Trump receives standing ovation to conclude Hannity hosted town hall in Iowa

Fox News' Sean Hannity hosted GOP frontrunner Donald Trump at a town hall Tuesday night in Davenport, Iowa. The hour-long show featured audience members who chanted "USA" as Trump walked on stage, boo's at mention of Hillary Clinton and laughter at the former president's repeated jabs at Biden.

The 2024 presidential candidate and talk show host covered topics and issues important to the American people including EVs, the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, oil and gas production and prices, nuclear war and more.

"The only global warming we should be thinking about and worrying about, cause it could happen tomorrow, is nuclear global warming, not global warming," he said.

Trump also addressed Hannity's questions on "dictatorship" to which he responded he'd only act as a "dictator" on his first day back in office to "drill, drill, drill" and close the borders.

Moreover, Trump predicted Biden won't be the Democratic nominee for the 2024 presidential election and touched on his cognitive decline.

"I personally don't think he makes it, okay?"

Former President Trump is “seriously looking at alternatives" to the Affordable Care Act for if elected in 2024.

Trump continuously has efforts to “replace” Obamacare and says that if he is re-elected he will do so.

“I don’t want to terminate Obamacare, I want to REPLACE IT with MUCH BETTER HEALTHCARE. Obamacare Sucks!!!” Trump wrote last week on his social media site, TruthSocial. 

Trump made an attempt to repeal the healthcare law while president, but it was blocked.

Trump's comments were slammed by potential 2024 challenger President Biden's campaign, which labeled it an "extremist" proposal.

"The cost of Obamacare is out of control, plus, it’s not good Healthcare. I’m seriously looking at alternatives," Trump wrote in another TruthSocial post. "We had a couple of Republican Senators who campaigned for 6 years against it, and then raised their hands not to terminate it. It was a low point for the Republican Party, but we should never give up!"

The former president was likely referring to 2017, when the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., blocked Trump’s long effort to repeal the healthcare law.

Former President Donald Trump is proposing “a resolution in American education” amid his 2024 campaign.

The GOP frontrunner in the upcoming presidential race has said he wants to reform the education system in America if elected in 2024. 

While on the campaign trail, the former president announced, “The American Academy,” a free online schooling alternative that, according to Trump, will allow American students to receive the equivalent to a bachelor’s degree through its provided courses.

“In recent weeks, Americans have been horrified to see students and faculty at Harvard and other once-respected universities expressing support for the savages and jihadists who attacked Israel. We spend more money on higher education than any other country – and yet, they’re turning our students into Communists and terrorist sympathizers. It’s time to offer something dramatically different,” Trump wrote in a TruthSocial post alongside a video announcing “The American Academy.”

“Its mission will be to make a truly world class education available to every American, free of charge, and do it without adding a single dime to the federal debt,” the former president said.

Trump has criticized the current state of the education system and curricula that he refers to as “woke.”

“We’re going to end education coming out of Washington, DC. We’re going to close it up – all those buildings all over the place and people that in many cases hate our children. We’re going to send it all back to the states,” Trump said in a recent campaign video.

Donald Trump mocked President Biden for his claim that he wouldn't be running for re-election if Trump wasn't in the race.

"Well, I think somebody gave him a talking point. They thought that would sound good," Trump said as the crowd laughed.

"You know, I just found out that Democrats are funding Nikki Haley's campaign. I hear that Democrats are contributing to Ron DeSanctus', or Ron DeSanctimonious, to Ron DeSanctus' campaign. And then you hear the talking points. That's the only thing they're good at, cheating on elections and great talking points," Trump added.

Biden made the statement earlier in the day to a group of supporters at a Boston fundraiser, saying, "If Trump wasn't running, I'm not sure I'd be running. But we cannot let him win for the sake of the country."

With regard to oil and gas, Trump told Hannity "we have money laying in the ground" and "we have so much wealth and power under out feet."

He described himself as an environmentalist and added, "our country can be rich again."

