Blames Bush for 9/11
In an interview with Bloomberg Television, Trump bristles at the mention of George W. Bush and President Obama’s role as comforter-in-chief.
OK, I think I have a bigger heart than all of them. I think I’m much more competent than all of them. When you talk about George Bush – I mean, say what you want, the World Trade Center came down during his time…He was president, OK? ‘Blame him or don’t blame him, but he was president. The World Trade Center came down during his reign. If you look at Sandy Hook, those people are still begging for help. It’s a disaster, and it’s a disaster all over the place. Government has proven to be a disaster during the Obama administration. What we need is a leader, we don’t have a leader
Agrees to two-hour debate
After threats by Carson and Trump to pull out of the upcoming CNBC presidential debate, the network agrees to a two-hour format including commercials, and also agrees candidates can have opening and closing statements. GOP campaign source:
People realized we got the short end of the stick when the Democrats had a 2 minute opening and a 90 second closing [during their debate], so they had three and a half minutes to a 15 million person audience of an infomercial. They get a commercial, we get The Hunger Games.
.@CNBC has just agreed that the debate will be TWO HOURS. Fantastic news for all, especially the millions of people who will be watching!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 16, 2015
‘Bush should not say brother kept us safe’
In an interview on Fox News Sunday, Wallace asks Trump about his comments on George W. Bush and 9/11.
Jeb [Bush] said ‘We were safe with my brother. We were safe.’ Well, the World Trade Center just went down. Now, am I trying to blame him? I’m not blaming anybody, but the World Trade Center came down, so when he said we were safe, we were not safe. We lost 3,000 people. It was one of the greatest — probably the greatest catastrophe ever in this country…I am extremely, extremely tough on people coming into this country. [If I had been president then]…there’s a good chance that those people would not have been in the country…I’m not blaming George Bush, but I don’t want Jeb Bush to say ‘My brother kept us safe’.
Bush responds:
Across the spectrum of foreign policy, Mr. Trump talks about things as though he’s still on The Apprentice. My brother responded to a crisis, and he did it as you would hope a president would do. He united the country, he organized our country and he kept us safe. And there’s no denying that. The great majority of Americans believe that.
Endorses Trump
In an interview with BET, Mackie says he endorses Trump.
I would 100 percent want to run Trump’s campaign. 100 percent. I mean, first that’ll be the best party ever when he won, and second, Trump’s an easy sell… When you look at Trump, he’s an easy sell because you can sell him as the guy who worked his way up from nothing. And I think if you’re a ‘pull yourself up by your bootstraps’ candidate, people would identify with that…I’m on the bandwagon. I’m drinking the Kool-Aid.
Will close mosques, revoke ISIS fighter passports
In an interview on Fox Business Network’s Varney & Co, Trump says he will rescind passports of those who fight for ISIS.
Varney: Now, in the UK, in Britain, they’ve obviously got a terror problem. They’ve got a lot of youngsters going over to fight for ISIS, about — just under 1,000 are going over there, and they’ve got a whole new series of proposals to deal with this, including withdrawal of passports from some of these people who’ve gone –.
Trump: Absolutely good, good.
Varney: And closing some mosques, would you do the same thing in America.
Trump: I would do that. Absolutely. I think it’s great.
‘Biden made correct decision’
Trump tweets his comments on Joe Biden’s decision not to run for president.
I think Joe Biden made correct decision for him & his family. Personally, I would rather run against Hillary because her record is so bad.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 21, 2015
Claims women prefer to wear burka
At a rally in New Hampshire, Trump says the U.S. should stop trying to export “freedom” to Middle Eastern countries.
I saw a woman interviewed. They said, ‘We want to wear them, we’ve worn them for a thousand years. Why would anybody tell us not?’ They want to!” What the hell are we getting involved for?…Fact is, it’s easier. You don’t have to put on makeup. Look how beautiful everyone looks. Wouldn’t it be easier? Right? Wouldn’t that be easy? I tell ya, if I was a woman, I don’t want to. I’d be like, ‘I’m ready, darling, let’s go.’ It’s true!
