Exclusive town hall with Donald Trump concluded with remarks on NATO and preventing foreign wars
Fox News hosts Martha MacCallum and Bret Baier hosted Donald Trump in an exclusive town hall Wednesday night just days shy of the Iowa caucuses
Coverage for this event has ended.
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Former President Donald Trump, when asked by Fox News moderator Bret Baier about accusations he is a "big government Republican" who added $8 trillion to the national debt during his tenure, defended his administration's spending during the coronavirus pandemic.
"I say very simply, we were starting to pay down debt," Trump said during the Iowa Town hall event on Wednesday night. "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."
Former President Donald Trump took centerstage in Iowa Wednesday night for an exclusive town hall in front of a live audience hosted by Fox News Channel's Martha MacCallum and Bret Baier. The evening concluded a series of three town hall events hosted by the network this week.
Iowa voters and the co-moderators alternated asking Trump questions about pressing issues to the American people including the economy, abortion and foreign wars.
When asked how he would de-escalate global tensions, Trump said he would "do it through peace, through strength."
And when asked who his running mate will be, he answered, "I can't tell you that really, I mean, I know who it's going to be."
The Republican frontrunner also touched on Chris Christie's decision to drop out of the 2024 race for president, and the current competition, Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis.
Trump is leading in the polls, according to new reports, as GOP hopefuls Haley and DeSantis trail behind in a distant second. The highly anticipated Iowa caucuses are set for Monday, Jan. 15.
Former President Donald Trump spoke and took photos with audience members after the Fox News town hall in Iowa.
During a Fox News town hall, Former President Trump blamed President Biden's "weak" presidency for Ukraine and Israel invasions.
Trump argued that “getting along with people with hundreds of nuclear weapons is not a bad thing," before suggesting that foreign leaders view the current Commander in Chief as "weak."
“You know, they want to make it like a bad thing. It's a very good thing. But peace through strength. They didn't want to mess around. It would have never happened in Ukraine. Russia would have never gone in, would have never happened. The recent attack on Israel would have never happened," Trump said.
"They see a weak president in our country," Trump said of Biden, "and they did something that was unthinkable. So we're going to have peace through strength. We're not going to have to fight."
Trump has not been shy in showing where he stands on the Israel-Hamas War.
The former president has been a major proponent of Israel, including during his first term where he oversaw the historic Abraham Accords.
Trump has been vocal about what he thinks about the war. At the onset of the war, Trump claimed that there wouldn’t be a conflict in Israel if he was still president.
Trump also called for “Squad” Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., to be impeached over her rhetoric regarding Israel.
"I think she's terrible," Trump said. "I think she's a horrible representative of our country and frankly, she should be impeached for that. That's what she should be. That's barbaric. You look at what they've done to little children, babies, babies where they cut off their heads. It's not even believable that we're having this conversation. But nobody's seen anything like this."
"This is at a level that nobody's ever seen, and what I'm hearing is that the number of deaths is actually far greater than what we are hearing having to do with Americans, but also having to do with Israelis and others," Trump continued.
Additionally, Trump criticized the Biden administration over its handling of the war, including when Hamas hostages were released — but no Americans were among those freed.
"Has anybody noticed that Hamas has returned people from other Countries but, so far, has not returned one American Hostage?” Trump wrote in November on TruthSocial. “There is only one reason for that, NO RESPECT FOR OUR COUNTRY OR OUR LEADERSHIP. This is a very sad and dark period of America!”
Fox News' Aubrie Spady contributed to this report.
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Trump told Iowa voters that America has “no choice” but to carry out a massive deportation effort.
The former president said the southern border is “not sustainable for our country” when asked how he would handle the influx of illegal migrants already in America.
“We have millions and millions of people here. It is not sustainable. Did you see in New York City with it getting the regular students out and they're putting migrants in their place?” Trump said, referencing a recent report that a school in New York was switching its students to remote learning in order to house nearly 2,000 migrants in the building.
“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.”
Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Former President Donald Trump slammed Hunter Biden during his Fox News Town Hall in Iowa on Wednesday night calling him out for selling his artwork for large sums of money.