"What we’re going to do for our country is drill baby drill,” Trump said at a recent campaign event in Houston. "Drill baby drill. The day I take office I will cancel ‘Crooked Joe’s’ electric vehicle mandate."

Trump has railed against the Biden administration’s handling of energy as gas prices in the United States have doubled since President Biden’s election. President Biden has struck back at the criticism declaring we are not in “normal times” and calling on oil companies to “bring down the price you are charging at the pump to reflect the cost you are paying for the product.  Do it now. Do it today. Your customers,the American people, they need relief now.”

“Energy security is national security, and we don’t have national security now,” Trump continued. “Like a bunch of very dumb people that have a rudderless ship. If you don’t have energy and you don’t have borders and you don’t have fair elections, then you don’t have a country.”

Fox News' Gabriele Regalbuto contributed to this report.

Former President Trump declared that he would "win Iowa" during his town hall with Fox News' "Hannity."

Trump touted the "hundreds of billions of dollars in taxes and tariffs" from China and "gave the farmers $28 billion."

"That's why I say I'm going to win Iowa," Trump said, eliciting cheers from the Hawkeye State crowd.

"My people say, 'Please sir, don't keep saying you're going to win Iowa, you sound so, really, horrible, crass' --- someone said 'crass,'" Trump continued.

"I said, 'But it's true. We're going to win Iowa,'" the former president continued.

Trump noted again that he "gave the farmers $28 billion" and that he "got it from China."

"Who else could do that? Who else would be able to do it, number one, who else would think about it?" Trump asked, adding that he told farmers to "buy more land" and "bigger tractors."

Donald Trump predicted President Biden ultimately wouldn't be the Democrats' nominee for president in 2024.

The topic arose when Sean Hannity asked Trump about the criticism facing Biden from his fellow Democrats, as well as noted that he seemed to be "struggling cognitively."

"I personally don't think he makes it, okay? I haven't said that. I'm saving it for this big town hall. I've never really said that. I personally don't think he makes it," Trump answered, to cheers from the audience.

"I think he's in bad shape physically," he added before joking about a previous instance in which Biden said he'd like to take Trump to the "back of the barn."

Trump joked that Biden would "fall over" if he simply blew on him.

"I personally don't think he makes it physically. I watched him at the beach. He wasn't able to lift a beach chair, which is meant for children to lift. And mentally I would say he is possibly equally as bad, and maybe even worse," Trump added.

Former President Trump touted his polling numbers with Black voters and suggested that will put him over the top in November 2024.

"We just had a poll where I'm at 22 and 25% with the black vote," Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity in a town hall event on Tuesday night. "If we have that, we can call the election over."

A New York Times/Siena College poll last month raised alarm bells for Democrats after it found Trump had reached an unprecedented level of support from Black voters in battleground states that President Biden won in 2020. Black voters in Nevada, Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin are now registering 22 percent support for Trump, up from eight percent in 2020.

Fox News Digital's Kristine Parks contributed to this report

Former President Donald Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity during a town hall event that President Biden is "not good" when it comes to his cognitive function.

"From your standpoint cognitively, you like to use that word cognitively, he's not good," Trump said on Tuesday night.

"But it's not for me to say," Trump continued.

A few moments later, Trump said that Biden is a "man that can't put two sentences together."

"We have a man that doesn't know he's alive and he's backed up by the media," Trump said. "The biggest problem we have, the media. The media is fake."

A Monmouth University poll released earlier this month showed that 76% of voters agreed Biden, 80, was "too old" to serve another term, compared to just 48% who said the same about Trump, 77. 

Former President Trump warned that the country should be more focused on preventing a nuclear war than climate change.

During the “Hannity” town hall with Trump on Tuesday night, the former president noted that China is building “one coal plant a week” while swiping at Biden administration special climate envoy John Kerry’s call to end the production of coal-fired power plants.