Poll: Carson overtakes Trump nationally
According to a CBS News/New York Times national poll, Carson leads Trump 26 percent to 22 percent among likely Republican voters. Carson’s four-point lead is within the survey’s margin of error. Since August, when the same poll gave Carson 6%, his numbers have quadrupled. The rest of the GOP field is far behind. Far behind are Rubio (8%), Bush (7%) and Fiorina (7%). All other candidates are at 4% or less. 70% of Republican primary voters say they have not decided which candidate they will support.
Doesn’t ‘get’ recent poll drop
In a call to Morning Joe, Trump says he doesn’t understand his drop in recent polls.
I don’t get it…I’m going there (to Iowa) actually today and I have tremendous crowds and I have tremendous love in the room and, you know, we seem to have hit a chord. But some of these polls coming out, I don’t quite get it.
He says he is stepping up attacks on Ben Carson.
You know Ben wants to knock out Medicare. I heard that over the weekend, he wants to abolish Medicare. And I think, you know, abolishing Medicare. I don’t think you’re going to get away with that one. And it’s actually a program that’s worked…You look at different things having to do with Ben and there’s a lot of contradiction and a lot of questions. We’ll have to see. One thing I know about a front-runner: you get analyzed 15 different ways from China.
Endorses Trump
In an interview with HuffPost Live, Tyson says he supports Trump.
He should be President of the United States. That’s what he should be. He should be President of the United States…[So he’s got your vote?] Hell, yeah. Big time…Why wouldn’t anybody like [him]? A guy that came from where he came from and doing what he’s doing and now this is where he’s at now. Know what that means? That doesn’t mean he’s a bad guy. Or that people don’t know what they’re doing. That means people are tired of what you’ve been doing. What we’ve been doing the last 20 years. Let’s try something new. We tried Obama, time for a change, so we gotta change. Let’s run America like a business. No colors matter. Whoever can do the job, gets the job.
Third GOP debate
Trump participates in the third Republican debate. On his biggest weakness:
I trust people too much, I’m too trusting. And when they let me down, if they let me down, I never forgive.
On SuperPACs:
Super PACs are a disaster, they’re a scam, they cause dishonesty and you better get rid of them, because they are causing a lot of bad decisions to be made by some very good people.
CNBC debate will be ‘unfair’
Trump says that he thinks the upcoming CNBC debate will be unfair.
After a great evening and packed auditorium in Iowa, I am now in Colorado looking forward to what I am sure will be a very unfair debate!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 28, 2015
Post-debate interview
Trump is interviewed after the debate.
Well, I thought that if you looked at Hillary’s deal a couple of weeks ago, the questions were much softer, much easier and much nicer. It was like a giant love fest. That did not take place over here. This was pretty tough. But, I would say that’s the way you want it to go…That was actually quite boring – this was more exciting.
Unveils plan to reform Veterans Affairs
Calling the Department of Veterans Affairs ‘a total disaster,’ Trump unveils his plan to reform Veterans Affairs health care at a rally in Norfolk, Virginia.
He calls for all eligible veterans eligible for health care at VA hospitals to be allowed the same care at any hospital that accepts Medicare. He says this would increase competition and decrease wait times. He also calls for ‘firing the corrupt and incompetent VA executives’, claiming his plan would end all waste, fraud and abuse. For returning veterans, Trump pledges to increase job training and to incentivize companies to hire them.
Under this plan, we’ll ensure the VA is spending its dollars wisely, not corruptly. I believe a lot of it’s corruption, personally. Nobody can be that incompetent… The Trump plan will clean up VA finances so the current VA budget provides more and better care than it does now. We’ll have money actually left over.
Trump also addresses how he would increase support to female veterans with all VA hospitals permanently staffed with an obstetrician.
Negotiatiating TV debate terms directly
Trump’s campaign says he is negotiating his terms directly with television executives instead of as part of a joint effort with his rivals. The move, coming just hours after his and other campaigns gathered in a Washington suburb to craft a three-page letter of possible demands, thwarts an effort to find consensus after what most candidates agreed was a debacle hosted by CNBC last week. The maneuvering by Trump and the other Republican candidates is being met with annoyance by network executives, who say they have little interest in altering a process they believe was settled months ago. Trump’s campaign manager:
I am very confident in Mr. Trump’s ability to negotiate the best deals with the networks, which will ultimately help all of the candidates in the race.
