Trump: ‘I Would Hit ISIS Very, Very Hard’

TAPPER: “Let's talk about some matters in foreign affairs. You were just talking about the military. The U.S. appears to be increasingly confident that it was, in fact, a terrorist bomb planted by ISIS that brought down that Russian -- Russian passenger jet that broke apart over Egypt last weekend. If ISIS was indeed responsible for planting that bomb, and you got intelligence that made you 100 percent sure that were true, how would you respond as president? What would you do?”
TRUMP: “Well, we have got to hit ISIS hard. Regardless, we have got to hit ISIS hard, and I mean really hard. And I like the fact that Russia is hitting ISIS and they have started to hit ISIS. And it was their plane, so that's going to give them even more incentive to hit ISIS. And they're hitting it. And, you know, we don't have to be alone in that quest. So, I would hit ISIS very, very hard. I would hit them at their source of wealth –“
TAPPER: “Yes.” 
TRUMP: “-- which is the oil. And I would hit them right now.”
TAPPER: “What -- when you say hitting ISIS hard, what do you mean specifically? Do you mean –“
TRUMP: “Well, I hate to say specifically, because, if I win -- you know, I'm leading in the polls. And, if I win, I hate to give all of my information right up front, to be honest with you.” 
TAPPER: “But you would put U.S. troops –“
TRUMP: “But I would hit them at their source of wealth. I would hit them at their source of wealth, which is the oil. I would take the oil away. I would hit them so hard, their wealth would go away and it would dissipate. And unless you are going to take away their wealth, you're not going to take away ISIS.” 
TAPPER: “But would you put more U.S. ground troops in Iraq? Would –“
TRUMP: “Yes. And I think you could do it to a limited -- I would work with the Kurds. I would work with a lot of other groups. And we would knock it out. There are many people that want ISIS gone. We're not the only ones. But I would work on it very, very hard and very swiftly. And I would knock ISIS out. I would knock out their source of wealth.” 
TAPPER: “Would you be willing to send U.S. troops as part of a coalition into Syria?” 
TRUMP: “Well, Syria is a different story, because I'm not a believer in arming the rebels and we don't know who they are. You have Assad. I agree he's not a good guy, but, sometimes, the rebels -- and we look at Libya. You look at lots of other places, including Iraq. The rebels turn out to be a lot worse. If you want to know the truth, Jake, they turn out to be a lot worse than what was there in the first place. Just take a look at what is going on in the Middle East. So, we don't know who these rebels are. We're arming them all over the place. I have to take a real strong, serious look at who these people are.”