During his campaign, Donald Trump has established himself as a champion of veterans. In fact, much of his policy deals with veteran support and VA reform. On Sept. 15, the Republican frontrunner delivered his first speech relating to national security.
With the decommissioned battleship USS Iowa as his backdrop in LA, Trump gave a less than 15-minute speech where he briefly touched on topics like immigration reform, military policy and veterans affairs.
"We're going to make our military so big, so strong and so great, so powerful that we're never going to have to use it," Trump told the crowd. "We're going to have a president who is respected by Putin, respected by Iran."
The Huffington Post reported that Trump won the support of veterans' advocacy group Veterans for a Strong America just before the speech. The group also sponsored Tuesday's gathering, and while many anticipated the day's address would focus more on veterans issues, the majority of the real estate tycoon's speech was dedicated to immigration reform.
However, Trump did express his displeasure with the quality of veteran health care and current foreign policy. The candidate's next engagement was the GOP debate on Sept. 16.