--- title: Republican Debate: Donald Trump Makes Up With GOP description: Donald Trump had kinder words for the GOP establishment than he ever has during his insurgent presidential campaign canonical: https://time.com/4150989/republican-debate-donald-trump-gop/ author: Charlotte Alter article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-12-16T04:33:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-05T08:40:25.605Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump Makes Up With the Republican Party og:description: "I have gained great respect for the Republican leadership" og:url: https://time.com/4150989/republican-debate-donald-trump-gop/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt54523927d3f21c30/69887593196cf483ee0397bd/republican-debate-gop-presidential-020.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3516 og:image:height: 1978 og:image:alt: CNN Republican Presidential Debate, Las Vegas, America - 15 Dec 2015 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump Makes Up With the Republican Party twitter:description: "I have gained great respect for the Republican leadership" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt54523927d3f21c30/69887593196cf483ee0397bd/republican-debate-gop-presidential-020.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Makes Up With the Republican Party > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=04cf3da1-937f-4975-8a26-63e9b04165ef&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Watch the Fifth Republican Debate In Four Minutes [Watch (HLS stream): Watch the Fifth Republican Debate In Four Minutes](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/mQUMUx2k.m3u8) (4:00)  _Published 2015-12-16. Nine Republican presidential candidates faced off for the fifth Republican debate on CNN_  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent Dec 16, 2015 4:33 AM UTC Nine Republican presidential candidates faced off for the fifth Republican debate on CNN  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent Dec 16, 2015 4:33 AM UTC Donald Trump had kinder words for the GOP establishment than he ever has during his insurgent presidential campaign, using a moment late in [the fifth Republican debate Tuesday](http://time.com/4149585/republican-debate-donald-trump-ted-cruz-jeb-bush-cnn/) to say he won’t mount a third-party run as he has so often threatened. “I have gained great respect for the Republican leadership,” Trump said. “I am very committed to the Republican Party. I feel very honored to be the frontrunner.” “I’m in first place, not by a little bit, but by a lot,” Trump told CNN’s Chris Cuomo after the debate. “I want to do it the old fashioned way,” he said of winning the White House, before noting that he hasn’t even started attacking Hillary Clinton yet. “I haven’t even really gone after her yet,” he said. “I haven’t even focused on Hillary, when I do I think she’s going to fall.” ## Transcript [00:00] Welcome to the CNN Facebook Republican Presidential [00:03] Debate I think defeat terrorism by showing them that we do [00:06] not fear them. I fought my way to the top of corporate [00:09] America while being called every b- word in the book. Our [00:12] freedom is under attack. Our economy is under water. The [00:16] leading Democrat is under investigation. And America [00:20] is under the gun to lead the free world. To protect our [00:23] civilized way of life. Border security is national security [00:28] and we will not be admitting jihadist as refugees. We [00:32] are not talking about isolation. We're talking about security. [00:35] We're not talking about religion. We're talking about [00:38] security. This is the most sophisticated terror group, That is [00:41] every threat in the world to the United States of America. [00:44] They are actively recruiting Americans. The attacker in San [00:46] Bernardino was an American citizen. First and foremost, [00:50] we need to go and destroy ISIS. And we need to do this [00:54] with our Arab friends, and our friends in Europe. We are not [00:57] any safer through the bolt collection of every Americans [01:00] records. In fact I think we're less safe. We have to get rid of [01:03] all this PC stuff and people are worried about somebody's [01:07] gonna say that I'm Islamaphobic or what have you. This [01:11] is craziness. If want to destroy radical Islamic terrorism we [01:15] can't disassociate ourselves from peace loving Muslims. If [01:20] we expect to do this on our own, we will fail. The [01:22] bureaucratic procedures are so far behind, our government [01:25] has become incompetent, unresponsive, corrupt. And, [01:30] that incompetence, ineptitude, lack of accountability [01:32] Accountability is now dangerous. I would certainly [01:36] be open to closing areas where we are at war with [01:39] somebody. I sure as