May 23, 2012

Billionaire businessman Donald Trump tells Newsmax he is seriously considering launching his own super PAC to produce anti-Obama ads showing how Washington is allowing outsiders to “absolutely suck the blood out of this country.”

 

Trump sat down in New York on Wednesday with former Congressman and Newsmax columnist John LeBoutillier for an exclusive interview exploring a wide range of topics, including the economy and the deficit, Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign, the Keystone pipeline, the “disaster” of Obamacare, Facebook, potential GOP vice presidential nominees, and the European financial crisis.

LeBoutillier asked the real estate mogul and host of “The Apprentice” if anyone has approached him to fund a super PAC to support political candidates.

 

“Yes they have, and I am thinking about just doing my own super PAC.

“There was a recent [anti-Obama] commercial done where they made him look like a superhero. I’m saying, who made this commercial? I thought it was one of the worst commercial I’ve ever seen.

 

“If I did one I would show how bad we’re doing as a country, how disrespected we are as a country. I would show people from OPEC, 11 people sitting around a beautiful gold-encrusted table talking about how they are going to continue to rip off the United States.

 

“I would do one on China and talk about the manipulation of their currency, which is draining the blood out of this country. We could stop that very easily. All we have to do is impose a 25 percent tax on their products coming in. Somebody would say, Oh gee, what about free trade?

Well, I’m a believer in fair trade, not necessarily free trade. We don’t have fair trade. You try to do business in China. It’s very very hard. It’s a one-way street."

 

Trump flirted with the idea of a presidential candidacy last year and even enjoyed a brief turn in the polls as the frontrunner. He first gained serious attention in March 2011 with his harsh words for China and his tough critique of the Obama administration's weak foreign policy.

 

“My super PAC ads would be focused on how outside places and outside things are absolutely sucking the blood out of this country, and this country can’t be great again unless it really starts to generate money. You can’t fund Medicare, you can’t fund Social Security, unless we start to generate money, and we can’t because outside sources are taking our money. We’re like children with a wallet and they’re just taking the money right out of our wallet.”

 

Trump comments on a new Wall Street Journal/NBC poll showing that 48 percent of the American people think the country is in a serious long-term decline. “I’m actually surprised that 48 percent is the number because you would think it would be much higher,” he says. “If people knew what was going on, which obviously they don’t when I hear that number, it should be much higher.

 

Story continues below.

 

 

 

 

“The country’s in serious trouble. We owe $16 trillion. We have other countries making our product, particularly China. We have OPEC taking advantage of us and laughing at us all the way to the bank.

“This year China‘s going to make $350 billion from us, and they take our jobs and they manipulate their currency. What they do is unbelievable, and they laugh at us. They think we’re stupid. They think we’re led by a group of fools.

“You come back to this country and you land at La Guardia or Kennedy or in Los Angeles and we’re like a Third World country. We go to other countries, you see their airports, they’re incredible. So when I heard numbers like that I’m actually surprised. We are doing very poorly as a country and we’ve become a laughingstock for other countries.”

 

Asked how the nation can reverse that decline, Trump responds confidently: “It’s not difficult. We have such tremendous potential in this country, maybe more than ever before, because over the past several years we’ve found that we have a lot of energy under our feet that we never knew existed before, and new technology gets us that energy, whether it’s natural gas or even clean coal.

 

“I see what they’re doing with coal. We ship tremendous amounts of coal to China. Believe me they don’t clean it and we’re not allowed to use it in this country.

 

“We’re closing up coals plants all over the place and yet China is spewing out [pollution] like it’s nothing. So we don’t use our resources. When you talk about the energy under our own feet, when you look at North Dakota and a few other places where they’re going wild and where unemployment is at such a great level, and you look at what’s happening between the Environmental Protection Agency and all the environmental problems that have been falsely created, we’re not allowed to take our own energy.

 

“I’m a big fan of the Keystone pipeline. But at the same time I don’t even like getting energy from Canada, and I love Canada. But we don’t need energy from Canada. We have it all here.

 

“With that being said, we should still have the Keystone pipeline. It means thousands and thousands of jobs and it’s another resource for energy so it’s a good thing, and it’s only going to be sold to China anyway.

 

“We have such potential for turning what sounds like insurmountable deficits into tremendous positive balance, and we can do it quickly with the right leadership.”

 

Speaking more specifically about cutting the deficit, Trump tells Newsmax: “I’ve heard the Ryan plan and I think it is very dangerous for the Republicans. People are going to vote against a lot of very good Republicans because they’re talking about cutting Medicare and cutting Medicaid and cutting Social Security, and I think the Republicans better be damned careful because that plan is a disaster.

 

“All you have to do is take a look at what happened in Buffalo, N.Y. A very popular Republican woman was running, and she embraced that plan and she lost to a Democrat no one had ever heard of.

 

“I’m very strong on defense. I am the biggest hawk that you can be so I’m not for cutting defense. If anything, I’m increasing defense. I am for increasing the economy.

 

“When the economy gets good, Social Security all of a sudden works, Medicare works. You have to get rid of the fraud, the waste and all of that with Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security. But all these things start to work when the economy is booming.

 

“Now [these entitlements are] such a tremendous factor. Why? Because China’s making our product and OPEC is ripping us. Colombia, a small trading partner, last year made $4 billion on us. We can’t keep going like this. We need people who know what they’re doing in terms of business and negotiations.

 

“You also need people with heart. And I think Mitt Romney’s the perfect combination we’re going to see. I heard Mitt start talking about China, and he’s the only one that gets it, the only one who understands what China is doing to this country. And I immediately said, That’s the guy."

