Now Donald Trump says the Civil War was 'something that could be negotiated' – after rival Nikki Haley stumbled and said no slavery when asked about the cause of the conflict

Former President Donald Trump said Saturday at a campaign event in Iowa that the Civil War was “something that could be negotiated.”

The joke came during an early afternoon campaign stop at a community college in Newton, Iowa.

And it came after the conflict had already tripped up one of his 2024 Republican rivals, the former UN official. Nikki Haley, who was criticized for not mentioning slavery when a New Hampshire town hall visitor asked her about the cause.

“The Civil War was so fascinating, so terrible,” Trump said. 'I find it so attractive to see it. So many mistakes have been made. You see, there was something that could be negotiated. Frankly, I think you could have negotiated that.”

He added that President Abraham Lincoln “if he were to negotiate it, you probably wouldn't even know who Abraham Lincoln was.”

Trump commented on the bloody conflict at a campaign event Saturday in Newton, Iowa, noting that if soldiers were “hit in the leg by a bullet, you would essentially die or lose the leg.”

“He would have been president … but he wouldn't have been 'the' Abraham Lincoln, but that would have been fine,” Trump added.

Trump spent a few moments noting the horrific death toll – estimated at 620,000.

'So many people have died. That was the disaster. If you were hit in the leg by a bullet, you would actually die or lose your leg, that's why you had so many people – no legs, no arms… because the infection, gangrene – it was just like that, kind of a terrible time.'

He added that it was a “cruel, cruel war” and a “tough war for our country.”

The Civil War became a hot topic during the Republican campaign in the days after Christmas, when Haley was asked about its cause at a December 27 campaign event in New Hampshire.

“Well, don't come with an easy question or anything,” Haley told the congregation attendee.

“I mean, I think the cause of the Civil War was really how the government would function, the freedoms and what people could and couldn't do,” Haley then responded.

Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, asked the man for his thoughts on the start of the Civil War and he then noted that in 2023 he found it “amazing” that she wouldn't mention the word “slavery.”

“What do you want me to say about slavery?” Haley then said.

The cringe-inducing response was almost immediately criticized, including by Haley's rivals.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said shortly afterwards during a campaign stop in Iowa: “You know, I've noticed that Nikki Haley has had some trouble with a piece of basic American history.”

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie called her comments “disingenuous” as she tries to have it both ways with voters.

Haley continued to clean up this week, saying she “had black friends growing up” during her CNN town hall in Des Moines, Iowa, on Thursday.

Trump has paid more attention to Haley during his recent campaign events in Iowa — as he toured the state Friday and Saturday — but tended to focus on the fact that at one point she said she would not run against him for the presidency.

The ex-president did not elaborate on how Lincoln could have negotiated with the Confederacy – the Southern states that left the United States over the issue of slavery – to avoid the conflict of the 1860s.

He made similar, eyebrow-raising comments during an interview with conservative journalist Salena Zito in 2017.

During that question and answer session, Trump suggested that if President Andrew Jackson had been “a little bit later, you wouldn't have had the Civil War.”

Jackson, the nation's seventh president, died more than a decade before the Civil War broke out.