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Asked about who’s going to be his running mate, Trump says, ‘Well, I can’t tell you that really. I mean, I know who it’s going to be’
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Donald Trump tried to backtrack on his previous suggestion that he would be a dictator for the first day of his next term if he wins the next election.
His comments came during a town hall in Des Moines, Iowa on Fox News just a few days ahead of the first-in-the-nation contest on 15 January.
The former president chose to attend the town hall instead of debating challengers Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis on CNN.
Speaking about a previous appearance alongside Fox News host Sean Hannity, Mr Trump noted: “I said I’m going to be a dictator for one day. We’re going to do two things – the border, we’re going to make it so tight you can’t get in unless you come in legally. And the other is energy. We’re going to drill, baby drill. After that, I’m not going to be a dictator”.
Criticising the press, he said: “They cut it, they go, ‘I’m going to be a dictator’, but they cut the rest of the sentence. No, no, I am not going to be a dictator.”
Former president Donald Trump on Wednesday again vowed to seize dictatorial powers if elected to the nation’s highest office once more but attempted to walk back his frequently made promise to exact retribution on his political enemies during a second term in the White House.
The disgraced former president, who is currently facing more than 90 felony charges in four separate jurisdictions and is scheduled to go on trial in March for attempting a coup to keep himself in office after losing the 2020 election, promised to spend his first day of a second term ruling as an autocrat during a town hall broadcast on Fox News ahead of the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses.
Asked by a voter in the Hawkeye State – where temperatures have dropped below freezing – how he’d respond to critics who argue that restoring to him to power would unleash untold chaos upon the country, Mr Trump replied that the chaos of his first term was the fault of Democrats in the House of Representatives and law enforcement officials who conducted investigations into his conduct.
Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump talks to the hosts during a commercial break at Fox News Channel town hall ahead of the caucus vote in Des Moines, Iowa, U.S., January 10, 2024
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump participates in a Fox News Town Hall on January 10, 2024 in Des Moines, Iowa
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump participates in a Fox News Town Hall on January 10, 2024 in Des Moines, Iowa
Asked about his possible future relationship with NATO, Mr Trump said, “NATO has taken advantage of our country. The European countries took advantage”.
“They took advantage of us on trade and then they took advantage of us on our military protection,” Mr Trump added. “Of the 28 countries at the time, only eight countries were paid up. We were paying the difference.”
Speaking about abortion during the town hall, Mr Trump said: “Nobody wants to see that happening after a certain period of time.”
“The radicals … they're willing to kill the baby in eight months, nine months or even after birth. If you remember the former governor of Virginia where he said you kill the baby after the ninth month or even afterwards, you set the baby aside … These are the radicals … We are not the radicals. But we're living in a time when there has to be a little bit of a concession one way or the other,” he added.
Ron DeSantis has faced claims that he wears lifts in his shoes to appear taller, something Mr Trump appeared to reference on Wednesday night.
Asked about his criticism of pro-life Republicans after electoral losses, “You got to win elections. If you look at it, that Ron DeSantis I don't know what he really believes because you know, you never know with a politician and he's just another politician as far as I'm concerned”.
“But his poll numbers have gone down to a level that he's going to be out of the race very soon going to be out very soon. You know, I watched him last night. He's standing up with his shoes, fancy shoes. He's going to be out of the race within you know, a lot of people say before New Hampshire,” he added.
Trump boasted about removing the constitutional right to reproductive rights, saying, “for 54 years, they were trying to get Roe v Wade terminated. And I did it and I'm proud to have done it”.
Mr Trump said on Wednesday night that “George Washington was a very rich man. People don't know that”.
“In his essentially White House, which wasn’t built but they had an office, he had a business desk and he had a country desk right next to each other,” Mr Trump claimed. “You're allowed to do that. I didn't do it. I put everything in a trust. And if I have a hotel and somebody comes in from China, that's a small amount of money and it sounds like a lot of money … but I was doing services for that people were staying in these massive hotels, these beautiful hotels, because I have the best hotels and the best clubs.”
Mr Trump said on Wednesday night that the coronavirus, “came out of Wuhan, the labs”.
“I think it was done out of incompetence,” he added.
Mr Trump claimed that if he returns to the White House, “We are going to have the largest deportation effort in the history of our country. We're bringing everybody back to where they came from. We have no choice. We have no choice”.
In comments reminiscent of his 2015 announcement speech, Mr Trump said about illegal immigrants in the Biden era: “I think by the time his administration ends, and hopefully quickly, it's going to be 18 million people, that's bigger than New York state that's bigger than just about every state … Many of those people come from jails and prisons. Many of those people come from mental institutions and insane asylums, and many of those people are terrorists.”
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Former US President and 2024 Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump speaks during a town hall in Des Moines, Iowa, on January 10, 2024
AFP via Getty Images
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