Former President Donald Trump warned Wednesday that the country is a “failing nation” and is currently “dying,” striking a serious tone during a town hall meeting. The former president said he did not “see much humor” in how America is struggling under President Joe Biden’s administration and said he would smile when “we complete the task and make America great again.”
During a live town hall with Fox News host Laura Ingraham on Wednesday, Ingraham asked Trump whether he would incorporate his sense of humor on the campaign trail to reach people who might not be interested in traditional politics.
“I don’t think I want to be a comedian with respect to the campaign. We have a country that’s dying,” Trump told Ingraham. “We have a country that’s – it’s a failing nation. I say it in my speeches: it’s a failing nation. We have a nation in decline. We are a nation in decline.”
Pointing to the ongoing southern border crisis, Trump said, “I don’t think it’s a subject that we are smiling too much about.”
U.S. Customs and Border Protection statistics show that nearly 7.3 million illegal immigrants have entered the United States along the southwest border under the Biden administration. Fox News has estimated that an additional 1.8 million “gotaways” have entered the United States over the past three years.
The former president suggested that as many as “18 million” individuals from “places unknown” could enter the United States by the end of Biden’s term in office.
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“We have no idea who they are, but they are terrorists,” Trump told Ingraham. “We are going to have massive terrorism. We are going to have a big problem with terrorists; we’re going to have a lot of problems.”
Highlighting an example of the consequences of unvetted illegal immigrants pouring into the United States, Trump shared the story of the Heinz family, who was at Wednesday’s town hall event. Trump explained that their daughter was killed by an illegal immigrant who came into the United States under the Biden administration.
“So, I just don’t see that much humor in what we’re doing. This is a very serious charge, and this is a very serious thing I’m doing,” Trump said. “You know, if I start talking with a smile, they will say ‘he smiled,’ because the fake news is just terrible. ‘He smiled, what was he smiling about?’ And I don’t really want to smile. I want to smile when we complete the task and make America great again.”
