been described as war crimes, have outraged many Republican defense experts, who have pledged not to support him. The opposition could present a hurdle for Trump’s campaign, which is seeking to unify GOP factions in the weeks since emerging as the party’s presumed nominee.

Flynn is perhaps the highest profile former national security figure who has signed on to assist Trump’s unconventional campaign. While he is not a formal member of his national security advisory committee, he has provided advice to Trump and has been considered a potential fixture in a Trump Cabinet.

“I love to serve this country and I love to serve it in a variety of ways,” he said in the interview on Thursday, about his role in a Trump administration. “I personally would have to really understand what somebody wanted me to do and I believe that we have some massive challenges that we’re facing.”