"I don't get $8 million for doing nothing like Hunter," Trump said. "I don't get I don't get $500,000. I don't get $500,000 for doing a painting. It's not a bad idea, I guess, if you can get away with it. When I heard that when I said there's no way they get away with that. But they got away with that. I guess they got away with it."
"Now we have you know, there was an emoluments lawsuit against me where the radical left, sued me for that, and I won the suit."
Trump was responding to a question on accusations from Democrats that he illegally profited from his businesses during his time in office.
"I own hotels, all over the, I don't get free money," Trump said. "Somebody rents a hotel room, etc, etc. Much money I gave back. In fact, I didn't have to do it. You know, 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. You're allowed to do that. I didn't do it."
"I put everything in 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. That's a small. But I was doing services for that. People were staying in these massive hotels, these beautiful hotels, because I have the best hotels, I have the best clubs, I have the best clubs, I have great stuff and they stay there and they pay."
Trump previously blasted the Justice Department's Hunter Biden indictment in mid September as the "only crime" that doesn't "implicate" the President Joe Biden.
Biden's son was indicted on Sept. 14 for making false statements and unlawfully possessing a firearm.
Trump claimed in a Truth Social post at the time that the gun charge was "the only crime that Hunter Biden committed that does not implicate Crooked Joe Biden."
Hunter Biden, in an indictment filed in federal court in Delaware by a special counsel overseeing the case, was accused of lying about his drug use when he purchased a weapon in 2018, during a time when he's acknowledged struggling with a crack cocaine addiction.
Late in the year, Trump took another shot at Hunter Biden for skipping his closed-door congressional deposition in mid December and joked that the presidential scion "went to the wrong place" on Capitol Hill.The former president joked that Hunter went to the Senate side of the U.S. Capitol when he should have gone to the House side.
Fox News' Gabriele Regalbuto, Andrew Murray, Paul Steinhauser and Houston Keene contributed to this report.
Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images
Former President Donald Trump accused Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., of being "the biggest fan of Dr. Fauci."
"If you go back and look at the record, you will see that the biggest fan of Dr. Fauci was Ron Desanctimonious. He was a big fan," Trump said during a town hall Wednesday. "Ron DeSantis was a big Dr. Fauci fan and nobody wants to cover that."
The Trump administration listed Fauci as an individual recognized for "exceptional efforts on Operation Warp Speed" in 2021, but Wednesday the former president night claimed "Dr. Fauci was not a huge factor in my administration. He became a much bigger factor in Biden's administration."
Trump said again in September that Dr. Anthony Fauci was not a "big player" in his administration and reiterated his position that he wasn’t "allowed" to fire the medical adviser.
"First of all, you’re not allowed," Trump told Hugh Hewitt’s radio show when asked by the conservative host why he didn’t fire Fauci, the controversial head of Trump's COVID-19 response team, which Hewitt called the "biggest knock" on Trump’s presidency.
"No, no, no, Dr. Fauci was there. First of all, he’s civil service, and you’re not allowed to fire him. But forget that because I don’t necessarily go by everything … but Dr. Fauci would tell me things, and I wouldn’t do them in many cases. But also, he wasn’t a big player in my administration. Dr. Fauci became a big player in the administration of Biden. He’s a very big player in Biden’s administration."
Fox News' Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report.
Former President Donald Trump during the Fox News Town Hall in Iowa Wednesday night pointed blame at President Biden for “chaos now” when asked if a second Trump presidency would “bring years of chaos.”
An audience member, who said he would vote for Trump, asked the former president to respond to skeptical primary voters who think a second term Trump would “bring years of chaos” because of his “haters.”
“They have chaos now,” Trump responded, referencing Democrats and the Biden administration.
“They have chaos at the border. They have chaos in the military, people are going woke,” Trump added.
“Look at today with Hunter Biden going into the going into Congress and just sitting down and the bedlam that's been caused,” Trump continued.
“Today you have chaos. We have, I think more with Joe Biden. 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,” Trump said.
