--- title: Donald Trump Holds Court in Private Plane Before GOP Debate description: The Republican front-runner invited a handful of reporters to join him on a Des Moines runway canonical: https://time.com/4199315/donald-trump-plane-iowa/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-01-29T04:41:30.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-05T08:40:57.056Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump Holds Court in Private Plane Before GOP Debate og:description: The Republican front-runner invited a handful of reporters to join him on a Des Moines runway og:url: https://time.com/4199315/donald-trump-plane-iowa/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5f861af49534ab65/69885e7b5f570f3389b1cd29/trump-plane.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: Republican Presidential candidate and business mogul Donald Trump exits his plane during his trip to the border on July 23, 2015 in Laredo, Texas. Trump's recent comments, calling some immigrants from Mexico as drug traffickers and rapists, have stirred og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump Holds Court in Private Plane Before GOP Debate twitter:description: The Republican front-runner invited a handful of reporters to join him on a Des Moines runway twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5f861af49534ab65/69885e7b5f570f3389b1cd29/trump-plane.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # What Happened on Donald Trump's Plane Before the Iowa Debate > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: September 2026. ## TIME D.C. Brief: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition D.C. Brief is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. Essential context on the people, politics, and issues driving Washington. D.C. 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GOP Debate-012816-v1_  by [Tessa Berenson / Des Moines, Iowa](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson / Des Moines, Iowa Jan 29, 2016 4:41 AM UTC  by [Tessa Berenson / Des Moines, Iowa](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson / Des Moines, Iowa Jan 29, 2016 4:41 AM UTC “If it looks like gold, it is.” That’s the advice I get just before walking across the cold, windy tarmac at Des Moines International Airport towards Donald Trump’s private plane, a Boeing 757 that is as much as symbol of the developer’s power and prestige as Air Force One for the President. Trump’s campaign manager and spokesperson have invited just five print reporters for a [quick sit-down](http://time.com/4199234/donald-trump-fox-debate-veterans/?xid=homepage) onboard Trump Force One before his event tonight, which he’s putting on in lieu of appearing at the Fox Republican debate. We snap photos as we ascend the steps, the blue and red plane, people walking before us. Inside, there is gold trim along the wood-paneled tables. It’s at one of these tables that Trump himself is sitting, with his back turned to the boarding party. As we’re led to him, he stands up, gesturing for us to join him at the table, in comfortable, cream-colored leather seats. Two reporters are forced to kneel. One accidentally knocks his heavy camera on it, earning a quick Trump rebuke. “That’s going to be a very expensive picture,” he warns of the price to repair the pristine surface. For the next fifteen minutes we ask him questions, mostly about his [decision to skip the debate](http://time.com/4199234/donald-trump-fox-debate-veterans/). Asked how many times he has spoken to Fox News chairman and CEO Roger Ailes, he says “many.” Asked if his beef with the network was largely about its moderators, he says, “I don’t care about Megyn Kelly.” And asked if he had any doubts about boycotting the debate, he says, “The time to change my mind would have been two days ago.” **Read more:** [Donald Trump Says Fox News Has Apologized to Him](http://time.com/4199234/donald-trump-fox-debate-veterans/?xid=homepage) Then Trump gestures to the back of the plane. “Melania? Say hello,” he tells his wife. She materializes, looking fabulous, and playing every bit the part of First Lady as she graciously beams and nods at us. Then he jokingly explains why he made her greet us: “These are the most powerful people.” This is a key to Trump’s appeal, a feature of his rise. His praise is often generous for those he thinks might help him. Later he brings out [his daughter, Ivanka](http://motto.time.com/4182722/ivanka-trump-negotiation-skills/), when he talks about his children’s plans to donate money to veterans in honor of his event tonight. She holds her pregnant belly in a sparkly dress. “She’s like two weeks away from having a baby and she’s here!” says the proud father. Someone jokes about her having it here in Iowa. She laughs, seeming to suggest she would rather not have her baby tonight. The time passes quickly as Trump speaks in his usual style, with long answers to questions and the occasional bullying. About Jeb Bush: “Jeb’s a lost cause.” And about Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal: “Never liked him. Never met him. Don’t know him, just never liked him. Never liked his style.” (They got into a [Twitter spat](http://time.com/4198463/donald-trump-megyn-kelly-fake-meme/) today.) Then it’s time to leave. We say our goodbyes and are ushered out of the plane, off to the next event, where Trump will put on yet another performance. ## Transcript Welcome to the seventh Republican presidential debate. I'm a maniac and everyone on this stage is stupid, fat and ugly. And Ben, you're a terrible surgeon. [ LAUGH ] Now that we've gotten the Donald Trump portion out of the way. [ LAUGH ] He's an entertaining guy, he's the greatest show on earth. I have not insulted Donald personally and I don't intend to. I kind of Donald Trump, he was a little teddy bear to me. I want to thank Everyone here for showing the men and women of Iowa the respect, to show up and make the case to the people of this state and people of the country why each of us believe we would make the best Commander- in- Chief. I've been held accountable for six years of the Governor of New Jersey. And with a Democratic legislature, I've gotten conservative Things done. That is exactly what I'll do as a president of United States. The ball collection of your phone data. The invasion of your privacy did not stop one terrorist attack. I don't think you have to give up your liberty for a fall sense of security. We cannot fix these things in this country. The sole security, the boarder Balancing the budget. Getting wages to grow faster. Unless we lead as conservatives, but we also invite people in from the other party. We need people who think out of the box, and can solve problems. The last four questions have been, Rand please attack Ted. Marco please attack Ted. Chris please attack Ted. Jeb please attack Ted. It is a debate, sir. If you guys ask one more mean question I may have to leave the stage. You cannot destroy ISIS with a military that's being diminished. When I'm President we are rebuilding the U. S. military because the world is a safer and a better place. When America's the strongest military in the world. You claim it is tough talk to discuss carpet bombing. It is not tough talk. It is a different fundamental military strategy than what we've seen from Barack Obama. We need to arm directly to Kurds, embed our troops with the Iraqi military, re- engage with the Sunni tribal leaders, get the lawyers off the damn backs of the military once and for all. Arming the allies of ISIS will make the situation worse. Then what we really need to do is defeat ISIS, but if you defeat Assad, what you will wind up with is a larger and more powerful ISIS that occupies that space. If there were someplace in this country where radical Jihadists are planning to attack the United States, we will go after them wherever they are, and if we capture them alive, They are going to Guantanamo. And if you wanna defend the country, it begins with border security, and this is where I've had my disagreement with Senator Rubio. You can't be in favor of defending us against Islam, radical Islam, if you're not for border security. I will support law Law enforcement and we will stop radical terrorist attacks in this country by supporting out intelligence community and our law enforcement community. We need to stop allowing political correctness to dictate our policies. We are a nation of immigrants. As such, everyone is welcome, from any race, any country, any religion if they wanna be Americans. We are not gonna round up and deport 12 million people but we are not gonna go around handing out citizenship cards either. Nations will have to make a choice. They can do business with Iran or they can do business with America. And I am very confident that they're going to choose America before they choose the Iranian economy. If we find out they're developing a nuclear weapon and we know how to get to it We're gonna go take it out. What we need to do is make sure that the war on drugs is equal protection under the law and that we don't unfairly incarcerate another generation of young African American males. Get rid of Planned Parenthood funding for the United States of America. [ APPLAUSE ] Bernie Sanders is a socialist. I think Bernie Sanders is a good candidate for president of Sweden. Hillary Clinton is disqualified from being the Commander and Chief of the United States. In fact one of her first acts as president may very well be to pardon herself. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4199315/donald-trump-plane-iowa/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4199315/donald-trump-plane-iowa/"},"headline":"What Happened on Donald Trump's Plane Before the Iowa Debate","datePublished":"2016-01-29T04:41:30.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-05T08:40:57.056Z","description":"The Republican front-runner invited a handful of reporters to join him on a Des Moines runway. 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