RUSH: By popular demand, ladies and gentlemen, we present to you Donald Trump live here on the EIB Network. Donald, great to have you here, sir, and how are you today?
RUSH: Thank you very much. I appreciate that. Now, let me tell you what happened here. Last week, after your CPAC speech a couple of weeks ago, we got a bunch of people phoning here wanting to know — they took you seriously. They think you’re running for president, you’re seriously considering it. If you go to CPAC they’re gonna take you seriously.
TRUMP: Right.
RUSH: And a couple people wanted to know — they had learned you had given some money to Rahm Emanuel’s mayoral campaign in Chicago — they asked me how could a guy that wants the Republican nomination do that? I said, ‘He’s got business in Chicago.’
TRUMP: Right.
RUSH: Chicago is Chicago. And that didn’t sit well with them. So I thought, ‘I’m gonna have Mr. Trump on and ask him myself.’ So I’m asking you so that they can hear your answer.
TRUMP: Good, Rush, I like actually giving the answer. Number one, I do business all over the country, and as an example, I’m from New York, which is an almost exclusively Democratic state. So over the years, Republicans in many cases don’t even run a candidate, sadly, and I say very sadly. Now, Ari Emanuel, who if you’ve looked they did Entourage on Ari Emanuel, that’s my agent. Rahm is his brother. Ari’s a great friend of mine —
RUSH: I saw you at the Oscars. That was you sitting there, right?
TRUMP: Right. Well, you know, The Apprentice, which is going on on Sunday night, is this big successful show, but Ari Emanuel is the biggest agent I guess in this country, and he represents me. His brother is running, and frankly they don’t even have a Republican candidate running. You know, over there in Chicago they have Democrats and they’re all running as Democrats essentially, but there’s no Republican or a Republican that’s gonna get more than, you know, anything more than 0% of the vote. So I like Rahm, I’ve always liked him as a person, and more importantly, Ari, his brother, is my agent. So I did make a contribution to him, and, frankly, I don’t think they had any Republicans running.
RUSH: So you value friendships?
TRUMP: I’m very loyal to people, Rush. I mean I see a lot of disloyalty around. I’m very loyal to people and that supersedes, frankly, party lines. But I’m very, very loyal to people and I’m also very loyal to people that I think are good for the country.
RUSH: Why are you thinking about running for president? I’ve talked to you over the years. I’ve listened to you on various places in the media for years. You sound different this time. You sound really ticked off. China, the economic direction of the country, you sound like it’s really bothering you now more than just something to say.
TRUMP: Well, you’re right about that, Rush. I’ve seen what’s happened to this country. We’re no longer respected. You have places like China, and I know the Chinese, I do business with the Chinese. I’ve made a lot of money off the Chinese, believe me. I had a partnership with Chinese people. It wasn’t fun, and I made a lot of money. I came out very, very strong.
RUSH: So why are you ripping ’em now?
TRUMP: Because I watch them and I see what they’re doing to the country, and I understand China, and I understand the Chinese mind. I understand where they’re coming from. They are not our friend and when I sit down — I sold an apartment recently for $33 million from a very nice couple from China. Thirty-three million dollars for the apartment, I’m very happy about it, but I sit down with people and I talk to ’em, from China, and really much more so prior to when I thought I may be running for president, because they’re not stupid people. They’re very smart people. They told me very, very distinctly that they cannot believe how stupid our representatives are in the United States. They cannot believe that they can continue to take all our jobs — you know, through the manipulation of the currency, of their currency, they make it almost impossible for our great companies to compete and —
TRUMP: Very good. China should have a currency which is a much higher value relative to the dollar and other things. What they’re doing is keeping it low, artificially low. And I mean seriously artificial. I don’t just mean a little bit low. I mean major low. Now when a guy comes to Donald Trump who wants to put up a glass curtain wall or aluminum something or even brick or Sheetrock, and you saw what happened with the Sheetrock, people are dying over Chinese Sheetrock because I will say this — and I have to interject — our products are better than the Chinese. We do a better job. We make better products. But because the currency is so low versus the dollar versus other things, and so much lower than it should be, it’s very hard to compete for our companies.