“We have a country. We have to fire up our factories… and we can’t allow China to build a factory a week and we do nothing,” Trump said.

“They build a coal plant, and they’re obvious about it, and then [President] Biden goes to see them about global warming,”

“The only global warming we should be thinking about and worrying about, cause it could happen tomorrow, is nuclear global warming, not global warming,” Trump said.

Donald Trump opened tonight's town hall by hitting back at President Biden and his criticism of of the former president's "MAGA" movement.

"You know, I see Biden talking about, 'Oh, MAGA! MAGA!' MAGA means Make America Great Again. That's what it means. And that's what people want," Trump said to cheers from the crowd.

"They want to see our country be great again. Right now we're not a great country. We're a country in decline. We are a declining country," he added.

The Biden campaign has ramped up its criticism of Trump as polls consistently show him trailing the former president.

He has frequently blasted the the MAGA movement as "extremist," and attempted to tie other conservative Republicans into that criticism.

Regarding Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Trump told Hannity during the pre-recorded town hall event "that would have never happened" if he had remained in office. Trump added that Ukraine was "the apple of" Putin's eye.

During an appearance on “Hannity” in March, Trump said that Putin “knew not to mess around with me.”

“I used to talk to him about it – I said ‘better not do it’. And he wouldn't have – we had a very friendly conversation about it: I said, 'Hey, Vladimir, you can't go into Ukraine’,” Trump told host Sean Hannity.

Trump later told Fox News Chief political anchor Bret Baier he would “have a deal done in 24 hours” if he secures a second term.  

Trump did not specify what he would give to either side, merely that “I would tell Zelenskyy something and I would tell Putin something, and I’d get him into a room … the death would stop, the destruction would stop.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy invited Trump to visit Ukraine after hearing the claim, saying that he would only need “24 minutes to explain to President Trump that he can’t manage this war … he can’t bring peace because of Putin.” 

Fox News Digital’s Gabriele Regalbuto, Danielle Wallace and Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.

Speaking to Sean Hannity at a Fox News Town Hall on Tuesday, former President Donald Trump called President Biden's chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal the most "embarrassing" moment in the history of the country.

"They left 85 billion, not million, billion dollars worth of military equipment behind in the most embarrassing moment in the history of our country," Trump said. "And the people of this country just don't want to take this anymore."

"It was like a surrender," Trump continued. "And after that, Russia said, well, you know, these people are incompetent, they're overrated. And they went in, they attacked Ukraine. That would have never happened a million years."

Former President Trump called the state of the economy under President Joe Biden "a disgrace.”

Trump told Fox Business' Kudlow in August that "beyond taxes, I'm talking about [how] we have a man that's grossly incompetent."

"What is happening to prices is many times more than any possible tax increase that anybody could get. On top of that, in this new [Build Back Better] bill, they want big tax increases: People will pay massive tax increases. I am not talking about the wealthy, I am talking about everybody," Trump said.

Trump frequently references the economy under his own administration on the campaign trail, warning of a state worse than “recession” if the course doesn’t reverse.

Recent polls show that the majority of voters trust Trump and Republican leadership on the economy over Democrats. A recent Marquette University poll found that the majority of voters believe Trump to be better on the economy than Biden by a 21-point margin.

New York Times and Siena College polling in November found 62% of Democratic voters across the country rate the economy as only "fair" or "poor." 

In 2017 then President Donald Trump signed a landmark $1.5 trillion tax overhaul called the ‘Tax Cuts and Jobs Act’. The legislation, the largest tax reform in 30 years, primarily focused on simplifying the tax code for Americans, changed the business tax code to make U.S. industry more competitive with foreign businesses, and lowered the tax rates for Americans and corporations.

“Our massive tax cuts provide tremendous relief for the middle class and small businesses,” Trump said in his State of the Union Address shortly after the bill was signed. “To lower tax rates for hardworking Americans, we nearly doubled the standard deduction for everyone.  Now, the first $24,000 earned by a married couple is completely tax-free.  We also doubled the child tax credit.”

