Trump Says We Should ‘Keep the Oil’ When ‘We Obliterate Somebody’
Donald Trump is making his final plea this weekend leading up to the Republican Iowa caucuses on Monday, but the weather has been uncooperative. His two planned Iowa rally stops on Saturday in Sioux City and Atlantic instead turned into a tele-rally featuring Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird held that evening. He is currently expected to appear at an in-person rally on Sunday in Indianola.
Rather than the usual format, Bird tossed Trump questions, which he answered in his typical meandering way. Case in point, Bird asked about a “big hot button issue on the campaign trail,” Ukraine, and Trump brought up several countries in his answer — from Russia to China — before parlaying it into discussing Iraq and its oil.
“I used to say and I think you remember this, when I was a civilian — in the true sense — but I got, I was somehow, I got a lot of press, but I’d say, ‘Don’t ever go into Iraq, but if you do go in, keep the oil.’ Remember that? ‘Keep the oil. if you go in, but don’t do it but if you do keep the oil.’ They didn’t keep the oil. We’re the only country where we go in, we obliterate somebody, we never we never keep anything we just get stuck in these endless wars.”
It’s been an eventful week for Trump and those surrounding him, with the former president making a court appearance on Tuesday for his immunity bid in the federal criminal election subversion case against him. Meanwhile, Mike Roman, a former Trump campaign staffer facing criminal charges, dropped a bombshell in the Georgia election interference case against Trump; Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis hired special prosecutor Nathan Wade in the Georgia case, and a motion from Roman’s camp alleges Willis and Wade engaged in an “improper” romantic relationship.
Outside of Trump’s court-related dealings, he’s been going hard on the campaign trail, particularly in Iowa where the Republican presidential primary season officially kicks off with the caucuses on Monday. Trump leads in polls against a shrinking field of candidates (Chris Christie dropped out earlier this week on Wednesday), which includes rivals Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, among others. During one of Trump’s two previous appearances in Iowa last Saturday, he ranted about the Civil War, which he claimed could have been negotiated.
“I’m so attracted to seeing it,” Trump said at his Newton rally last Saturday. “So many mistakes were made. See, there was something I think could have been negotiated to be honest with you. … I was reading something and I said, ‘This is something that could have been negotiated … that was a that was a tough one for our country … If you negotiated it, you probably wouldn’t even know who Abraham Lincoln was … but that would have been OK.”
Trump continues his Iowa caucus stump tomorrow, with an in-person event scheduled in Indianola at Simpson College at 1 p.m. ET. Following the Iowa caucuses on Monday, Trump heads to New Hampshire for a slate of events taking place in the week and weekend ahead.