Trump-Fox Iowa Town Hall

 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.”

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 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 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 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."

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.

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.”

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."

https://www.foxnews.com/live-news/donald-trump-town-hall-iowa