hell don't wanna let people that wanna [01:43] kill us and kill our nation use our internet. Moron. Would [01:46] you carpet bomb Raqqa, the ISIS capital, where there are [01:50] a lot of civilians? Yes or no? You would carpet bomb where [01:55] ISIS is, not a city but the location of the troop. They may not [01:58] care much about their lives, but they do care, believe it or [02:01] not, about their families lives. The idea that that is a [02:04] solution to this is just, is just crazy. Donald, you're not [02:08] going to be able to insult your way to the presidency. That's [02:11] not gonna happen. We have to do one thing at a time. We [02:14] can't be fighting ISIS and fighting Asad. We have to get rid [02:17] of ISIS first. We need to focus our attention on Iran, [02:21] because if you miss Iran, you're not gonna get ISIS. For the [02:24] Russians Frankly, it's time that we punched the Russians [02:27] in the nose. I didn't say I would cut off all communication [02:29] with Putin. What I said was, as President of the United [02:32] States, now is not the time to talk with him. The biggest [02:34] problem we have today is nuclear proliferation and [02:39] having some maniac, having some madman go out And [02:43] yet a nuclear weapon. I, personally, am open to allowing [02:47] people apply for a green card. Border security is national [02:50] security. When you're letting people in, when the FBI can't [02:54] vet them, it puts American citizens at risk. [02:58] People can come into the country, we welcome people to [03:01] come in, but they have to come in legally. Charity's about [03:04] giving your own money, charity isn't giving someone else's [03:06] money. To put everyone on government housing and food [03:09] stamps, and bring them in from around the world I think is a [03:11] mistake. I'm not gonna let Syrian refugees, any Syrian [03:14] refugees, in this country. And it was widows and orphans [03:17] by the way. And we now know from watching the San [03:19] Bernardino attack that women can commit heinous, [03:22] heinous acts. What I can tell you is all nine of the people [03:26] here Would make an infinitely better Commander in Chief [03:29] than Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton. [ APPLAUSE ] To [03:32] take our country back, to keep our nation safe, we have [03:36] to begin by beating Hillary Clinton. Gotten to know him over [03:39] the last three or four days. He has a wonderful [03:41] temperament. [ LAUGH ] [ APPLAUSE ] He's just fine, [03:44] don't worry. About it. Okay. Nothing [03:48] works in our country. If I'm elected president, we will [03:52] win again. We will win a lot. And we will have great, great [03:56] country, greater than ever before. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4150989/republican-debate-donald-trump-gop/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4150989/republican-debate-donald-trump-gop/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Makes Up With the Republican Party","datePublished":"2015-12-16T04:33:22.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-05T08:40:25.605Z","description":"\"I have gained great respect for the Republican leadership\"","url":"https://time.com/4150989/republican-debate-donald-trump-gop/","keywords":["Debates","Republican Party","Donald Trump","Republican debate"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt54523927d3f21c30/69887593196cf483ee0397bd/republican-debate-gop-presidential-020.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Charlotte Alter","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt54523927d3f21c30/69887593196cf483ee0397bd/republican-debate-gop-presidential-020.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"CNN Republican Presidential Debate, Las Vegas, America - 15 Dec 2015","caption":"Donald Trump at the Republican presidential debate, in Las Vegas on Dec .15, 2015.","creditText":"Matt Baron—BEI/Shutterstock","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/debates/","name":"Debates"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4150989/republican-debate-donald-trump-gop/","name":"Donald Trump Makes Up With the Republican Party"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Watch the Fifth Republican Debate In Four Minutes","description":"Nine Republican presidential candidates faced off for the fifth Republican debate on CNN","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/mQUMUx2k/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-12-16T05:38:16.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/mQUMUx2k.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4150989/republican-debate-donald-trump-gop/","duration":"PT4M","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4150989/republican-debate-donald-trump-gop/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```