Donald Trump: Denials over Iran jet video

Donald Trump said last night he didn’t see video on TV of a plane carrying $400m (€360m) in cash to Iran, a rare reversal of comments he made on the campaign trail earlier this week.

“The plane I saw on television was the hostage plane in Geneva, Switzerland, not the plane carrying $400 million in cash going to Iran!” the Republican presidential nominee said on Twitter.

Trump’s comments follow days of tumult for his campaign after he sparred with the family of a slain Muslim-American soldier, refused to endorse Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan for re-election, and was hit with a series of post-convention polls showing him trailing Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

Seizing on new details about a $400 m cash payment by the US to Iran as US detainees were being freed in January, Trump said on Wednesday Iran had released video of people taking money from the plane to embarrass the US.

A spokeswoman told the Washington Post Trump was actually referring to footage of the freed prisoners, yet Trump again on Thursday asserted Iranians had taped the cash transfer.

The Obama administration has faced renewed questions about the exchange, which it described as a settlement of a longstanding arms dispute and not a ransom for Americans that were released from Iran.

“We do not pay ransom for hostages,” President Barack Obama said.

It’s the second time in the past three days the Trump campaign has had to correct claims about national security and foreign policy under the Obama administration.

Trump spokeswoman Katrina Pierson said on CNN she misspoke when she blamed Obama for the 2004 death of the Muslim-American soldier, Humayun Khan, during the Iraq war.