Donald Trump said on Monday that, "at a certain point," the United States should shoot at Russian planes that barrel roll over U.S. Air Force planes.
Commenting on a Russian SU-27 that conducted a barrel roll over a U.S. aircraft on Friday, the second such maneuver a Russian plane has conducted in the past month, Trump told Indiana radio host Charly Butcher that Obama should first call Putin to object.
"Normally, an Obama, let's say a president, because you want to make at least a call or two, but normally Obama would call up Putin and say, 'Listen, do us a favor, don't do that, get that maniac, just stop it.' But we don't have that kind of a president. He's gonna be out playing golf or something," Trump said.
"But I don't know, at a certain point, you can't take it," the businessman continued. "I mean, at a certain point, you have to do something that, you just can't take that. That is not right. It's against all, you know, when you talk about Geneva convention, there's gotta be things that are against it. You can't do that. That's called taunting. But it should certainly start with diplomacy and it should start quickly with a phone call to Putin, wouldn't you think?"
He went on to say that, if diplomacy didn't work, the U.S. should open fire.
"And if that doesn't work out, I don't know, you know, at a certain point, when that sucker comes by you, you gotta shoot," Trump said. "You gotta shoot. I mean, you gotta shoot. And it's a shame. It's a shame. It's a total lack of respect for our country and it's a total lack of respect for Obama. Which as you know, they don't respect."