Donald Trump – Gage Skidmore via

Donald Trump abruptly backtracked Friday on vows to torture terror suspects and kill their families, saying he would not order the United States military to break worldwide laws if elected president.

But fewer than 24 hours earlier, in Thursday's GOP debate, Trump stuck to his position on targeting family members of militants and on an expansive use of torture against captured militants.

"I get a lot of questions from our European counterparts on our election process this time in general", Breedlove said. They are not going to refuse me.

If Donald Trump were to become commander-in-chief, he would have no problem getting military to execute his orders - even the ones that are illegal under global law. I knew, of course, that Donald Trump had promised in the past to use torture against America's enemies (last night, he called them "animals"), that he would pursue and kill not only terrorists but their families (apparently because the families always know, according to Trump, what their father/brother/sister is up to, as if there are no secrets in families). It is clear that as president I will be bound by laws just like all Americans and I will meet those responsibilities.

Anyway. I really need to start a daily "What if Obama said it?" feature before the primary's over.

Baier told Trump the latter is explicitly illegal, but Trump insisted, "They won't refuse".

Trump had initially dismissed this line of criticism and during the debate told the moderators that the military would indeed carry out his orders.

Mr Trump faces a growing list of high-profile Republicans who denounce him as unsafe, not a true Republican and lacking the experience to lead the world's most powerful nation. Ted Cruz, R.-Texas, whom he accused of weakening on the issue in a February debate. "The question is, is it campaign posturing?" asked George Urban, 39, a Charlottesville, Va., business owner attending a conservative political conference in suburban Maryland this week.

Trump's earlier statements were among those that prompted a group of more than 100 leaders in the Republican foreign policy and national security community to write an open letter Wednesday condemning Trump and pledging to oppose his presidential candidacy.

"They see a very different sort of public discussion than they have in the past".

He said for 40 years the tycoon had been "part of the corruption in Washington" that people were angry about, citing Mr Trump's campaign contributions to leading Democrats, including Hillary Clinton when she was a senator. No person is above the law, an American ideal that Trump seems neither to understand nor to embrace. Graham, a former military lawyer, also asked Dunford what advice he would give troops if ordered to target such civilians.