New ad: ‘Trump loves dictators’

A new online ad criticizes Donald Trump’s foreign policy, highlighting the GOP presidential front-runner’s past statements praising hostile world leaders.

“How can Trump make America great again when he’s kissing up to anti-American dictators?” the clip from the Emergency Committee for Israel asks.

{mosads}The spot shows Trump wearing one of his iconic baseball caps, edited to read “Trump loves dictators” and plays clips of him speaking kindly of leaders from Iraq, Libya, Russia and Syria.

“You know, whether you like Saddam Hussein or not, he used to kill terrorists,” Trump said of the former Iraqi leader.

“[I’m] looking at Assad and saying, ‘maybe he’s better than the kind of people that we’re supposed to be backing,’” he says in another clip, referencing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Another clip shows Trump saying he believes “Russia can be a positive force and an ally,” when discussing Vladimir Putin.

One clip also shows him saying the world would be “100 percent” better if Hussein and Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi were still in power.

The Emergency Committee for Israel says its an organization advocating for “a strong U.S.-Israel relationship,” on its website.

“The Committee’s mission is to educate the public about serious challenges to Israel’s security and about what elected officials in this country are doing and should do in order to meet those challenges,” it adds.

The group’s lists conservative commentator Bill Kristol, a noted Trump critic and editor of The Weekly Standard, on its board.

Trump said earlier this month he will be “neutral” between Israel and the Palestinians if elected president.

He has also repeatedly said he would have Putin play a bigger role in the Middle East, and would welcome Russia’s help against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).