Former President Donald Trump says if he is reelected, he will impose “crushing sanctions” on Iran and reinstate a travel ban to prevent citizens from some Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S.
“If you’re coming from somewhere full of people who want to kill Americans, we will not let you in,” Trump said Monday afternoon during a campaign rally in central Iowa. “We worked very hard on that.”
Trump’s travel ban, which was redrafted after court challenges, took effect in 2018. It barred travelers from five mainly Muslim countries. President Biden reversed the ban during his first week in office.
“In my second term we’re going to expand each and every one of those bans because we have no choice. Some very rough people come out of those areas. They want to blow up our country,” Trump said yesterday. “We aren’t bringing in anyone from Gaza, Syria, Somalia, Yemen or Libya or anywhere else that threatens our security.”
While campaigning in Iowa this past weekend, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said the U.S. should not accept refugees from Gaza. DeSantis said they’re not all part of the Hamas terror group, but they are all anti-Semitic.
Trump, who spoke to crowds in Adel and Clive yesterday afternoon, addressed his legal situation. Trump suggested he would not be silenced by the judge overseeing his election interference case. The judge’s gag order, issued just before Trump arrived in Iowa, forbids Trump from making statements about potential witnesses or criticizing prosecutors.
“What they don’t understand is that I am willing to go to jail if that’s what it takes for our country to win and become a democracy again,” Trump said, to cheers.
Trump said he wants to start 2024 with what he called an “epic landslide” in the Iowa Caucuses. “You’ve got to get out and vote. We want to send it off with a bang,” Trump said in Clive. “We’re going to win Iowa, but we want to win by a big number.”
Trump finished second in the 2016 Iowa Caucuses, but Trump has a larger campaign apparatus in Iowa this time around. He also picked up the endorsement of Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird yesterday.
“One of the most popular and successful politicians in this state,” Trump said.
Bird is in her first term as attorney general after defeating Tom Miller, a Democrat who was the nation’s longest serving attorney general last year. This summer, Trump complained that Governor Kim Reynolds hadn’t endorsed him. Last week on social media Trump suggested it was very sad the governor’s job approval numbers go down after Reynolds has made appearances with Trump rival Ron DeSantis.