The GOP frontrunner when on to say that “most of the chaos” during his first term in office “was caused by the Democrats constantly going after [him].”
“Remember that with phony Russia, Russia, Russia. I mean, if you look at Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine, everything was phony. The FISA warrants, the lying to Congress, they had chaos. They were the ones that caused the chaos. We didn't have chaos,” Trump said.
Trump touted that his administration installed “the biggest tax cust in history,” “the biggest regulation cuts in history,” “the best border in the history of the country,” and that “no wars” were started during his presidency.
Former President Trump accused his Republican opponents, Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis, of wanting to cut Medicare and Social Security as part of their plans to reduce the record national debt facing the nation.
He made the claim after being asked what his plans were to lower the debt, which he said were a combination of "a lot of cutting" and "a lot of income."
"We have more liquid gold under our feet, energy, oil and gas than any other country in the world. More than Saudi Arabia, more than Russia," Trump said, referencing oil.
He said when he left office, the U.S. was "number one" in oil production in the entire world.
"We were going to make a lot of money. We have a lot of potential income. DeSantis wants to cut social security and Medicare. Nikki Haley wants to cut social security and Medicare," he said.
Former President Donald Trump said during an Iowa Town Hall event on Fox News Wednesday night that he knows who he will choose as his running mate.
"I can't tell you that really, I mean, I know who it's going to be," Trump said when he was asked who his running mate will be in 2024.
"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. "I've already started to like Christie better."
"Christie for vice president?" MacCallum joked.
"I don't see it, I don't see it," Trump said. "That would be an upset. Christie for vice president. Ladies and Gentlemen, I'd like to announce, nah."
Former President Donald Trump railed against the “chaos” at the southern border during a Fox News town hall Wednesday.
“They have chaos at the border,” Trump told a group of voters in Iowa. “The border is a disaster, the worst border in history. I think the worst border in the history of the world. We had the best border in the history of our country. We never had a border like that.”
The former president has firmly opposed President Joe Biden’s handling of the southern border, vowing to “carry out the largest domestic deportation operation in American history.”
Trump has blamed the Biden administration for the "nation-wrecking catastrophe on our southern border," after several million illegal migrants were reported at the southern border since 2021."Under my leadership, we had the most secure border in U.S. history. Now, we have the worst border in the history of the world," Trump said while delivering a speech in Dubuque, Iowa.
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."
Fox News' Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File
Former President Donald Trump turned heads on Saturday when he said that he believes the Civil War “could have been negotiated.”
Trump’s comments came at the heels of the controversy surrounding fellow GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley’s answer to a question about the causes of the Civil War.
Trump made the comments during an Iowa rally, calling the Civil War “so, so horrible” but also “fascinating.”
“So many mistakes were made,” Trump said. “See, there was something I think could have been negotiated, to be honest with you.”
“I think you could’ve negotiated that,” he continued. “All the people died, so many people died.”
Trump added that President Abraham Lincoln could have “negotiated” the Civil War but that “you probably wouldn’t even know who Abraham Lincoln was” if he had.
“He would have been president, but he would have been president and he wouldn’t have been The Abraham Lincoln,” Trump said. “Would’ve been different, but that would’ve been okay.”
“I know it very well. I know the whole process that they went through, and they just couldn’t get along, and that would’ve been something that could have been negotiated and they wouldn’t have had that problem.”
Fox News Digital reached out to the Trump campaign for comment.
Brandon Bell
Former President Donald Trump, the Republican primary frontrunner, said he will renew his efforts to overturn The Affordable Healthcare Act — also known as Obamacare — if he wins the 2024 election.
"Obamacare is too expensive, and otherwise, not good healthcare," Trump wrote on his social media platform TruthSocial in December.
Republicans have largely abandoned the crusade against former President Barack Obama's signature healthcare bill. Nonetheless, Trump vowed he would "come up with a much better, and less expensive, alternative!"
The former president asserted reforming Obamacare — enacted in 2010 — would be one of his administration’s top priorities.