The bill has remained controversial, with some right wing organizations claiming that it has not delivered on it’s promise to cut taxes for the middle class as of 2020. “This is our new American moment,” Trump said of the bill. “There has never been a better time to start living the American Dream.”

Former President Donald Trump has advocated for the pro-life community throughout his time in office and on the campaign trail but has not said whether he will sign a national ban on abortion.

“What's going to happen is: you're going to come up with a number of weeks or months, you're going to come up with a number that's going to make people happy,” Trump said during an interview on MSNBC's "Meet the Press” in September. “Because 92 percent of the Democrats don't want to see abortion after a certain period of time.”

Trump has repeatedly said that he would try to reach middle ground on the issue of abortion if elected in 2024.

When asked whether he would sign a 15-week ban on abortion, one of the top issues going into 2024, he would not say.

"I would sit down with both sides and I'd negotiate something, and we'll end up with peace on that issue for the first time in 52 years," the former president said. "I'm not going to say I would or I wouldn't."

Trump also called Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ 6-week ban on abortion in Florida a “terrible thing” – a comment that sparked immediate backlash against the former president from the pro-life community.

"I mean, ‘DeSanctus’ [DeSantis] is willing to sign a five-week and six-week ban," Trump said in response to whether he would support that level of a ban. "I think what he did is a terrible thing and a terrible mistake.”

Former President Trump and California Governor Gavin Newsom are politically at odds, but the two have personally got along in the past.

During the 2020 California wildfires, Trump met with Newsom and told reporters that he and the Democrat Golden State governor had a solid working relationship.

Newsom, who was elected governor in 2018, ran on a platform of opposing Trump and making California a “resistance state,” but praised his relationship with the former president as “very effective.”

“We’ve been working very well with Gavin,” Trump said in September 2020. “We’re obviously from different sides of the spectrum, but we have a very good relationship.”

Fast forward to last week when Newsom appeared against Trump’s political protégé and GOP presidential primary opponent, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, in Fox News’ "The Great Red State vs. Blue State Debate.”

Trump, the master of zingers and political potshots, kept his powder dry against both DeSantis and Newsom, saying he thought the debate was “very even” between the two governors.

“They both worked hard and they both did well,” Trump said.

Former President Trump is set for his town hall with Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Tuesday when the former commander-in-chief will likely touch on the issues facing Americans as he seeks a second term in the West Wing.

True to his New York persona, Trump has been unafraid to give his feelings on anything and anyone — especially those running against him for the Oval Office.

A growing name in that arena, independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., has been making a splash. Polls indicate he could pull in some of both Trump’s and President Biden’s supporters who are looking for a third way into the presidency.

Kennedy was slammed by Donald Trump, Jr., as “a Democrat plant to hurt the Trump thing” while an adviser to his father’s campaign said the independent candidate is a “liberal parading in conservative’s clothing.”

“Voters should not be deceived by anyone who pretends to have conservative values. The fact is that RFK has a disturbing background steeped in radical, liberal positions,” Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung told the press after Kennedy announced his independent candidacy.

Cheung took aim at Kennedy’s social issue stances, saying the presidential family scion’s “candidacy is nothing more than a vanity project for a liberal Kennedy looking to cash in on his family’s name.”

Despite polls showing a slight lead for Donald Trump in a hypothetical 2024 rematch against President Biden, the former president's favorability rating has remained largely in the negative.

According to a recent Fox News poll, Trump’s personal favorability rating is under water by 12 points (44% favorable vs. 56% unfavorable), his most positive in over a year.

Biden is in negative territory by an even larger 18 points, 41%-59%.

The same poll, however, showed Trump leading Biden by four points, 50%-46%. That lead goes to 41%-35% with the addition of independent presidential candidates Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (15%) and Cornel West (3%), as well as Green Party candidate Jill Stein (3%).

Fox News' Dana Blanton contributed to this report.