DONALD TRUMP, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, yesterday (Wednesday) charged Hillary Clinton with "single-handedly" destabilising the Middle East and "unleashing" the jihadists of Islamic State on the world.
In his first major address relating specifically to his Democratic rival, Mr Trump labelled Mrs Clinton a "world-class liar" and lambasted her long political record.
"No Secretary of State has been more wrong, more often, and in more places than Hillary Clinton," he said. "Her decisions spread death, destruction and terrorism everywhere she touched."
In claims that foreshadowed the likely tone of the coming presidential race, Mr Trump pinned the sweeping chaos, violence and complex politics of the Arab Spring directly on his opponent. "In just four years, Secretary Clinton managed to almost single-handedly destabilise the entire Middle East," he said.
Though Mrs Clinton has not presided over any US led ground war, he claimed that her foreign policy had cost "America thousands of lives".
Her support for the rebel opposition in Syria and the war in Libya had "unleashed Isil across the world", he said.
Though the tone was extreme, the speech marked a departure from Mr Trump's usual rambling style, with the presidential candidate sticking to a script. Citing the death of Chris Stevens, the US ambassador killed in an attack on the embassy in Benghazi he said Mrs Clinton had "started the war that put him in Libya, denied him the security he asked for, then left him there to die."
His speech, which Mrs Clinton's campaign derided as "nutty" and "hypocritical" also seemed carefully calibrated to appeal to supporters of Bernie Sanders, Mrs Clinton's ousted rival.