 

Trump believes that Romney’s election could unleash business spending and spur the growth the economy needs: “I think just the fact that he came in and got elected would have a tremendous boost for this country. We have a wet blanket over this country right now, a real damper, and frankly a real downer, and the fact that he would win would have a tremendous positive impact.”

 

Trump says the Obama campaign’s attempts to attack Romney over his management of Bain Capital “may be working. But I think it’s very unfair. Mitt Romney did a great job at Bain. You look at Staples, which was a disaster. He got involved, invested money, and it’s a great company today.

 

“Give me the greatest deal maker and I can tell you deals that didn’t work. But overall they’re billions and billions of dollars up. It’s very unfair.

 

“I think there’s a very good chance [the attack on Romney over Bain] is a way of trying to get the Obama point across, whether it’s fair or not, and that’s why I tell Mitt and I tell everybody, You’re going to have to be just as vicious as they are. They have to also bring things up.

 

“You look at some of the deals done by this country. Solyndra, a total catastrophe; $500 million thrown out the window. We have to be very strong. That means bringing up Rev. Wright. That is not an old story.

 

It’s a brand-new story because a very very good writer, a great reporter named Ed Klein, did a book and he’s got recent tapes, recent interviews with Rev. Wright, and Rev. Wright calls Obama essentially a liar. I don’t know why the Republicans wouldn’t be using that kind of stuff.

 

“Here’s the thing: It’s going to be a vicious campaign against Mitt Romney and the Republicans. The Republicans likewise are going to have to counterattack. John McCain is a fine man. He ran a campaign where he didn’t want to use any of the things that he had. I hope that Mitt is going to be equally as strong as Obama’s going to be.”

 

Asked what he thinks of The Washington Post running a front-page expose on Mitt Romney’s behavior in boarding school, claiming he took part in an attack on a fellow student, Trump responds: “It was a disgrace, and I don’t believe it happened.

 

“Frankly, Mitt said that he doesn’t remember any of that and apologized. If I were Mitt, I wouldn’t have apologized because there’s nothing to apologize for. There’s just nothing.

 

“I know Mitt. It’s not his personality. I know a lot of personalities and you know you don’t change so much from the time you’re 18 to the time you’re 60. You really don’t change so much. You have a certain makeup . . . He’s not a harasser. He’s not a bully. He’s not one of these guys. He’s a high-quality guy. He said he didn’t remember it and therefore I wouldn’t have apologized.”

 

He adds: “If you’re going to look at that, on something that I don’t believe ever happened, you have to look into Barack Obama saying that he was heavy into drugs, heavy into alcohol, was a total disaster, was a horrible student. Then you have to say if he was a horrible student, how did he get into Columbia? How did he get into Harvard?

 

“Mitt is a smart guy with a great memory. He doesn’t remember it. That should be it. If you’re going to look into that, you certainly have to look into Obama’s drug use.

 

“I remember when George Bush said he took just a minor smoke, marijuana; this was like the biggest story. But with Obama, he said he was seriously into it and they don’t make a big deal out of it.

 

“If you’re going to look at Mitt Romney’s past, then you have to look at Obama’s past. But for some reason, the press doesn’t want to look at Obama’s past.”

 

But there are some in the press that are “pretty strongly against” Obama, Trump says.

 

“Drudge is terrific and I think they do an amazing job. You certainly couldn’t say they’re in his camp. Generally speaking Fox [is against him], although Bill O’Reilly I think is quite neutral. But you watch Sean Hannity and nobody would think Sean is exactly neutral.

 

“You can’t say all of it, but certainly the mainstream [is for Obama]. I know when I was thinking about running, reports were done about me that were so false and they knew they were false, and we told them and gave them evidence and they ran with them anyway.”

 

The Daily Caller is reporting that Trump might be giving a big speech, maybe even a keynote address, at the GOP Convention in Tampa in August.

 

But Trump, who toyed with launching a presidential campaign, says: “I love what I’m doing. I was thinking about running. I was doing phenomenally in the polls as you know, better than anybody, and I decided I really liked Romney, I liked what he said, I liked his attitude on OPEC and China and lots of other things.

 

“I’m not looking to do the speech. But I have agreed to do the keynote speech in North Carolina for the North Carolina Republican Party on June 1, and I look forward to doing that.

 

“I bought a massive, beautiful, magnificent development there about a month ago. It was formerly called The Pointe, now it’s called Trump National, and it’s a fantastic place, and I’m going to be in North Carolina and I have agreed to do that speech.”

 

North Carolina “is so important” as a battleground state, he adds.

 

But Trump concedes that if he was asked to come to the GOP convention, “I would certainly consider it. I think they have a lot of people but I would certainly consider it.

 

“Look, I really like Mitt. I think I’ve been a big help to Mitt. I think Mitt will be a great candidate. More importantly, I think he’ll be a great president.

 

“I think I’ve helped him a lot with four or five states that were marginal, very close. I helped in Florida, Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin. A couple of other places, even Nevada where he won by substantially more the day I endorsed him.

 

“I’ve given him a lot of help and I really am very honored to have done it. He’s a good man. I think he’d be a good president.”

 

In his exclusive interview, Trump also:

 

 

• Names several figures he’d like to see as Mitt Romney’s running mate.
• Explores the potential impact of a Supreme Court decision striking down Obamacare.
• Discusses the recent initial public offering by Facebook.
• Points to potential benefits to the United States from the European financial crisis.