Waterboarding

Harsh interrogation tactics such as waterboarding, Trump said, should be used again.

Trump would have to appoint a team of lawyers to come up with a law that could win court approval. Trump would probably have to restart the program under a massive amount of public and congressional scrutiny. Former CIA director Michael Hayden has said repeatedly that the agency would not waterboard again, saying Trump would need “his own damn bucket.” Waterboarding had been a key part of the U.S. military’s Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape program and was used on trainees in controlled environments. In the early 2000s the CIA hired two clinical psychologists to create an interrogation program that incorporated aspects of SERE.

Time frame: Unknown. Trump would need to appoint a CIA director willing to direct his personnel to waterboard, as well as a defense secretary willing to do the same.