CALLER: Hey, Rush. A pleasure speaking to you. Thanks for taking my call.
RUSH: Yes, sir.
CALLER: Rush, I have to make a quick comment getting back to Trump. I remember when Obama, before he was elected when he was anointed the up-and-coming star of the Democrats, I remember I was overjoyed. I was so happy. I kept thinking, wow, if he’s the best that they have to offer, a guy that has no qualifications, a guy that had no experience, a guy that even back then there were all sorts of rumors swirling around about him, I mean this guy I thought was completely, completely unelectable.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: I really did. And yet look what happened. And so I get a little upset when I hear the Republicans, especially the talking heads, calling Trump a joke candidate and all that stuff. I’d like to remind them that the joke candidate has already been elected, okay, someone that should never have even been —
RUSH: Let me tell you something. You and I are on the same page, pal, and I don’t know why more people don’t look at Obama — here’s a blank slate that people were able to paint on it whatever they wanted, make him out to be whatever they wanted when he was nothing.
CALLER: That’s right. That’s right. And I tell you, I don’t know if Trump’s gonna run or not, but one thing I do know for sure is that he’s infinitely more qualified than Obama ever will be. At least we know that he has some brains. He’s created businesses. He’s successful. So you know that there are some brains back there, unlike Obama, and another thing, in certain respects, he may be Obama’s worst nightmare ’cause this guy is a loose cannon. He’s not politically correct and really he’s got no ties to anything. He’s not part of the establishment and he doesn’t respect Obama —
RUSH: Yeah, but let me ask you a question. Is Trump conservative? Do you think he’s a conservative?
CALLER: I think he is. I really do, and I think more important than that I think he’s a patriot. I think he does care for this country, and I think he does worry about the path that we’re taking. He does see this nation as slipping away and being qualified as a second-rate nation, he sees that, so I do think that he is a patriot, he’s conservative, and I think he’s infinitely more qualified than Obama. So I would much rather have, I mean hands down, I mean I think this guy is highly intelligent, too. And so it does peeve me a little bit when I hear these guys calling him a joke, when in reality, if someone like Obama can get elected, why not Trump? And even if he doesn’t run, Rush, I hope Republicans learn from him. I really do, ’cause this guy has taken out Obama directly. This guy has taken off his gloves, he says whatever he has to say to Obama. Obama’s not used to that. The Democrats are not used to that kind of stuff. I think Trump is their worst nightmare. The Democrats are used to the Boehners and the other establishment people that before they say anything negative to Obama, they always preface it with some sort of a compliment, how intelligent he is and how likeable, you know, whatever —
RUSH: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
CALLER: I think he’s their nightmare.
RUSH: It’s like McCain during the campaign, (imitating McCain) “I will not tolerate anybody saying his middle name! You say Hussein and you’re canned! Sailor.” I know. I know. Look, in a classic sense, Trump’s not a conservative, folks. You don’t promise to raise tariffs on the ChiComs 25%. That’s not conservative. (interruption) People understand this, Snerdley. You remember when George W. Bush threatened to raise tariffs on imported steel, there was an outcry. No, you don’t raise taxes, period. That’s not the way to deal with it. That’s protectionism. Smoot-Hawley. It’s a death wish. This is why I’m always worried about populism. Populism is not conservatism. Okay, maybe people do hate the ChiComs right now. They fall into this notion that the ChiComs are making everything that we used to make. That’s not even true. The ChiComs are assembling things, but not everything that comes from there is made there.
I’ll give you an example. We’ve got problems here, but it’s not solely due to the ChiComs. If you want to make things in America, then go pay people 98 cents an hour. That’s what the ChiComs do. Now, the iPhone — I wish I could remember the exact numbers — the iPhone, loaded iPhone is, ball-parking this, 300 bucks. It would be $1,200 if every component were made and assembled in the United States. All it takes is for one other company to have their phone made in China and there’s no iPhone. You know, markets are markets. So the answer to this is not raising taxes on the iPhone 25%. That’s not gonna help Americans. It’s just gonna raise the price of the iPhone. It’s gonna hurt Apple. That’s not how you deal with it. You deal with it on the other end. We’re causing this problem by devaluing our dollar. All of this is Obama’s problem. It’s not the ChiComs’ problem.
Trump has got a lot of populist tendencies. I was bothered by ’em. Okay, so people have a visceral anger at the ChiComs. Okay, I’m gonna feed that. That’s populism and it might get you some votes, but it’s not conservative. It’s also not conservative to not take the time to understand what Paul Ryan’s Medicare proposal is. Trump’s out there ripping it to shreds, and I’m convinced he doesn’t know what it is. Paul Ryan’s Medicare proposals in his budget plan don’t touch current retirees. They’re totally left alone. Ryan understands full well you don’t change the rules in the middle of the game on current recipients. But at some point people who are a long way off from getting those benefits are gonna be told, “It’s gonna be different when you get to that age. Sorry, things have changed. This is the way it is.” So there are a number of things like this that you can say, okay, they’re populist. There’s no reason, as a conservative, to run down Ryan’s budget. But other Republicans are.
Right now, such a person on the conservative side has not surfaced. So here’s Trump, and he’s taking it to Obama. And admit it. That’s what you’ve wanted for two and a half years. Admit another thing. To us, there’s nothing superhuman about Barack Obama. All he is to us is a threat to our nation as we’ve always known it. All he is to us is somebody who is so wrong as to portend a genuine danger for the future of our kids and grandkids, whom we love, just as we love our country. And we want this disaster stopped, and 2012 is the first chance we’re gonna have. But frankly I don’t know a single Republican in the field who’s able to stand up and say what I just said. Have you heard it? Have you heard anybody who would say it? Is there anybody in our field who would refer to Obama as a disaster? No. They’re petrified. What they will do is say, “I think the president’s policies are taking the country in the wrong direction.” Yeah, that and a wet noodle will get you some fried rice. It’s far more desperate than the president’s policies are taking us in the wrong direction. His policies are illegitimate when contrasted with the United States of America as founded.
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