However, several GOP senators, including the ranking Republican on the Senate Health Committee, Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., have indicated that replacing the monumental healthcare system is “unlikely to happen.”
Earlier this year, a Texas judge, recognized for previously invalidating Obamacare, ruled against a significant component of the healthcare law related to mandatory coverage for contraception and HIV prevention.
The decision, prompted by a conservative activist and a Christian dentist on religious grounds, contested Obamacare's mandate for insurers to cover specific preventive care. The March ruling raised concerns within the Biden administration and among more than 20 mostly Democrat-controlled states.
Scott Olson/Getty Images
The Trump campaign has suggested slashing inflation by extending the 2017 GOP tax cuts, loosening regulations on energy, implementing unparalleled tariffs on imports worth trillions of dollars and conducting extensive deportations of illegal immigrants currently working in the country.
Trump, the Republican primary frontrunner, has also floated the idea of implementing a 10% tariff on all incoming goods to the U.S., the Washington Post reported in August. The plan targets China, aiming to phase out imports and limit Chinese ownership of critical U.S. infrastructure, such as farmland, due to national security concerns. The Chinese government would be prohibited from purchasing infrastructure in sectors like energy and technology.
Penalties would also rise for unfair trade practices like currency manipulation, and Trump will try to get his “Trump Reciprocal Trade Act” passed in Congress. The legislation would allow the former president to impose a tariff on any country that places one on the United States.
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
Former President Donald Trump predicted the economy would “crash” in a recent interview, potentially within the next year.
“When there’s a crash, I hope it’s going to 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,” he said on Mike Lindell TV, referencing the president whose first year in office saw the U.S. stock market crash.
Previous comments about his economic platform suggest Trump would take a harsher stance on foreign trade. His campaign said in February last year that he plans to roll out “new pro-America system of universal baseline tariffs on most foreign products.”
The plan also calls for more aggressive footing with China , like banning federal contracts with companies that outsource to China, and establishing “new rules to stop U.S. companies from investing in China and stop China from buying up America, allowing only those investments that serve American interests.”
Sean Rayford/Getty Images
During his first year as president in 2017, Trump declared a health emergency over the opioid crisis and launched a new effort to tackle drug abuse in the United States.
"Fentanyl and other ultra-deadly poisons are pouring into our country unchecked — stealing more than 100,000 American lives every single year," Trump said in a campaign video as he seeks another term in office.
"They are killing our people, they are poisoning our beautiful children," the former president continued, calling out the crisis at the southern border as fueling the opioid crisis in America.
The former president told Fox News in June that "the only way you're going to stop it" - referring to the drug crisis - would be to introduce the death penalty for drug dealers.
"For three decades before my election, drug overdose deaths increased every single year. Under my leadership, we took the drug and fentanyl crisis head on, and we achieved the first reduction in overdose deaths in more than 30 years," Trump said in a video from June obtained by Fox News Digital.
AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall
Iowa’s Democratic and Republican caucuses are the most hyped presidential contests in the country but also among the most confusing.
They essentially function like traditional party primaries because residents cast ballots, and the candidate with the most ballots wins.
However, residents simply don’t walk into a polling site to cast their ballot, then exit.
Caucus night is more time-consuming because it includes discussing candidates, picking convention delegates and dealing with state party business.
And the parties, which run the caucuses, have uniquely different processes amid some similarities.
At the Republican caucuses, unlike a GOP primary, candidate supporters are allowed to campaign at Republican caucus sites and make a quick speech before the paper balloting.
The top finishers often continue with their campaigns deep into the election cycle while those who finish at or near the bottom sometimes drop out soon, though that’s not always the case.
This week in Iowa, GOP candidates Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis participated in town hall events ahead of the caucuses. Tonight, Donald Trump will sit down with Fox News Channel for an event of his own.
Under pressure to live up to expectations and win big in Iowa's Jan. 15 Republican presidential caucuses, former President Trump is urging his supporters to turn out.
"We don't want to take anything for granted," Trump told a crowd Friday as he campaigned in Mason City, Iowa.
