On the campaign trail, Donald Trump said he wanted to bring back waterboarding. Now, as president, he is doubling down and says that waterboarding is a-okay because it isn t really even torture anyway.During an interview on Thursday, Trump told Fox News  Sean Hannity that waterboarding doesn t qualify as  real torture  (it does) and claimed that it is an effective interrogation tool to get valuable information (it s not). I mean, torture is real torture, OK? Waterboarding is   I m sure it s not pleasant, but waterboarding was just short of torture,  Trump said.  When   you know, all of a sudden, they made it torture. I spoke with people the other day who are in this world that were talking about it. Absolutely, it works. Absolutely,  he added.Trump told ABC News earlier this week that he is all about bringing back banned torture techniques, such as waterboarding, and said that he will be relying on the advice of his national security team. But he made it clear that he has no doubt in his mango tinted mind that torture works. However, Secretary of Defense James Mattis has long since denounced the practice of waterboarding. As far as I m concerned, we have to fight fire with fire. Now, with that being said I m going with General Mattis. I m going with my secretary because I think Pompeo s gonna be phenomenal. I m gonna go with what they say,  Trump said. But I have spoken as recently as 24 hours ago with people at the highest level of intelligence. And I asked them the question,  Does it work? Does torture work?  And the answer was,  Yes, absolutely,    he added. I will rely on General Mattis. And I m gonna rely on those two people and others. And if they don t wanna do it, it s 100 percent okay with me. Do I think it works? Absolutely. Once again, Trump is using alternative facts. Not only does waterboarding most definitely constitute torture, but it also isn t effective when it comes to getting information. According to a report published by US Senate Select Committee published in 2014, which analyzed the CIA s detention and interrogation program, torture does not work.The report clearly states that the  use of the CIA s enhanced interrogation techniques was not an effective means of obtaining accurate information or gaining detainee cooperation. The report also points out that people who are tortured often make up false information just to bring an end to their suffering. They will tell you whatever you want to hear to get you to stop hurting them (even if it isn t true) because they are desperate.You can watch Trump declare that waterboarding is not  real torture,  here:Featured image via video screen capture