President Donald Trump has claimed that he could “murder” someone without losing the backing of one of his faithful supporters.
While speaking at a rally in Arizona, Trump stopped mid-speech to try and find a woman in the crowd that he had seen on an earlier interview on YouTube.
“I watched some people being interviewed online today. They were so beautiful. Women. There was a woman who — there was nothing I could do that this woman would not vote for me. She loved me, actually,” he said.
“Where is the woman?” he asked the crowd. “She was interviewed for an extended period. She was so great. There’s nothing that I could do. If they asked her if he murdered somebody would that be OK, she would’ve said ‘yes.’”
It is not the first time the president has made such comments, famously declaring in January 2016 that he could “stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters”.
The comments came in a speech to supporters in Bullhead City as Trump continues his campaign trail ahead of the November midterms.
Trump has been fiercely campaigning in states where Republican candidates usually win easily, holding recent rallies in Texas, Ohio and Alaska, and urging voters to treat the midterms as if he were on the ballot.
But five senior House Republicans privately admitted concerns that the GOP will lose its majority in the House of Representatives in the upcoming midterm elections.
Trump is currently struggling with low approval ratings, with a Reuters/Ipsos poll showing 65 per cent of Americans disapprove of his performance amid an unpopular Iran war and high living costs.
During his rally in Arizona, Trump also took aim at “leakers” saying that they should be “shot”.
“In the old days we used to shoot leakers, you know,” he added.
The US president, who himself was shot in the ear during an assassination attempt during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania July 2024, went on to compare the media to leakers.
“The fake news media doesn’t want to talk about how well we’re doing… they’re almost as bad as a leaker, because they leak false information, that makes them a leaker, right?”
He added: “I think they make up a lot of their sources… you find out there was no source, they make it up, they’re like storytellers.”
Despite his efforts at the rallies, the polling is negative for the Republicans. A large majority believe Trump himself is falling short at home and abroad and want to see major change in the upcoming elections.
Around 80 per cent of voters say the economy and cost of living are among the top issues for the upcoming election.