As an example, recently I built a building and I put a curtain wall, exterior wall, very expensive building, very beautiful wall, and the American companies that competed, the pricing was much higher because they couldn’t compete against the low valued yuan. And they just couldn’t compete with it, Rush, and I hated to give out the contract, but it’s almost impossible for somebody like me that obviously wants to build the building for the best price possible, it’s almost impossible to compete. I wanted to go American and I often do. I mean even if it’s close I go American, but it’s very hard for our companies to compete because they keep it artificially low.
Just take a look. We have the Olympics. They have gymnasts. ‘Oh, no, these gymnasts are all 14 or 15,’ or whatever the minimum age. Well, they didn’t look it to anybody. They were phenomenal, but don’t forget they’re not under pressure because all they want to do is they’re playing to their mommy, not 20 billion people, okay? So they had the gymnasts, well, it turned out that the gymnasts were a fraud and their medals were taken away and China knew all about it. The same thing with the singer at the Olympics. You had this unbelievably beautiful young woman who had the greatest voice anyone’s ever heard. ‘Yes, this is her voice. She sang their national anthem.’ It turned out she wasn’t singing. It was a fraud, they said it was her.
RUSH: Well, now, wait a second —
TRUMP: Rush, we’re not only talking about this one country. You look at South Korea, what they did. We signed a trade pact that nobody in their right mind would have signed. And it was so bad, and yet they didn’t want to sign it. Now, two months ago when bombs started getting lobbed over by North Korea and we send this incredible aircraft carrier, the George Washington and 17 destroyers heading right to North Korea, all of a sudden they sign and they announce that they are friends of our country. It’s a lot of crap. They make billions of dollars of, let’s call it profit, off the United States, Rush, billions of dollars. Why aren’t they paying for protection? We protect South Korea, and I know the Koreans very well. I had a partnership with the Koreans that was a fantastic partnership. I built Trump World Tower with Daewoo, which was a Korean company, and I did very well and they did very well. So I understand the people. And, by the way, I don’t dislike the Chinese people, I don’t dislike the Korean people, because if I were them I’d be doing the same thing. If our leaders are so stupid that they allow what’s happening — we can’t have jobs created, Rush, in this country if China is making all of our products.
RUSH: This is what I want to ask you about because the way the Chinese are presented to the average American here, and in listening to you it’s somewhat similar, they’re relatively omnipotent. On one hand they can devalue their currency, apparently without doing much harm to themselves. They can do this as a strategy to destroy our economy. At the same time they own an ever increasing amount of our debt. You said we have stupid leaders here. It’s almost as though — this stuff can’t happen in a vacuum. There has to be some reason this has been permitted to happen.
TRUMP: It is actually happening in a vacuum. Now, look, the debt is not a problem because, hey, look, nobody, Rush, over the years I’ve done tremendous business with banks, I work things out with banks and it’s not difficult if you know what you’re doing. If you don’t know what you’re doing it’s devastating because I have friends that are laying in the gutter right now that were rich people and they’re no longer rich people because of what the banks did to them. The fact is that the Chinese are taking advantage of our country. And by the way, the Chinese can’t even believe that they’re getting away with it.
RUSH: Well, it’s more than taking advantage. You said earlier they do look at us as an enemy.
TRUMP: Oh, they view us as an enemy, very, very militant toward the United States, and I don’t even think the United States knows it.
RUSH: What would constitute victory to them, then? What is their objective via us?
TRUMP: If you look at what they’re doing, they’re building military now. They just opened up plants to start building jet liners so, you know, that little trivial order that they gave to Boeing just to be nice because guys like me are talking about what a rip-off — here’s, when you think about President Obama, he gives the president of China a five-star dinner at the White House. When somebody rips me off I don’t give them five star dinners and neither do you, Rush, because I know you well and you don’t give five-star dinners. If you look at what’s happening, they give a $40 billion order, which is not a big deal, to Boeing. In other words, they want to walk off the plane and give us something after taking our trillions of dollars in this country.
RUSH: One forty eight.
