Former President Trump, if elected to a second term, said he would alleviate the “chaos” brought to the nation by the Biden administration by securing the southern border, bringing America back to energy independence, strengthening the economy and expanding and strengthening the military.
Trump, the 2024 GOP frontrunner, participated in a Fox News Town Hall Wednesday night in Des Moines, Iowa, just days before the highly-anticipated first-in-the-nation primary contests in the Hawkeye State on Jan. 15.
Trump, who leads the Republican primary field by a massive margin, stands at or above 50% support in the latest polls in Iowa.
The town hall was co-moderated by “Special Report” chief political anchor Bret Baier and “The Story” executive editor and anchor Martha MacCallum.
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Trump took questions from Iowa voters on a number of issues, but said President Biden has brought “chaos” to the country.
“They have chaos at the border. They have chaos in the military. People are going woke,” Trump said. “We have chaos now. Look at today with Hunter Biden going into Congress and just sitting down and the bedlam that’s been caused today. You have chaos.”
Trump said the country has “more” chaos with Biden than under his presidency.
DES MOINES, IOWA – JANUARY 10: Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump participates in a Fox News Town Hall on January 10, 2024 in Des Moines, Iowa. Trump declined to participate in a debate featuring fellow Republican presidential candidates former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis also taking place this evening. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
“He can’t put two sentences together and he’s representing us on nuclear weapons with Putin and Xi and all of these very smart people—the media hates when I say they’re smart, but let me tell you, they’re very smart and they’re very cunning,” Trump said.
“I think we had very little chaos,” Trump said, reflecting on his administration. “I think most of the chaos was caused by the Democrats constantly going after me.”
Trump went on to point to the “phony Russia, Russia, Russia” investigation; his impeachments; and more.
“They had the chaos. They were the ones that caused the chaos,” Trump said. “We didn’t have chaos.”
Trump said that under his presidency, the United States saw the “biggest tax cuts in history” and “the biggest regulation cuts in history.”
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“I had no wars. I’m the only president in 72 years—I didn’t have any wars,” Trump said.
But Trump said Biden and Democrats use the “narrative” that he would bring chaos “because they have nothing else.”
“The new narrative they have, as you know, is I’m going to be a dictator, because a guy like Biden, there’s nothing he can run on—everything he’s turned out, it’s turned out badly,” Trump said.
Trump said under Biden, the border “is a disaster” and “the worst border in history.”
Former US President and 2024 Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump speaks as moderators Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum look on during a town hall in Des Moines, Iowa, on January 10, 2024. (KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
“I think the worst border in the history of the world,” Trump said.
In Fiscal Year 2023 alone, border officials encountered nearly 2.5 million migrant encounters at the southern border–including 600,000 getaways, and 249 people on the terror watch list.
The GOP frontrunner said that if elected, his second term would begin by “immediately” terminating “every open borders policy of the Biden administration.”
In September, Trump announced his plans to carry out “the largest domestic deportation operation in American history” if he is elected to a second term.
Additionally, he plans to “invoke the Alien Enemies Act to remove all known or suspected Gang Members, drug dealers, or Cartel Members from the United States”—an effort he says will end the “scourge of illegal alien gang violence once and for all.”
Meanwhile, Trump was asked to respond to Biden’s claims, and to say that political violence is “never acceptable.”
Former US President and 2024 Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump speaks as moderators Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum look on during a town hall in Des Moines, Iowa, on January 10, 2024. ( KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
“Well, of course, that’s right,” Trump said. “And of course, I’m the one who had very little of it. Take a look at wars again—I didn’t start—I wasn’t involved in wars. We beat the hell out of ISIS. We won 100%. We brought our troops back home.”
He added: “Look at the violence that we’ve had recently.”
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Trump went on to say that Biden’s presidency is “bedlam.”
“You have a man who can’t lead. You have a man who can’t find his way off a stage after he makes a speech that lasts for about two minutes,” Trump said. “Now, I think bedlam is Joe Biden.”
Trump said Biden is using a “political ploy” by claiming that he “wants to be a dictator.”
But as for being a “dictator,” Trump joked that he would be—but only for one day.
“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, we’re going to drill, baby, drill,” Trump said. “After that, I’m not going to be a dictator after that. I’m not going to be a dictator.”
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But Trump, who said he has “gotten to know Washington,” and who said “everybody wants to come work for us” in a possible second term, said he was “not going to have time for retribution.”
“I’m not going to have time for retribution,” Trump said. “We’re going to make this country so successful again. I’m not going to have time for retribution.”
He added: “And remember this, our ultimate retribution is success…There won’t be retribution. There will be success.”
Moving onto the economy, Trump said it is “horrible, except the stock market’s going up.”
DES MOINES, IOWA – JANUARY 10: Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump participates in a Fox News Town Hall on January 10, 2024 in Des Moines, Iowa. Trump declined to participate in a debate featuring fellow Republican presidential candidates former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis also taking place this evening. ( Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
“And I think the stock market’s got markets going up because I’m leading Biden in all of the polls– every poll, every single poll for in states that normally are not easy to lead,” Trump said. “But I would say this we have a situation in which I believe the stock market goes up because I’m leading. I think if I wasn’t leading, the stock market would be 25% lower. And I think, frankly, if I didn’t win, I think the stock market would crash.”
Moderator Bret Baier pointed to comments Trump made this month in which he said if there is a crash of the stock market, he hoped it would be during “this next 12 months because I don’t want to be Herbert Hoover. The one president I just don’t want to be, Herbert Hoover.”
On Wednesday, Trump clarified, saying that he believes “there will be a crash if I don’t win.”
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“And I say that and I do not want to be Herbert Hoover. You know, Herbert Hoover was 1929. He was the president. And that was not a good time to be. I don’t want to be Herbert Hoover and I won’t be Herbert Hoover,” Trump said.
Trump has been criticized as a “big government Republican” by his GOP opponents for adding $8 trillion to the national debt during his tenure, but he defended his record–especially during the coronavirus pandemic.
“I say very simply, we were starting to pay down debt,” Trump said. “We were going to pay down a lot of debt when COVID came along. If I didn’t inject this country with money, you would have had a depression, the likes of which you have never seen.”
Trump continued, “You had to inject money. We gave businesses that were going bankrupt, temporarily bankrupt, but they needed money. We helped businesses. If I didn’t do that, you would have had a depression in this country. That was a very good investment. And now what they should be doing instead of the kind of debt that they’re building at record levels, they should be paying down their debt and they ought to go into the energy business instead of this Green New Scam business that they’re in.”
Meanwhile, as for a running mate, Trump said he’s already made his pick.
“I can’t tell you that really, I mean, I know who it’s going to be,” Trump said.
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“We’ll do another show sometime,” Trump said when pushed by host Martha MacCallum to “give us a hint.”
“What about any of the people who you’ve run against?” MacCallum asked. “Would you be open to mending fences with any of them?”
“Oh, sure. I will, I will,” Trump responded.