Trump encouraged his supporters to send a "thunderous" message on the night of the caucuses, which kick off the GOP presidential nominating calendar.
The former president is the commanding front-runner for the Republican nomination, as he makes his third straight White House run.
Trump made history last year as the first former or current president to be indicted for a crime, but his four indictments, including charges he tried to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss, have only fueled his support among Republican voters.
In Iowa, he holds a massive lead in the latest polls over Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former ambassador to the United Nations and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who are both fighting for a distant second place.
AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack, File
Former President Trump has made no announcement about who he is picking to be his running mate if he wins the GOP nomination this summer, but there has been plenty of speculation.
After falling out with former Vice President Mike Pence – who sought the GOP nomination for 2024 until he suspended his campaign in October – Trump will be in need of a new running mate should he win the nomination in July.
Several names have been floated as potential VP picks for Trump. Many people who put their hat in the ring for the GOP nomination have been floated as potential picks – like Sen. Tim Scott, who suspended his campaign in November, and Nikki Haley, who is battling for second place in the polls against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and Vivek Ramaswamy.
But Trump indicated in September that he wasn't interested in asking any of his rivals for the presidential nomination to join his ticket. After a campaign forum in California that brought together most of the candidates who were then running for president, Trump told supporters at a rally that the presidential contenders would do anything for the VP slot.
"Does anybody see the VP in the group? I don’t think so," Trump said.
On the other hand, Trump indicated last summer he would be open to picking Ramaswamy for some position, after the entrepreneur praised Trump’s presidency.
A few high-profile GOP figures are frequently mentioned in lists of potential VP picks for Trump. South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem sparked VP speculation when she endorsed Trump last summer.
Former Arizona gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake has been a fierce Trump supporter, though she currently is in the running for a Senate seat.
Trump's former press secretary and now Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders has grown in popularity, and could be a veep pick. Rep. Elise Stefanik, the House GOP caucus chair, similarly is seen as a rising star in the party.
But it's still early in the 2024 race to name a vice presidential candidate. In 2016, Trump did not announce Pence as his VP running mate until mid-July, less than four months before the November election.
Fox News' Thomas Phippen contributed to this report.
Former President Donald Trump made combatting crime a cornerstone of his presidency. During the George Floyd riots of 2020, Trump called rioters in Minneapolis “thugs” and declared that “when the looting starts the shooting starts.”
In recent years Trump has made comments on rising claim in major American cities, taking particular aim at New York. “Alvin Bragg has watched Violent Crime in Manhattan soar to Record Highs,” Trump claimed. “Killings are taking place at a number like nobody’s ever seen, right in Manhattan.”
At CPAC 2023 , Trump repeated claims to utilize the military for domestic law enforcement. “I will send in the National Guard until law and order is restored. You know we’re not supposed to do that.” In a response to Biden’s State of the Union, Trump said “under Biden, the murder rate has reached the highest in the history of our country.”
Earlier this month, Black voters in Chicago vowed to flip the city red over the migrant and crime crises.
Chicago residents Cata Truss and Mark Carter spoke about their vow to turn the city red in 2024 and why they must steer away from Mayor Brandon Johnson's progressive policies during "Fox & Friends First."
"The Democratic Party has always neglected to pay attention to the Black community," Truss told host Todd Piro. "That is traditional, and because we have been so committed to supporting that party, they feel that they can continue to disrespect us, to marginalize us, to not hear our voices."
Carter accused Democrats of doing "away" with Black voters, insisting he has been "Team Trump" since the beginning.
"We see that the Democratic Party has decided to do away with us, and so we [are] fine with that," Carter said. "And so we're going to do away with them."
"It took a while for people to cozy up and warm up to Donald Trump. I heard his message the first time. I understood that the Democratic Party had done just that, done away with our humility. And so I am one of the ones who was already Team Trump a long time ago," he continued. "I knew that he would push that immigration plan to push these people back into the country to close the border, and Joe Biden did the exact opposite as soon as he got in office."
Fox News' Bailee Hill and Matteo Cina contributed to this report.