TRUMP: Yeah, and we’ll be up there pretty soon because there’s nobody to call OPEC. You know, if it weren’t for us — why do we have troops in Saudi Arabia? We have troops in Saudi Arabia, can you imagine they’re not paying us with the money they’re making. They’re making more money than any country has made in the history of the world, legitimately making that kind of money. They form OPEC, they have 12 men, in this case all men, they sit around the table, any time there’s a minor incident in the world they raise the price of oil because, you know, they figure, well, nobody’s gonna call. When oil goes over $40 a barrel it’s almost impossible for our country to do well. That’s what it is. You look at oil, we’re up to a hundred now, we’re heading up, they keep raising it, when oil goes over $40, watch what happens. And the stock market is gonna end up being a big Ponzi scheme because the only thing that’s doing well in this country is the stock market, and —
RUSH: That’s because the Federal Reserve. Have you got a couple minutes more?
TRUMP: Yes, I do.
RUSH: I gotta take a quick time-out.
TRUMP: Sure.
RUSH: ‘Cause I want to find out what you would do about all this.
TRUMP: Okay.
RUSH: All right, we’ll be back. Donald Trump when we get back.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: And we are back with Donald Trump. Donald, the things you’ve articulated on China I think most people are going, ‘Rah-rah,’ agreeing with, and I think they totally understand it. Why do you think it’s not clear to more people in our government? Do you think Obama understands it the way you do? And what would you do if you were president to deal with all this?
TRUMP: Well, you know, Rush, I talk about China — and other countries, by the way. But I talk about China ’cause they’re the worst abuser, and we have this independent group of people that formed ShouldTrumpRun.com and we have over 400,000 people already signed up. What I don’t understand but I think maybe there is an understanding down deep, I believe it could be the lobbyists. Because so many people love what I say on China; they know it’s true. When Ben Bernanke gets up and says, ‘Jobs won’t be good for another five years,’ now, that sounds like a long time, but I disagree.
I don’t think jobs will ever be good if we keep going on this policy because we’re not making anything anymore. China and other countries are making our products. We are rebuilding China. So I say it over and over again. I do your show, I do Today Show, and I say it — and everybody loves it; and yet no politician ever says what I’m saying; and then they give, as I said, five-star dinners at the White House. So 400,000 people join ShouldTrumpRun.com and yet nobody… So what I think it is, is the politicians are all taken over by the lobbyists. I really believe the lobbyists keep them shut up because China and Chinese companies have all got tremendous lobbyists.
OPEC has got a monopoly. If you try and get a lobbyist in Washington to go against OPEC, they’ll say, ‘Oh, this is great. Donald Trump wants me to be a lobbyist,’ and then they’ll go check and say, ‘Oh, I’m sorry, Mr. Trump, we can’t represent you. We represent OPEC or one of the 12 nations.’ So it’s really… In my opinion, it has to be the lobbyists. Because I’ll say this, everybody will agree with me — and I know you agree with me — but everybody will agree with me, and then the politicians don’t speak up. And I think they don’t speak up because their local lobbyist has them shut up.
RUSH: Well, could there be an element of fear? I mean, people aren’t afraid of the United States anymore, Donald.
TRUMP: No, they’re not. No, we’re not respected. And one of the reasons I’m seriously thinking about running — and I mean seriously thinking — is that this is not a respected country anymore. I love this country. It’s got potential to be great again. But, really, Rush, it’s not great right now. It’s not great. China, in 12 years or less, will take over as the #1 nation in the world from an economic standpoint — and we’re doing it! We’re doing it. Now, you asked me before: What would I do? I would tell China that if you don’t straighten out your manipulation of the currency — and I mean fast; I mean really fast — we are going to tax your products 25%. Now, what that will do is two things. Number one: Immediately will start doing our own manufacturing. We don’t have to make toys that are coated with lead paint in China. We can make good toys in Alabama and North Carolina.
RUSH: How about Chinese screws? I mean, Chinese screws? You better not assemble anything with a screw made in China or you’ll BE screwed!
TRUMP: Many things are very… They call it the ‘counterfeiters.’ And by the way, even those laws, those laws are so bad for us in China — we make a product here and — they copy it in China and they couldn’t care less about infringement or anything else. We talk about the environmentalists. You know, they all want us to make our plan so that nothing can go into the air. Do you think China’s doing that? They laugh at us. They talk ‘green’ but they’re not ‘green.’ They talk green but they’re not — and this isn’t just me saying it on the basis of common sense. These are the biggest people in China who sit down with me and talk to me, and they can’t believe what they’re getting away with.