Hosts SNL
I heard if I yelled that they’d give me $5,000.
Trump:
As a businessman I can respect that.
Other sketches includ a fast forward to a world in which Trump has become president and ‘made America great again’ and a remake of Drake’s Hotline Bling video, with new lyrics defending the rapper’s dancing, and Trump dancing as the ‘tax guy.’
Fourth GOP debate
Trump takes part in the fourth GOP debate, in Milwaukee, WI, where he expands on his plan to deport illegal immigrants.
We will have a wall. The wall will be built. The wall will be successful…We’re a country of laws. We either have a country or we don’t have a country? Let me just tell you that Dwight Eisenhower, good president, great president, people liked him. “I like Ike,” right? The expression. “I like Ike.” Moved a 1.5 million illegal immigrants out of this country, moved them just beyond the border. They came back. Moved them again beyond the border, they came back. Didn’t like it. Moved them way south. They never came back.
He also criticizes Fiorina saying:
Why is she always interrupting people?”
Criticizes WSJ, Rove
The WSJ criticizes his trade comments at the debate:
Start with trade, which showcased Donald Trump. “I love trade. I’m a free trader, 100%,” said the businessman, after declaring that he opposed the only free-trade deal currently on offer, the U.S. agreement with 11 other Pacific nations. Mr. Trump called it a “terrible deal,” though it wasn’t obvious that he has any idea what’s in it. His one specific criticism was its failure to deal with Chinese currency manipulation. But it took Rand Paul to point out that China isn’t part of the deal and would be happy if the agreement collapsed so the U.S. would have less economic influence in Asia.
Trump responds:
.@WSJ Editorial Board should review my debate statement re China and T.P.P. and apologize. China not part but will get their way in later.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 12, 2015
Trump also responds to an editorial by Rove in the same paper, that said he lost the debate, by calling Rove a “biased dummy” and a “dope”:
Why does the failing @WSJ write a false editorial about me and let dummy @KarlRove make the same mistake in the same edition of the paper?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 12, 2015
Rove responds:
Free advice @realDonaldTrump: get facts straight, accept legit criticism, develop thick skin, drop childish insults https://t.co/nCeVK4YEhV
— Karl Rove (@KarlRove) November 12, 2015
Mocks Carson’s knife story
Trump tells a rally in Fort Dodge, IA, that those who support Carson are “stupid” to believe the “crap” that is his life story. At one point, Trump walks away from the podium and flipped his belt buckle up and down to ridicule what Carson has described as a key event in his life: that Carson, as a boy, once tried but failed to stab someone only to have the knife broken by a belt buckle.
So I have a belt: Somebody hits me with a belt, it’s going in because the belt moves this way. It moves this way, it moves that way. He hit the belt buckle. Anybody have a knife? Want to try it on me? Believe me, it ain’t gonna work. You’re going to be successful, but he took the knife and went like this and he plunged it into the belt and, amazing, the belt stayed totally flat and the knife broke…How stupid are the people of Iowa? How stupid are the people of the country to believe this crap?
Carson responds:
Now that he’s completed his gratuitous attack, why don’t we press on and deal with the real issues. That’s what the people of America are concerned about, not so much politics as usual, politics of personal destruction — that’s what the American people are sick and tired of…It’s not the kind of dialogue that I would ever engage in and I’m hopeful that his advisers will help him to understand the word pathological and know that that does not connote incurable. It simply describes something that is highly abnormal and something that fortunately I’ve been able to be delivered from for half a century now.
Trump Legere Twitter exchange
Trump and Legere have a Twitter exchange after Legere calls out Trump for disparaging remarks he made toward UFC fighter Ronda Rousey. Trump claims he is a T-Mobile customer and has experienced poor service from the company.
https://twitter.com/JohnLegere/status/666049308618280961
.@JohnLegere @TMobile John, focus on running your company, I think the service is terrible! Try hiring some good managers.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 16, 2015
The exchanges continue, with Leger posting of graffiti of Trump as a pile of excrement.