Scott Olson/Getty Images
Recent polls in Iowa suggest Trump stands at or above 50% support in the state, dominating the primary field ahead of competitors Gov. Ron DeSantis and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley.
Polls from late last year indicated that Trump remains the commanding front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination as he makes his third straight White House run.
Trump enjoys a very large double-digit lead in the public opinion surveys in the Iowa GOP caucuses over DeSantis and Haley, who are fighting for second place in the Republican race in the Hawkeye State.
Trump narrowly lost the 2016 Iowa GOP presidential caucuses by just over three points to Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. Trump narrowly edged Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida for second place.
But eight days later, Trump resoundingly won New Hampshire's Republican presidential primary, launching him towards the GOP nomination and eventually the White House.
In the general election, Trump carried Iowa – which was once a top battleground state – by a comfortable nine points in his 2016 White House victory and eight points in his 2020 re-election defeat.
Fox News' Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was caught on a hot mic Wednesday slamming his Republican opponents, most notably Nikki Haley.
His comments came just before he spoke at a town hall in Windham, New Hampshire, where he announced he was ending his bid for the presidency.
“She’s gonna get smoked,” Christie said of Haley without mentioning her by name. “And you and I both know it. She’s not up to this.”
He also was heard calling DeSantis "petrified," but its unclear what he was saying DeSantis was "petrified" of.
Trump reacted to Christie dropping out of the race by posting on Truth Social he agreed with him that Haley was going to get "smoked."
Jane Rosenberg
In late December, Maine's Democratic secretary of state disqualified former President Trump from the state's presidential primary ballot.
In her ruling, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows cited Section 3 of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution which bans from office those who "engaged in insurrection."
Bellows made the ruling after some state residents, including a bipartisan group of former lawmakers, challenged Trump's position on the ballot.
A ruling from the Colorado Supreme Court earlier in December booted Trump from the ballot there under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. Colorado is a Democratic-leaning state that is not expected to be competitive for Republicans in November.
"We do not reach these conclusions lightly," the court's majority wrote. "We are mindful of the magnitude and weight of the questions now before us. We are likewise mindful of our solemn duty to apply the law, without fear or favor, and without being swayed by public reaction to the decisions that the law mandates we reach."
Colorado later cleared Trump's name to appear on the primary ballot as the former president asked the Supreme Court to weigh in.
Last week, Trump appealed a decision to remove him from Maine's Republican primary ballot over the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot.
Fox News' Bradford Betz and Louis Casiano contributed to this report.
Donald Trump/Truth Social
Former President Donald Trump reacted to Chris Christie's announcement he was leaving the presidential race on Wednesday by celebrating on Truth Social, but also taking a jab at rival Nikki Haley.
"I hear Chris Christie is dropping out of the race today -- I might even get to like him again! Anyway, he was just caught on a hot mic making a very truthful statement: 'She's gonna get smoked... You and I both know it, she's not up to this,'" Trump wrote.
He was referencing a moment caught on a livestream ahead of Christie's announcement, in which he told an unknown individual Haley was "gonna get smoked."
"People don't want to hear it," Christie later said.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie dropped out of the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination on Wednesday just hours before Fox News' town hall with former President Donald Trump.
"It’s clear to me tonight that there isn’t a path for me to win the nomination. Which is why I’m suspending my campaign tonight for President of the United States," Christie said at a town hall event in Windham, New Hampshire.
Christie, a long-shot for the nomination in a race dominated by Trump, in recent weeks had faced increased calls from fellow Republicans and from some voters to end his bid to give rival Nikki Haley a boost as she aims to close the gap with the frontrunner.
"I know, and I can see from some of the faces here that I'm disappointing some people by doing this. People who believe in our message and believe in what we've been doing," Christie continued.
And the former governor, one of the most vocal Trump critics in the GOP, emphasized "I also know though, this is the right thing for me to do. Because I want to promise you this - I am going to make sure that in no way do I enable Donald Trump to ever be President of the United States again. And that's more important than my own personal ambitions."
