At a Fox News town hall in Des Moines, Iowa, Wednesday night, former President Donald Trump responded to President Joe Biden’s first campaign speech last week, where Biden raised concerns Trump will behave like a dictator if he is reelected.
In December, Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity he would be a dictator on his first day in office so he can “close the border” and “drill, drill, drill.” But Trump said his comments were misconstrued.
“I am not going to be a dictator,” he said.
He also said Biden was wrong when he claimed Trump supports political violence. Fox News anchor Bret Baier, who hosted the town hall with Martha MacCallum, asked Trump, “Can you say tonight that political violence is never acceptable?”
“Well, of course that’s right,” said Trump. He then pivoted to talking about foreign wars, and said he wasn’t “involved in wars” when he was president.
One of the questions from the audience was from an Iowa teacher, who asked Trump whether he was worried about recruiting people to work for him if he is reelected.
She said after his first term, Trump “publicly criticized and personally demeaned” many of the people who worked for him. “If you’re given four more years, how will you convince good people to take the risk of working with you?” she asked.
Trump said “everybody wants to come to work for us,” and said he doesn’t think he’ll have any trouble recruiting. In response to follow-up questions from the hosts, Trump said he expects to mend fences with his Republican opponents and also said he already knows who he wants to select as vice president if he is the nominee, though he wouldn’t name the person.
On the rapid rise of the national debt during his presidency, Trump said he was about to start tackling the debt but the COVID-19 pandemic, which started 31⁄2 years into his presidency, made that impossible.
He said he would pay down the debt if he is reelected, while saying he thinks his Republican opponents, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, would cut Medicare and Social Security.
On immigration, Trump said he plans to stop migrants from coming over the border illegally, and he thinks the Democratic mayors of big cities, like New York and Chicago, will support him.
After he was asked a question from an audience member about abortion, Trump said he was proud that he helped overturn Roe v. Wade through his Supreme Court picks, but said “you have to win elections.”