Sunday March 6 Update:
The latest update to Trump’s pro-torture gambit came last night after the primaries and caucuses, when he said he wants to change the laws (“extend” them was his word) so as to permit waterboarding, and more extreme measures. So it really would be like VP Cheney again, with the Executive rewriting the laws to suit their agenda. This is an excellent article by Rosa Brooks about the possible response among the serving military to a Trump presidency. Here’s a tweet I wrote last night after the post-voting statements by Trump.

Paging David Addington/John Yoo/Dick Cheney: #Drumpf wants to rewrite US laws vs torture as you did, seeks advice on voiding Geneva Conv.

— Philip Turner (@philipsturner) March 6, 2016

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Yesterday, when the Trump campaign supposedly altered the candidate’s pro-torture stance, and walked back his intention, if elected president, to compel US forces to waterboard prisoners, and commit worse illegal acts, I posted this on my Facebook page:

Annoyed that much of the media will accept ‪#‎Drumpf‬’s claim he wouldn’t try&compel US troops to break international law. All his campaign did today is walk it back, lest he seem like the wannabe war criminal he’s already repeatedly promised to be, eager to commit torture with gusto. A possible Trump presidency augurs a repeat of Cheney-ism, and the press shouldn’t fall for this hasty revision. Even the headline at TPM, “Trump Does About-Face On Torture: I Won’t Order Military to ‘Disobey’ Law,”  gives the walk-back credence it doesn’t deserve.

Turns out, as the first press release was landing in reporters’ in-boxes, Trump, at a rally in Warren, Michigan, once again promised to use waterboarding and said that the US under him “should go much further.” Thanks to Right-Wing Watch for reporting on this, and for posting the video at their website. I’m playing catch-up now to report on the incoherence of the statements of the campaign and the candidate, but will some other news-gatherers do the same? Come on media, help me out, fact-checking Trump is a full-time job!

This episode shows why Trump should never have the benefit of doubt on matters like this, or on his supposed ‘disavowal’ of David Duke and the KKK, especially because we know that a Memphis rally last week White nationalist James Edwards was given press credentials and did radio broadcasts from the hall for three hours, during which he did a lengthy interview with Donald Trump, Jr.