Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at the CFE Arena during a campaign stop on the campus of the University of Central Florida on March 5. | Getty Trump: I don't know if I regret McCain comments

When it comes to his comments last summer that John McCain is "not a war hero" and is only considered as such because he was captured, Donald Trump showed no signs of backing away Wednesday, even after the Arizona senator and Vietnam prisoner of war demanded Trump retract his statement to the larger community of veterans.

During an exchange with radio host Don Imus on his show, Trump said that he had apologized.


“Well I’ve actually done that, Don,” Trump said, according to audio of the interview posted by BuzzFeed. “You know frankly, I like John McCain, and John McCain is a hero. Also, heroes are people that are, you know, whether they get caught or don’t get caught — they’re all heroes as far as I’m concerned. And that’s the way it should be.”

As far as whether he regrets making those comments last July in Iowa, Trump said, "I don’t, you know — I like not to regret anything."

“I mean, you do things and you say things. And what I said, frankly, is what I said. And you know, some people like what I said, if you want to know the truth," Trump continued. "I mean, there are many people that like what I said. You know after I said that, my poll numbers went up 7 points.”

McCain, who has said he would support Trump as his party's nominee, told CNN on Sunday that he would like to see Trump “express his appreciation for veterans, not John McCain, but veterans who were incarcerated as prisoners of war.”

“What he said about me, John McCain, that’s fine,” McCain said. “I don’t require any repair of that. But when he said, ‘I don’t like people who were captured,’ then there’s a body of American heroes that I’d like to see him retract that statement. Not about me, but about the others.”

To Imus' suggestion that a person like Trump, who received multiple deferments from Vietnam, should not criticize McCain or any veterans, the presumptive Republican nominee chuckled.

“I understand that. Well, I was going to college, I had student deferments," Trump said. "I also got a great lottery number, Don."

Trump then discussed his involvement in building the Vietnam memorial in New York, adding, "to this day, people that fought in Vietnam are thanking me for that."

"I did that because I really wanted to do something," Trump said. "Frankly, I feel fine about it. The Vietnam War was a war that was a mistake. It was a big, big mistake. A horrible mistake. Just like Iraq was a mistake."