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'He is the founder of ISIS': Trump repeatedly claims Obama is to blame for creating the terror group and calls Hillary its 'co-founder'

Donald Trump claimed Wednesday night during a raucous south Florida campaign rally that President Barack Obama and his first secretary of state Hillary Clinton were the 'founder' and 'co-founder' of the ISIS terror army.

His stunning claim came at the end of a pointed lecture recounting the conditions that led the regional militant group called al-Qaeda in Iraq to grow its ambitions – and blaming the president for creating the power vacuum that terrorists rushed in to fill.

'In many respects, you know, they honor President Obama. ISIS is honoring President Obama,' Trump said, working himself into a lather at the end of a full day of campaigning in two states.

'He is the founder of ISIS. He is the founder of ISIS, okay? He's the founder! He founded ISIS!' he continued, always crescendoing.

'And I would say,' Trump added more solemnly, getting to his election-year point: 'The co-founder would be crooked Hillary Clinton. Co-founder! Crooked Hillary Clinton! And that's what it's about!'

Trump has made claims before that Obama precipitously pulled U.S. forces out of Iraq on a predetermined date, giving ISIS room to breathe and expand.

But Wednesday marked the first time he has credited the current White House with the creation of the self-described 'Islamic State.'

Minutes later in what may be interpreted as a dog-whistle to his Islamoskeptic fans, Trump uttered another rarity, referring to the president with his Arab middle name.

Responding to complaints that he had misinterpreted the recent geopolitics of Russia and Ukraine, he declared that the Crimea 'was taken' by Russian President Vladimir Putin 'during the administration of Barack Hussein Obama.'

Trump's figurative case that Obama 'founded' ISIS rests on his contention that the president disrupted a delicate balance of power between Iran and Iraq, two countries afflicted by more than eight decades of border disputes.

'We had a president who decided he would announce a date, and he was gonna get out by that date. The problem is, the enemy, which really turned out to be ISIS, the enemy was sitting back and actually didn't believe that this could be happening,' he said.

Trump criticized Obama for failing to leave 'some small forces' behind in Iraq to keep order.

The result, he said, was predictable chaos with Iran the dominant aggressor but ISIS reclaiming dominance in broad swaths of Iraq.

'You know, for years and years these two countries fought,' he said. 'Decades and decades and decades they'd fight. That's what they did – they'd fight.'

'And they'd fight for four years and stop. Then they'd fight for four more years. Saddam Hussein would drop gas, everybody would complain. Tremendous, tremendous carnage. And they'd stop. Then they'd start.'

'It would never change,' in Trump's reading of history, 'because you had military powers of essentially the same strength.'

'And then,' he said, President George W. Bush invaded Iraq and 'decimated one of the powers, and we unleashed fury all over the Middle East. And it was a terrible mistake.'

'And then Obama came in,' he continued. 'And normally you want to clean up. He made a bigger mess out of it. He made such a mess. And then you had Hillary with Libya. So sad.'

During the rally he also unveiled a number of new signs including one pitting himself against Clinton showing how much of their campaigns were funded by hedge funders.

He also unveiled a chart showing home ownership rates plummeting over the years.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has said he would "cancel" the Paris climate deal in his first major speech on energy policy.

More than 195 countries pledged to reduce carbon emissions in a landmark agreement last year.

The billionaire businessman has said before there is no evidence that humans are responsible for climate change.

He called for more drilling, fewer regulations and the approval of the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada.

"Any regulation that's outdated, unnecessary, bad for workers or contrary to the national interest will be scrapped and scrapped completely," Mr Trump said.

"We're going to do all this while taking proper regard for rational environmental concerns."

Donald Trump's desire to see the end of US participation in the Paris climate agreement is increasing the pressure for a rapid ratification around the world.

But that's not easy as the process can often get bogged down in national parliaments. The Obama administration and others believe they are well on the way to securing that level of support which they feel would then make a US withdrawal, in the face of global condemnation, much less likely. But they could be dead wrong about that.

Mr Trump though doesn't have to go to such lengths to end US involvement. He could choose to ignore or reverse or delay Obama's initiatives on climate including the Clean Power Plan. The real strength of the Paris agreement is that it comes from the bottom up, countries decide for themselves what their emissions cutting commitments will be. But this could also be a huge weakness.

If a President Trump doesn't put emissions cutting regulations into place, no one could force him to. Would China or India and others continue to cut their carbon while the US did not? Unlikely.

Before this speech, he had said he would "renegotiate" the global agreement involving nearly all countries, but this time he went further and said the US would pull out.

The climate change deal is "bad for US business" and said the pact allows "foreign bureaucrats control over how much energy we use".

Under the deal, countries set emission limits themselves, not an outside panel.

Mr Trump has called climate change "a hoax" devised by the Chinese government.

It is uncertain whether Mr Trump, if elected, could actually make any changes to the deal.

The accord will have legal force once it is ratified by 55 countries that contribute 55% of global emissions.

If the deal is ratified by January, a new American president would have to wait four years to withdraw from the deal.

While the US is the second-largest greenhouse gas polluter, it has been instrumental in helping other countries such as India reduce emissions.

Mr Trump said on Friday that the US would stop funding these efforts.

Environmental advocates called Mr Trump's proposals "frightening".

"Trump's energy policies would accelerate climate change, protect corporate polluters who profit from poisoning our air and water, and block the transition to clean energy that is necessary to strengthen our economy and protect our climate and health," Tom Steyer, a billionaire environmental activist, told Reuters.

On Thursday, he officially became the presidential nominee for his party, surpassing the 1,238 delegates required.