Donald Trump says he is 'not a student of Hitler,' won't rule as a dictator

Former President Donald Trump defended comments he made earlier this week that critics said echoed Adolf Hitler -- saying Friday he is "not a student of Hitler."

Former President Donald Trump defended anti-immigrant comments he made earlier this week that critics said echoed racist sentiments of Adolf Hitler -- saying Friday he knows nothing about the leader of Germany's Nazi Party and is "not a student of Hitler."

In a radio interview with Hugh Hewitt Friday, Trump was asked about comments he made at a recent rally in New Hampshire where he said illegal immigrants are "poisoning the blood of our country."

"First of all, I know nothing about Hitler. I'm not a student of Hitler. I never read his works," Trump said to Hewitt. "They say that he said something about blood. He didn't say it the way I said it, either, by the way. It's a very different kind of a statement. What I'm saying when I talk about people coming into our country is they are destroying our country."

At a campaign stop in Iowa, he said he has not read "Mein Kampf," the manifesto written by Hitler that provided the philosophical basis for Nazi Germany and, ultimately, the murder of more than 6 million Jews in the Holocaust.