Trump calls Biden ‘worst president’ during Iowa victory speech, says Jimmy Carter ‘brilliant by comparison’
Former President Trump took a swipe at President Biden after winning the Iowa caucuses on Monday evening, saying the Democrat was the 'worst president' ever.
'I don't want to be overly rough on the president, but I have to say that he is the worst president that we've had in the history of our country, he's destroying our country,' Trump said of Biden after the Republican won 51% of the vote in Iowa.
Trump went on to claim that former President Carter – who is widely criticized for his poor handling of the economy, resulting in high inflation and high unemployment, as well as the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis – was 'brilliant by comparison.'
He added: 'You know, my wife attended the funeral two months ago of Rosalynn Carter and it was beautiful. And Jimmy Carter was there. And I thought to myself, Jimmy Carter is happy now because he will go down as being a brilliant president by comparison to Joe Biden. He'll be a brilliant president,' Trump continued. 'He's going to be known as brilliant by comparison.'
The comment came after Trump led Gov. Ron DeSantis, former Gov. Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy and the other 2024 Republican hopefuls in the country's first nominating contest. The victory secured Trump the first 20 delegates in the race to become the Republican nominee.
During his speech, the former president also said he would emphasize securing the border. The issue was ranked number one among Iowan voters, even above the economy, which was second.
'We're going to seal up the border because right now we have an invasion and we have an invasion of millions and millions of people that are coming into our country. I can't imagine why they think that's a good thing. It's a very bad thing,' he said.
Trump then claimed 'hundreds and hundreds of terrorists' were coming from over the southern border into the U.S.
'Nobody knows where they are. This is not a good thing. And we're going to have to deport them,' the Republican said. 'We're going to have a deportation level that we haven't seen in this country for a long time, since Dwight Eisenhower actually.'
'We have to stop the invasion,' he added.
Trump will now head to New Hampshire, where he will look to continue his success toward securing the Republican nomination.
'So it's now off to New Hampshire, a great place,' he said Monday. 'We won it last time and we wanted it both times and we love it. The people in our country are great. They are great. They only want to see one thing: they want our country to come back. They're embarrassed by what's going on. Our country is left out all over the world. They're laughing at us, and they want our country to come back.'
He won the state in 2016 and is looking to become just the second Republican ever to win both Iowa and New Hampshire and go on to win the presidency. Ted Cruz narrowly beat Trump in Iowa in 2016, denying him from winning both early states.
