Thomson Reuters
Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at the end of a campaign rally in Eugene, Oregon, U.S.
He said Friday morning that he can "practically guarantee" who "blew up" the plane with 66 people on board that crashed during a flight from Paris to Cairo early Thursday morning. The cause of the crash has not yet been determined, but officials have said terrorism is a more likely explanation than a mechanical failure.
"Another plane was blown up and I can practically guarantee who blew it up," the presumptive Republican presidential nominee said during an appearance on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."
"And another plane went down and let me tell you, the mindset of a weak Hillary Clinton, which is four more years of Obama, is not going to do it for our country," he added of his likely general-election opponent.
"Morning Joe" co-host Mika Brzezinski was questioning Trump about a tweet he posted shortly after news of the plane crash broke. He tweeted that the plane crash "looks like yet another terrorist attack" and then asked when the US would "get tough, smart and vigilant."
"Great hate and sickness!" he tweeted.
Brzezinski noted that some people might think the tweet was "very much generating hatred, focusing on the hatred and fear that terrorism brings to the American people."
"I'm asking you if there is any perhaps backing here to the concern that a lot of what you say is focused on hatred and fear and sort of generating more anger and churning it up," Trump said. "Perhaps for the example, that tweet, maybe you might have thought of the families that were suffering first."
Trump replied that he was thinking of the future.
"We cannot continue to let things like this happen. We are being taken advantage of by radical Islamic terrorists, and we are, this world is changing," Trump said.
"And another couple of planes go down, Mika, and you're going to have a depression worldwide the likes of which you've never seen. Because nobody's going to travel, there will be no anything," he added. "There will be no communication between countries. And you will have a problem the likes of which you've never seen."
Trump concluded: "When you find out what happened to the plane, it will be exactly what I said. That plane didn't go down because of mechanical failure."