Trump talks World War III, plans for 'largest deportation' during Fox News town hall
During a town hall event Wednesday, Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump said that humanity could be headed for another world war under the policies of the Biden-Harris administration and reiterated his vow to undertake the "largest deportation" in the history of the United States if reelected.
The pre-recorded town hall event with Fox News' Sean Hannity was held at the New Holland Arena in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and was first broadcast on Wednesday evening.
During his remarks, Trump claimed that, under the Biden administration, the U.S. southern border was the "worst border in the history of the world" and lamented that "we're letting everybody in."
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"We have to stop it," the former president said, stating that "we have to do the largest deportation" of undocumented immigrants in U.S. history once he is in office. Throughout his 2024 campaign, Trump has spoken of doing deportations on an unprecedented scale, including during his speech during the Republican National Convention in July.
Trump also repeated the claim that Venezuelan gangs were "taking over" Aurora, Colorado, and "occupying apartments." Local authorities have stated that media outlets have "exaggerated incidents that are isolated to a handful of problem properties alone" and don't impact most Aurora residents. Mayor Mike Coffman has criticized the Biden-Harris administration's policies that enabled a large number of Venezuelan migrants to be housed in low-income apartments in Aurora.
Trump said, "It's a sick and angry world," claiming that events like Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack on civilian communities in southern Israel and the Russian invasion of Ukraine beginning in 2022 "would have never happened" if he had been reelected in 2020.
"We're heading into World War III territory," he claimed. "You need a president that's not going to be taking you into war. We won't have World War III when I'm elected, but with these clowns that you have in there now, you're going to end up having World War III."
In kicking off the show after Hannity mentioned the deadly school shooting in Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, Trump vowed: "We are going to heal our world."
"We are going to get rid of all these wars that are starting all over the place because of incompetent American leadership," he said. "We are going to make it better."
Last month, Fox News announced that "Hannity" would feature a pre-taped town hall event with Trump, which would be centered on various issues facing the country in advance of the November election. Hannity said that Fox News originally offered a debate between Trump and Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris in place of the town hall that would have featured other Fox News anchors as moderators.
Trump and Harris are scheduled to debate each other next Tuesday in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with the ABC network serving as the host.
As part of the rules for the debate, the microphones of Trump and Harris will be live only for the presidential candidate who is speaking during their turn, according to NBC News.
In a statement, the Harris campaign claimed that the vice president "will be fundamentally disadvantaged by this format, which will serve to shield Donald Trump from direct exchanges with the Vice President."
"Notwithstanding our concerns, we understand that Donald Trump is a risk to skip the debate altogether, as he has threatened to do previously, if we do not accede to his preferred format," stated the Harris campaign.
"We do not want to jeopardize the debate. For this reason, we accepted the full set of rules proposed by ABC, including muted microphones."
