Posted on 12/17/2014 7:38:44 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Entrepreneur and television personality Donald Trump said he is “very strongly” considering a run for president, arguing the country is in “serious trouble.”
Trump also criticized the Senate Select Intelligence Committee for spending $40 million on the interrogation report [2] released last week.
“I am considering it very strongly. A lot of people think that I have fun with it, that I’m playing games, that I enjoy the process – and I do enjoy the process to a certain extent – but the country is in serious, serious trouble. We just, as you know, we just broke $18 trillion in debt, largely to different places like China and others and we just are in very, very serious trouble. So, I am considering it very strongly,” he said on Monday at an Economic of Club of Washington discussion with David Rubenstein, co-founder and co-CEO of The Carlyle Group.
Trump, who plans to attend events in the battleground state of Iowa next month, said he would probably reach a decision sometime in March, April or May of next year.
Rubenstein asked Trump if he would start in a position lower than president such as governor.
“I’m a Republican but I’ll support people I really think are going to be good, and frankly I just think we need something very good, very fast or we’re going to be in very big trouble as a country,” Trump said. “A lot of it’s common sense, for instance the torture report, do we have to announce the torture report, which by the way cost $40 million to do? I’m trying to figure out – how does this report cost $40 million? They paid a couple of guys $40 million. They paid $80 million to come up with the process. There’s so much. There are so many things I see in this country, whether it’s common sense or whatever.”
Trump, the chair and president of the Trump Organization, said America needs a leader who knows how to create jobs.
“I have a big voice. I have millions and millions of followers on Twitter and Facebook and when I say something some people don’t like it but most people do like it, and whether it’s jobs and the thing I like the best and the thing I think I’m best at is the economy and how to put people to work, and that’s what we need in this country,” he said.
Rubenstein said a presidential campaign is typically a two-year process followed by four or eight years for the winning candidate, which would be right in the peak of Trump’s earning period.
“You would say that’s OK?” he asked.
“I have a great company with tremendously talented people,” Trump responded. “Three of my five children are in the company, Don, Eric and Ivanka, and they’ve done a fantastic job.”
Trump said he would prefer to continue his current work instead of running for office, but loves the country more.
“Four years ago, I was leading in the polls, I was beating everybody in the polls and what happened is I just really was loving what I do. I love what I do. I would rather do what I’m doing than run for president, but I also love the country more and I just think unless I see somebody that’s outstanding, I would very much be inclined to do it,” he said.
Trump was also asked how he managed to raise children who are interested in his business and not rebelling against their father.
“From the time they were 2 years old, old enough to think and old enough to speak, I would say, listen, ‘no drugs, no alcohol, no cigarettes,’” he said. “I’ve seen people, like you, like me, very substantial people where they have children and they become alcoholics, they come drug addicts, they become other things.”
Trump told his children “no tattoos” but said that message “seems to be failing if you look at television.”
“I was always very strong on that because you’re put at such a tremendous disadvantage as a child that you’re never going to make it. You know how competitive it is and you see it because you hire all these young geniuses. If somebody’s a drinker, if somebody’s on drugs, it’s not going to work and I just say, ‘you can’t do that.’ I tell all my friends you’ve got to drum it into their heads no matter what you do,” he said.
If Donald Trump being in the race is what it will take for there to be a serious discussion about the mess the US economy is in, I’m all for it.
He should seriously support Ted Cruz and stay out of politics.
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Exactly! He and Ted need to have a “sit down”; SOON!
Whatever the truth about him is, the perception with about half the country (liberal or conservative) is that Trump is an attention-grabbing buffoon.
The Republicans could do better than running a caricature for President. With Trump, the liberal media would have half their work done for them in their usual character assassination campaign.
Realistically folks........ Love him or loathe him; how much of a chance do you think he’d have
#1. Getting the GOP nod and
#2. If he does, winning the General Election?
Trump was an avid supporter for Obama in 2008.
As a man who hires hundreds of people based on their qualifications, he was unable to see that Barack Obama had none. Trump supported the election of Obama on the basis of promises and skin color.
Trump lacks the judgement for the job. No way.
Also he thought it would be a good idea to have a faggot as a judge for the Miss America contest.
Oh God, please no. Then again, it would make for some funny moments.
I really really dislike him.
He’d be better then half the other candidates the GOP is putting up.
” Trump may be right some of the time, but on the whole he has always been very delusional when it comes to his own abilities. “
Trump is probably the best commercial real estate developer around ......total Class A properties.
Also, the best promoter since P.T. Barnum.
However, he is apparently clueless about anything else. Hey Trump, go home!
I don't think Donald Trump has love for anything other than Donald Trump. Right now, he can get his name out there (and, as others have mentioned, get people talking about Donald Trump) by saying things that are critical of Obama and at least nominally patriotic. But make no mistake - if he thought he could get a bigger response (and more support/adulation/etc.) from supporting Obama and/or criticizing America, he'd be on the bandwagon in a minute.
He must wake up every day and wonder what he can pi$$ away money on.
Before he makes up his mind to run for POTUS, I would like to see what he could do as Mayor of New York; Governor of New York, a New York Senator, and then and only then if he does good would I vote for him as Pres.
I think with his business knowledge, he could pull us out of the trillions of dollars Zero has put is in, but there are other things he needs to prove first.
He’d be better then half the other candidates the GOP is putting up.
And his wife would be the HOTTEST First Lady ever. That should count for something.
Trump cannot possibly be the one we need based on his past performance.
I thought he said he would only enter the race if he could skip the primaries and go to the head of the line at the Convention.
And he was smart enough to personally remove himself from Atlantic City when it was clear that it was dead in the water.
The idea that success in business will make someone a successful president is totally without merit, it was most recently proffered by Ross Perot because he had nothing else to offer. Herbert Hoover was by far the most successful businessman to ever be president, and though he wasn't as bad as the left makes him out to be, he was a pretty lousy president. Jimmy Carter was a very successful businessman (the whole small peanut farmer from Plains was an act, he had a very prosperous operation) and he was horrible as a president. Harry Truman was a lousy businessman, but a pretty good president as far as Democrats go (he was arguably to the right of every Republican that came after him except Reagan).
A lot of people like to quote Calvin Coolidge and say, "the business of America is business." However, this isn't what he said, his actual words were, "The chief business of the American people is business." Running a nation like a business will work some of the time, but it won't work when it really matters, not for a nation the size of ours. Russia is a business, it is a very large oil conglomerate owned and operated by Putin and a few dozen of his cronies, and it is run like a business; for about fifteen years, the Russian business was great, but the past year has demonstrated the flaw in running a nation as a business -- it only works when the outside world complies with your business model.
1,000 x 0 = 0
NO! Go away.
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