Donald Trump offered a full-throated defense of eminent domain, the authority of the government to seize private property for public use, and said without that power, the government couldn’t do many things conservatives support, including the Keystone Pipeline.
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“Eminent domain is an absolute necessity for a country, for our country. Without it, you wouldn’t have roads, you wouldn’t have hospitals, you wouldn’t have anything,” Trump said.
“You wouldn’t have schools, you wouldn’t have bridges. You need eminent domain. And a lot of the big conservatives that tell me how conservative they are, I think I’m more than they are, they tell me, oh, well, they all want the Keystone [XL] pipeline. The Keystone pipeline, without eminent domain, it wouldn’t go 10 feet, OK? You need eminent domain. And eminent domain is a good thing, not a bad thing.”
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush jumped into the fray to capitalize on an issue that puts Trump at odds with some of the more conservative members of the GOP’s base.
“The difference between eminent domain for public purpose, as Donald said, roads and infrastructure, pipelines and all that, that’s for public purpose,” Bush said. “But what Donald Trump did was use eminent domain to try to take the property of an elderly woman on the strip in Atlantic City. That is not public purpose, that is down right wrong.”
Trump and Bush then sparred about the billionaire’s level of effort in taking property away from an elderly woman, which led Trump to shush the governor. The two also argued about whether the government would need to use eminent domain to build the Keystone pipeline.
When the boos for Trump in the debate room became exceedingly loud, he turned on the crowd and said he was getting booed because the audience was filled with donors for other candidates who he doesn’t need as a self-funded candidate.
“We have all donors in the audience. And the reason they’re not loving me, the reason they’re not — excuse me,” Trump said as the booing grew louder. “The reason they’re not loving me is, I don’t want their money. I’m going to do the right thing for the American public. I don’t want their money. I don’t need their money. And I’m the only one up here that can say that.”
Trump ranks third in the Washington Examiner‘s GOP presidential power rankings.
