GOP front-runner Donald Trump issued a rare apology on Sunday, but it didn’t come with a vow to make any changes.
Appearing on "Fox News Sunday," Trump was asked by host Chris Wallace whether reported plans of a brokered convention to keep him from being the nominee or by the New York GOP to remove him from the party might cause him to run as an independent.
"Look, I understand what they're going through. I wasn't supposed to be here," Trump said. "I was a member of the establishment seven months ago. I gave $350,000 to the Republican Governors Association. I'm not supposed to be doing this. You see I'm supposed to be on the other side writing checks and having people do whatever I want, puppets.
"I'm sorry I did this to you, but you've got to get used to it," Trump went on. "It's one of the problems in life. Now, I'll see whether or not I'm being treated fairly. I want to run as a Republican. I'm a conservative guy. I have great ideas. I'm going to make our country great again."
Trump said he understands where the GOP establishment is coming from.
"This wasn't supposed to happen. They were supposed to pick a governor, a senator, you know, a puppet, where they control them 100 percent."
As for his presidential rival Sen. Ted Cruz telling donors he questions Trump's judgment, Trump said, "Well, do you notice he said it behind my back, somebody taped that conversation. ...That's OK. I don't think he's qualified to be president."
Trump pointed to how Cruz has dealt with the Senate, where, Trump said, Cruz "goes in frankly like a little bit of a maniac. You're never going get things done that way. … You can't walk into the senate and scream and call people liars and not be able to cajole and get along with people. He'll never get anything done. And that's the problem with Ted."
Cruz is outpolling Trump in Iowa in two recent polls,
Bloomberg and
Fox News Channel.
Trump also was asked about the backlash to his call for a moratorium on all Muslim immigration, with Wallace pointing out it would apply to Muslims from Indonesia and businessmen from Canada the same as it does people from the war-torn regions of Iraq and Syria, where the Islamic State (ISIS) has set up a caliphate bent on world domination thorugh terrorism.
"There's a sickness. They're sick people. There's a sickness going on. There's a group of people that is very sick," Trump replied. "We have to figure out the answer. The Muslims can help us figure out the answer."
When Wallace pointed out that even GOP House Speaker Paul Ryan has called his plan an unconstitutional attack on freedom of religion, Trump said that while he likes Ryan, he is "very, very weak on illegal immigration, big on amnesty, very, very bad on our southern border. … It's not the kind of thinking we need."
Trump also discussed other issues:
On being called a demagogue: "Not me. It's the opposite. I want to make our country safe. … I have friends who don't want to fly in airplanes anymore. … there's a fear out there."
On calling leaders in Washington "losers": " I didn't say losers. I said they're stupid. Losers is not a strong enough term."
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