'Trump's temperament makes him dangerous proposition for US'

New York, May 17: Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's temperament makes him a "dangerous proposition" to be the US commander-in-chief and his ideas could put the world on the path of a nuclear arms race, Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton's close aide has said.

"It is very, very difficult to pin down where he stands on a lot of these policies," Clinton's Senior Foreign Policy Advisor Jake Sullivan said when asked about his views on Trump's foreign policy proposals during a discussion at the Asia Society here yesterday.

In the conversation with former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on foreign policy, Sullivan slammed Trump for his continuously oscillating views on how he would deal with other nations, including major powers like Russia and China, saying he does not have the temperament to be an effective commander-in-chief.

"He'll say on the one hand, the Chinese are eating our lunch, and on the other hand, we have all the leverage in the world to make the Chinese do whatever we want," Sullivan said.

"On the one hand, we should sit down with the Russians ...on the other hand, if I need to, I'll just shoot down Russian fighter jets. He says on the one hand, the United States can do whatever it wants, wherever it wants, to achieve whatever purpose it wants.

On the other hand, we're doing too much and we can't do all that. We have to stop," Sullivan said. Sullivan, who has also served as a national security adviser to Vice President Joe Biden, said Trump's world views can put America at great risk.

Sullivan said he views Trump as someone "unlike any candidate that we have seen before, who looks to be close to securing the nomination of a major party, in that the ideas he's putting forward and the temperament he has displayed behind them make him a dangerous proposition to be US commander-in-chief."

He said Trump's support on various occasions for nations getting more nuclear weapons can spark an arms race, in turn increasing the chances of such weapons falling in the hands of terrorists.

Trump's views that more countries should be able to obtain nuclear weapons has the "very real risk of sparking a nuclear arms race, and also makes it increasingly likely that terrorists will get their hands on nuclear weapons, which is the greatest threat that the United States faces", Sullivan said.

He also slammed Trump for his views that America should order its military officers, "against the law, to kill the families of terrorists".

"He has said many things along those lines. When you add up the totality of this, however you slice it, whichever pieces you accept or discard, the picture that is painted is one of a tremendously dangerous risk," Sullivan said.

PTI