Trump town hall live: Ex-president tries to backtrack on dictator comments

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was subpoenaed this week to testify in the divorce case of a colleague with whom she has been accused of having an improper relationship during their prosecution of Donald Trump.

According to a legal filing seen by The Wall Street Journal, Ms Willis was subpoenaed on Monday to testify in the divorce proceedings of Nathan Wade, an attorney she hired as a special prosecutor in Mr Trump’s Georgia election interference case.

Mr Trump commented on Chris Christie’s hot mic moment in which the former governor appeared sceptical Nikki Haley has what it takes to take on the former president.

“Chris Christie was in and he got a hot mic … the biggest story wasn’t the fact that he dropped out. Nobody cared too much about that. But he had a hot mic where he was talking to somebody about the weather and he happened to say that she doesn’t have what it takes. She’ll be creamed in the election. And I mean, I know very well and I happen to believe that Chris Christie is right. That’s one of the few things he’s been right about,” Mr Trump said on Fox News in Iowa.

Former president Donald Trump on Wednesday again vowed to seize dictatorial powers if elected to the nation’s highest office once more but attempted to walk back his frequently made promise to exact retribution on his political enemies during a second term in the White House.

The disgraced former president, who is currently facing more than 90 felony charges in four separate jurisdictions and is scheduled to go on trial in March for attempting a coup to keep himself in office after losing the 2020 election, promised to spend his first day of a second term ruling as an autocrat during a town hall broadcast on Fox News ahead of the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses.

Asked by a voter in the Hawkeye State – where temperatures have dropped below freezing – how he’d respond to critics who argue that restoring to him to power would unleash untold chaos upon the country, Mr Trump replied that the chaos of his first term was the fault of Democrats in the House of Representatives and law enforcement officials who conducted investigations into his conduct.

Asked about his possible future relationship with NATO, Mr Trump said, “NATO has taken advantage of our country. The European countries took advantage”.

“They took advantage of us on trade and then they took advantage of us on our military protection,” Mr Trump added. “Of the 28 countries at the time, only eight countries were paid up. We were paying the difference.”

Speaking about abortion during the town hall, Mr Trump said: “Nobody wants to see that happening after a certain period of time.”

“The radicals … they’re willing to kill the baby in eight months, nine months or even after birth. If you remember the former governor of Virginia where he said you kill the baby after the ninth month or even afterwards, you set the baby aside … These are the radicals … We are not the radicals. But we’re living in a time when there has to be a little bit of a concession one way or the other,” he added.

Ron DeSantis has faced claims that he wears lifts in his shoes to appear taller, something Mr Trump appeared to reference on Wednesday night.

Asked about his criticism of pro-life Republicans after electoral losses, “You got to win elections. If you look at it, that Ron DeSantis I don’t know what he really believes because you know, you never know with a politician and he’s just another politician as far as I’m concerned”.

“But his poll numbers have gone down to a level that he’s going to be out of the race very soon going to be out very soon. You know, I watched him last night. He’s standing up with his shoes, fancy shoes. He’s going to be out of the race within you know, a lot of people say before New Hampshire,” he added.

Trump boasted about removing the constitutional right to reproductive rights, saying, “for 54 years, they were trying to get Roe v Wade terminated. And I did it and I’m proud to have done it”.

Mr Trump said on Wednesday night that “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,” Mr Trump claimed. “You’re allowed to do that. I didn’t do it. I put everything in a 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 … but I was doing services for that people were staying in these massive hotels, these beautiful hotels, because I have the best hotels and the best clubs.”