RUSH: Yeah, I’ve noticed that.
TRUMP: A lousy looking tent.
RUSH: Yup.
TRUMP: An old, rotten tent that frankly they probably rented, pay a guy millions of dollars for it even though it’s worth about $2, okay? So they have a tent for a dignitary that comes in. So recently, a couple of months ago, I called up the White House. I said, ‘Listen, I’m really good at this stuff. I will build you a magnificent ballroom. We’ll go through committees. You know, you have all sorts of things with committees. We’ll go through committees; we’ll pick the one they like. We’ll pick the architect everybody likes. We’ll pick something that works. We’ll do ten designs. You’ll pick the one that’s the greatest with the greatest architecture. I will build it free.’ So that’s anywhere from 50 to hundred million-dollar gift. I will give that, and I mean, I’m talking, Rush — it’s the first time I’ve said this. I’m talking to the biggest person, one of the biggest people at the White House. I’m not talking to a low-level person.
RUSH: Right.
TRUMP: One of the most important people. ‘I will build the White House a ballroom. So when the head of India comes to town we can give him a five-star dinner in a magnificent ballroom, befitting of this country and the White House,’ right? They never got back to me. It’s a hundred million-dollar gift. They never got back to me.
RUSH: Of course not! They think you’re a Republican.
TRUMP: Well, but they never got back to me, Rush. When whether I’m a Republican or an independent or a Democrat, they never got back to me. If I was a Republican they should do it anyway! They should say, ‘Trump’s gonna give us a hundred million dollars? He’s gonna build the ballroom? It’s gonna be magnificent?’ Why wouldn’t they get back to me? That’s the problem with this country. It’s like no common sense. They have no… Let me give you another example. We talk about not only China, Korea. So when we send the George Washington — the most magnificent aircraft carrier I’ve ever seen. When we send the George Washington and 17 destroyers and we head them to North Korea to protect South Korea, why doesn’t South Korea pay us for that? You know how much that costs just to turn on the engines of the George Washington?
RUSH: Yeah, yeah. Yup.
TRUMP: You know what I’m talking about. You turn those engines on, and that sucker costs you a hundred thousand bucks, okay? I mean, just to turn the key is a hundred thousand. Now, they’re steaming toward North Korea — and, by the way, the only reason that North Korea backed down was because they saw these ships steaming in their direction — and that’s all fine. Why isn’t South Korea sending us a check for a hundred million dollars for saving them and the protection? Why are we sending all these ships with all of these sailors and all of these soldiers over there? Why aren’t they protecting us? And they make hundreds… LG, I buy hundreds of them, LG. They make all of these television sets and all of these products that we take into this country. By the way, we signed an agreement, Rush, which allows them to sell but if we go to them it’s very hard for us to sell in South Korea. It’s very hard for us.
RUSH: Donald, I have —
TRUMP: Rush, we actually have something where for over a five-year period they treat us a little bit better. It’s an absolute joke.
RUSH: I have to stop you. I’ve only got 30 seconds left here and I know you’re busy. I wish I… I wanted to talk about Wisconsin with you and get your thoughts on what’s going on with the public sector union thing. We’ll have to do that at another time.
TRUMP: Absolutely.
RUSH: But I want to thank you for your time here, and your willingness to make yourself available.
TRUMP: Well, absolutely, Rush. And I really enjoy your show and I really enjoy you. And a lot of people enjoy you very much, Rush. They just don’t like saying it. They don’t like giving you the credit that you deserve.
RUSH: Thank you very much. Donald Trump from New York.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Say whatever you will about Donald Trump, there’s one thing nobody can deny, and that is he has a can-do spirit — good old American can-do spirit — and Trump’s can-do spirit is backed up with Trump’s can-do action. It really is. I would love to see a debate on economics between Trump and Obama. Mr. ‘Scholar,’ Mr. Faculty Lounge Extraordinaire versus Mr. Real World Builder. I would love to see that. Obama wouldn’t even get out his first sentence by the time Trump had given ten answers.