If you were asked to sum up the political year of 2015 in two words, it wouldn’t be very hard: Donald. Trump.
The New York real estate mogul and television personality has ruled the political discussion in 2015, leading up to the announcement of his presidential candidacy and certainly since. He has held a consistent lead in the polls for most of the primary race, leading many in the Republican establishment and in the media to wonder: Could this guy really win?
We’ll have to wait until early February, when primary voting begins. But for now, let’s look back at some of The Donald’s most shocking and bizarre quotes of the past year.
On Mexican immigrants: “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”
On Sen. John McCain: “He’s not a war hero. He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”
To the Republican Jewish Coalition: “I’m a negotiator, like you folks.”
On rival Carly Fiorina: “Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?!”
On the Iran deal: “So I’ve been doing deals for a long time. I’ve been making lots of wonderful deals, great deals. That’s what I do. Never, ever, ever in my life have I seen any transaction so incompetently negotiated as our deal with Iran. And I mean never.”
On rival Ben Carson: “He said that he’s pathological and he’s got basically pathological disease … I don’t want a person that’s got pathological disease.”
On rival Rand Paul:“I never attacked him on his look, and believe me, there’s plenty of subject matter right there.”
On a border wall: “I will build the greatest wall that you’ve ever seen. And I would never do this myself. But I hope it will be so—actually, it will even look great. I already know what it should look like. You know, the other day, they were saying, I was watching these characters—politicians that are running against me—you can’t get Mexico to pay for the wall! Of course you can. They can’t because they never would even think of it.”
On Fox News host Megyn Kelly: “You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes. Blood coming out of her wherever.”
On the voters of Iowa:“How stupid are the people of Iowa?”