Fox News' Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
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Donald Trump showed up for court Tuesday for federal immunity hearing.
In fact, with less than a week till the Iowa caucuses, he’ll spend two days in court – yesterday’s D.C. appearance and Thursday’s closing arguments in the civil fraud trial in New York – although in both cases he doesn’t need to show up.
The three-judge federal appeals panel that heard Trump’s claim of presidential immunity – two Biden appointees and one by George H.W. Bush – were openly skeptical of the arguments offered by the former president’s lawyer.
But by his sheer presence in the downtown criminal courthouse – and speaking to reporters afterward – Trump boosted the visibility of the hearing. Just by sitting in the same courtroom as Jack Smith, he made it part of his campaign.
And that’s been the play all along.
Each of the four indictments has boosted Trump politically, pushing his poll numbers up and denying his GOP rivals of much-needed oxygen, as Ron DeSantis has said. Trump’s loyal MAGA followers see these charges as a Democratic plot to keep him out of the White House.
Fox News' Howard Kurtz contributed to this report.
AP
Former President Donald Trump remains the frontrunner in New Hampshire's Republican presidential primary, with GOP rival Nikki Haley firmly in second place.
But the big question with two weeks to go until New Hampshire holds the first primary and second overall contest in the Republican nomination calendar following the Jan. 15 Iowa caucuses is how formidable is Trump's lead?
Two polls released on Tuesday paint very different pictures.
A University of New Hampshire/CNN survey shows Haley within striking distance of Trump, who remains the commanding frontrunner in the latest polls in Iowa and in national surveys as he makes his third straight White House run.
Trump stands at 39% in the UNH/CNN survey among those likely to vote in New Hampshire's Republican presidential primary, with Haley at 32%. The poll of 1,864 New Hampshire voters likely to cast a ballot in the state's Republican presidential primary was conducted online Jan. 4-8.
But a Suffolk University/Boston Globe/USA Today survey indicates Trump holding a 19-point lead over Haley, 46% to 27%. The survey of 1,000 voters was conducted by live operators to landlines and mobile phones from Jan. 3-7.
Fox News' Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
Getty Images
Former President Trump ramped up his attacks on 2024 rival former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley at an Iowa rally on Friday, as Haley has risen in the polls.
"Nikki Haley's campaign is being funded by Biden donors," Trump told Iowa voters gathered in Sioux Center. He called Haley, who served in his administration as U.N. ambassador, a "globalist."
"She likes the globe. I like America first," Trump said. "The establishment losers and sellouts lagging far behind us in the Republican primary can’t be trusted on taxes or trade or anything else. They’re globalists, and they always will be."
Trump has set his sights on Haley as several polls have shown her gaining enough support to rise to second place, surpassing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Though Trump maintains a commanding lead in surveys of Republican primary voters, his campaign unveiled a new attack ad targeting Haley in New Hampshire this week that sought to connect her positions with those of President Biden, a Democrat.
Fox News' Chris Pandolfo contributed to this report.
AP Photo/John Bazemore, File
Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday said the 2020 election case against him in Georgia should be dropped after prosecutor Fani Willis was accused of ethics violations.
A co-defendant in the Trump case alleged in court documents that Willis had an "improper" romantic relationship with a special prosecutor she hired, Nathan Wade. Willis and Wade allegedly benefited financially from the relationship in the form of vacations the two took using funds that his law firm received for working the case.
"You had a very big event yesterday as you saw in Georgia where the district attorney is totally compromised. The case has to be dropped," Trump told reporters in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, speaking after a hearing in a separate federal 2020 election interference case. "They went after 18 or 20 people. … She was out of her mind. Now it turns out that case is totally compromised.
"It’s illegal. What she did is illegal. So we’ll let the state handle that, but what a sad situation it is," Trump added.
Fox News' Chris Pandolfo contributed to this report.
Fox News
Donald Trump is participating in a highly anticipated exclusive town hall with Fox News Channel on Wednesday night in Des Moines, Iowa. The event will begin at 9 p.m. ET and run for one hour.
