Trump Tells Floridians Obama Was ‘Founder of ISIS’

(CN) - Donald Trump told a crowd at a rally in Sunrise, Fla., on Wednesday that President Barack Obama founded the Islamic State group.

"In many respects ... they honor President Obama," Trump told boisterous supporters at the event west of Fort Lauderdale.

"He is the founder of ISIS," the Republican presidential candidate added, repeating himself and thrusting his arm out from his sides for emphasis.

"He is the founder of ISIS, ok? He is the founder," Trump said.

"And I would say the co-founder is 'crooked Hillary Clinton,'" he added, the last comment inspiring chants of "Lock her up. Lock her up" in the BB&T Center.

Trump has long blamed Obama and his Democratic opponent, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for creating a power vacuum in the Mideast that has been exploited by ISIS.

On Wednesday in Florida, Trump said, "We should never, ever, ever, have gone into Iraq. I said it from the beginning. I said, 'You're going to destabilize the Middle East,' and we did.

"And then, an even easier decision, we should have never gotten out the way we got out," he continued. "We had a presidential who announced a date that we would be out, and we had an enemy, which turned out to be ISIS, that didn't believe this was happening."

In Trump's version of events, the administration pulled U.S. troops out of Iraq and then neglected to "keep to oil."

"So who has the oil? ISIS has a lot of the oil. Iran is going to have all of the oil ...," he said.

"And when did this happen, during the administration of Barack Hussein Obama.

In fact, there are currently nearly 5,000 U.S. troops on the ground in Iraq, more than 4,100 of which are directly assisting Iraqi troops in the fight against ISIS.

Trump refused to back off his controversial assertion Thursday morning, telling CNBC the president "was the founder, absolutely the founder" of ISIS.

"In fact he gets the — in sports, they have awards. He gets the most valuable player award," Trump said.

The White House has not commented on Trump's statements.

Trump also jumped on the fact that the father of Orlando shooter Omar Mateen, who on June 12 killed 49 people and wounded 53 others at a gay nightclub, attended a Clinton campaign rally in Florida on Monday.

"Of course he likes Hillary Clinton," Trump said of Seddique Mateen being spotted in the crowd by reporters.

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