At his second event, he returned to the question of a nuclear Japan, arguing both sides of the issue in almost the same sentence.

“I would rather have them not arm, but I’m not going to continue to lose this tremendous amount of money,” Mr. Trump said. “And frankly, the case could be made, that let them protect themselves against North Korea. They’d probably wipe them out pretty quick.”

A fight between Japan and North Korea, he added, would be “a terrible thing,” but he framed the scenario in financial terms.

“Good luck, folks, enjoy yourself,” he said. “If they fight, that would be terrible, right? But if they do, they do. We can’t be the policemen to the world and have $19 trillion in debt, going up to $21 trillion and we’re sitting on a bubble that’s going to explode and we’re going to all end up you know where.”