The town hall is the third of three this week hosted by Fox News co-moderators Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum. On Monday night, the two hosted GOP hopeful Nikki Haley and on Tuesday, Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis took part in his own town hall event.
Viewers can watch the live town hall event tonight with Trump, including tuning in live to FOX News Channel. Viewers can also access a live stream on FOXNews.com, FOX Nation, and FOX News Media's streaming platform. FOX websites will also have live debate reporting and a live blog throughout the evening.
Tonight's town hall is just a few days shy of the Iowa caucuses. The eyes of the nation will be fixated on Iowa on January 15, as the state’s caucuses kick off the presidential nominating calendar.
Fox News' Aubrie Spady contributed to this report.
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Former Georgia Rep. Doug Collins joined "Fox & Friends First" on Wednesday ahead of Trump's town hall event with Fox News to discuss the state of the 2024 presidential race.
“Monday is going to see a Trump victory," Collins said to "Fox & Friends First" co-host Carley Shimkus. "I think Donald Trump is going to take Iowa. Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis are going to fight it out for second place."
Collins is an attorney, Air Force chaplain, and veteran who represented Georgia's 9th congressional district from 2013 until January 2021 in the U.S. House of Representatives.
He added, "This has to be a fall that Ron DeSantis, who I’ve known for a while, has got to take it very hard because this is a place he spent millions upon million of dollars and been there a great deal of time, and yet is no better off than when he started the race almost a year ago."
Collins continued, "This biggest thing right now I think that president Trump’s campaign has to do is make sure their voters turn out. And again it’s amazing to me sometimes talking about second and third places candidates as if they’re surging, and they’re still 20 or 30 points behind in the polls. Monday night will show it, but we’ll see."
Fox News Photo/Joshua Comins
Former President Donald Trump will participate in a Fox News Channel town hall Wednesday night in Iowa - a state that in a matter of days will hold the first contest of the 2024 GOP primary campaign.
With expectations remaining high, the Fox-hosted town hall will be one of Trump's last chances to convince voters to turn out for his campaign before the quickly approaching Iowa caucuses on Monday, January 15.
Iowa is first state to decide on their preferred presidential nominee each election year, winnowing the candidate field and setting the stage for the rest of the cycle.
Recent polls in Iowa suggest Trump stands at or above 50% support in the state, dominating the primary field ahead of competitors Gov. Ron DeSantis and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley.
While Trump remains the frontrunner in the heated primary race, according to various polls released over the past few months, the former president is urging voters not to take his apparent lead for granted.
"We're not taking any chances," Trump said at a recent campaign rally in Sioux City. "The biggest risk is, you say you know what? He's winning by so much, darling. Let's stay home and watch television. Let's watch this great victory. And if enough people do that, it's not going to be pretty. But we're not going to let that happen."
Fox News
Former President Donald Trump will participate in an exclusive town hall event hosted by Fox News Channel tonight beginning at 9 p.m. ET. "Special Report" chief political anchor Bret Baier and "The Story" executive editor and anchor Martha MacCallum will co-moderate the one hour long event in Des Moines, Iowa.
Trump will take centerstage just days ahead of the highly anticipated Iowa caucuses.
Tonight, the GOP frontrunner is expected in front of a live audience. Questions for Trump related to issues important to Americans across the country are expected from both hosts and audience members.
Trump's exclusive town hall is the final of three events hosted by Fox News this week.
On Monday, viewers tuned in as GOP hopeful Nikki Haley took questions from Iowa voters. She answered questions about abortion, term limits in Congress, border security and more. Additionally, she touched on the rivalry between with Republican presidential hopeful and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and reacted to Trump's claims she "betrayed" him by running for the GOP nomination for president.
On Tuesday evening, DeSantis concluded the Fox News town hall by taking aim at Haley for her comments on abortion from Monday night. MacCallum and Baier questioned the Florida native about national security, President Joe Biden, the war in Israel and more. During the hour long town hall, DeSantis raised eyebrows by to shoot cartel members attempting to breach border barriers saying, "Let her rip!"
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