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Donald Trump Announces Run for Presidency. Aired 11:30a-12:00p ET.

Aired June 16, 2015 - 11:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[11:30:30] DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: So Mexico takes a company, a car company that was going to build in Tennessee, rips it out. Everybody thought the deal was dead. Reported it in the Wall Street Journal recently. Everybody thought it was a done deal. It's going in and that's going to be it, going into Tennessee. Great state, great people.

All of a sudden, at the last moment, this big car manufacturer, foreign, announces they're not going to Tennessee. They're going to spend their $1 billion in Mexico instead. Not good.

Now, Ford announces a few weeks ago that Ford is going to build a $2.5 billion car and truck and parts manufacturing plant in Mexico. $2.5 billion, it's going to be one of the largest in the world. Ford. Good company.

So I announced that I'm running for president. I would.

One of the early things I would do, probably before I even got in - and I wouldn't even use - you know, I have - I know the smartest negotiators in the world. I know the good ones. I know the bad ones. I know the overrated ones.

You get a lot of them that are overrated. They're not good. They think they are. They get good stories, because the newspapers get buffaloed. But they're not good.

But I know the negotiators in the world, and I put them one for each country. Believe me, folks. We will do very, very well, very, very well.

But I wouldn't even waste my time with this one. I would call up the head of Ford, who I know. If I was president, I'd say, "Congratulations. I understand that you're building a nice $2.5 billion car factory in Mexico and that you're going to take your cars and sell them to the United States zero tax, just flow them across the border." Street journal" recently.

And you say to yourself, "How does that help us," right? "How does that help us? Where is that good"? It's not.

So I would say, "Congratulations. That's the good news. Let me give you the bad news. Every car and every truck and every part manufactured in this plant that comes across the border, we're going to charge you a 35-percent tax, and that tax is going to be paid simultaneously with the transaction, and that's it.

Now, here's what is going to happen. If it's not me in the position, it's one of these politicians that we're running against, you know, the 400 people that we're already have. And here's what's going to happen. They're not so stupid. They know it's not a good thing, and they may even be upset by it. But then they're going to get a call from the donors or probably from the lobbyist for Ford and say, "You can't do that to Ford, because Ford takes care of me and I take care of you, and you can't do that to Ford."

And guess what? No problem. They're going to build in Mexico. They're going to take away thousands of jobs. It's very bad for us.

So under President Trump, here's what would happen:

The head of Ford will call me back, I would say within an hour after I told them the bad news. But it could be he'd want to be cool, and he'll wait until the next day. You know, they want to be a little cool.

And he'll say, "Please, please, please." He'll beg for a little while, and I'll say, "No interest." Then he'll call all sorts of political people, and I'll say, "Sorry, fellas. No interest," because I don't need anybody's money. It's nice. I don't need anybody's money.

I'm using my own money. I'm not using the lobbyists. I'm not using donors. I don't care. I'm really rich. I'll share with you.

And by the way, I'm not even saying that's the kind of mindset, that's the kind of thinking you need for this country.

So - because we got to make the country rich.

It sounds crass. Somebody said, "Oh, that's crass." It's not crass.

We got $18 trillion in debt. We got nothing but problems.

We got a military that needs equipment all over the place. We got nuclear weapons that are obsolete.

We've got nothing. We've got Social Security that's going to be destroyed if somebody like me doesn't bring money into the country. All these other people want to cut the hell out of it. I'm not going to cut it at all; I'm going to bring money in, and we're going to save it.

But here's what's going to happen:

After I'm called by 30 friends of mine who contributed to different campaigns, after I'm called by all of the special interests and by the - the donors and by the lobbyists - and they have zero chance at convincing me, zero - I'll get a call the next day from the head of Ford. He'll say. "Please reconsider," I'll say no.

He'll say, "Mr. President, we've decided to move the plant back to the United States, and we're not going to build it in Mexico." That's it. They have no choice. They have no choice.

[11:35:00] There are hundreds of things like that. I'll give you another example.

Saudi Arabia, they make $1 billion a day. $1 billion a day. I love the Saudis. Many are in this building. They make a billion dollars a day. Whenever they have problems, we send over the ships. We say "we're going to protect." What are we doing? They've got nothing but money.

If the right person asked them, they'd pay a fortune. They wouldn't be there except for us.

And believe me, you look at the border with Yemen. You remember Obama a year ago, Yemen was a great victory. Two weeks later, the place was blown up. Everybody got out - and they kept our equipment.

They always keep our equipment. We ought to send used equipment, right? They always keep our equipment. We ought to send some real junk, because, frankly, it would be - we ought to send our surplus. We're always losing this gorgeous brand-new stuff.

But look at that border with Saudi Arabia. Do you really think that these people are interested in Yemen? Saudi Arabia without us is gone. They're gone.

And I'm the one that made all of the right predictions about Iraq. You know, all of these politicians that I'm running against now - it's so nice to say I'm running as opposed to if I run, if I run. I'm running.

But all of these politicians that I'm running against now, they're trying to disassociate. I mean, you looked at Bush, it took him five days to answer the question on Iraq. He couldn't answer the question. He didn't know. I said, "Is he intelligent?"

Then I looked at Rubio. He was unable to answer the question, is Iraq a good thing or bad thing? He didn't know. He couldn't answer the question.

How are these people going to lead us? How are we going to - how are we going to go back and make it great again? We can't. They don't have a clue. They can't lead us. They can't. They can't even answer simple questions. It was terrible.

But Saudi Arabia is in big, big trouble. Now, thanks to frocking and other things, the oil is all over the place. And I used to say it, there are ships at sea, and this was during the worst crisis, that were loaded up with oil, and the cartel kept the price up, because, again, they were smarter than our leaders. They were smarter than our leaders. There is so much wealth out there that can make our country so

rich again, and therefore make it great again. Because we need money. We're dying. We're dying. We need money. We have to do it. And we need the right people.

So Ford will come back. They'll all come back. And I will say this, this is going to be an election, in my opinion, that's based on competence.

Somebody said - thank you, darling'.

Somebody said to me the other day, a reporter, a very nice reporter, "But, Mr. Trump, you're not a nice person."

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We don't need them.

TRUMP: That's true. But actually I am. I think I am a nice person. People that know me, like me. Does my family like me? I think so, right. Look at my family. I'm proud of my family.

By the way, speaking of my family, Melania, Barron, Kai, Donnie, Don, Vanessa, Tiffany, Ivanka did a great job. Did she do a great job?

Great. Jared, Laura and Eric, I'm very proud of my family. They're a great family.

So the reporter said to me the other day, "But, Mr. Trump, you're not a nice person. How can you get people to vote for you?"

I said, "I don't know." I said, "I think that number one, I am a nice person. I give a lot of money away to charities and other things. I think I'm actually a very nice person."

But, I said, "This is going to be an election that's based on competence, because people are tired of these nice people. And they're tired of being ripped off by everybody in the world. And they're tired of spending more money on education than any nation in the world per capita, than any nation in the world, and we are 26th in the world, 25 countries are better than us in education. And some of them are like third world countries. But we're becoming a third world country, because of our infrastructure, our airports, our roads, everything. So one of the things I did, and I said, you know what I'll do. I'll do it. Because a lot of people said, "He'll never run. Number one, he won't want to give up his lifestyle."

They're right about that, but I'm doing it.

[11:40:00] Number two, I'm a private company, so nobody knows what I'm worth. And the one thing is that when you run, you have to announce and certify to all sorts of governmental authorities your net worth.

So I said, "That's OK." I'm proud of my net worth. I've done an amazing job. I started off - thank you - I started off in a small office with

my father in Brooklyn and Queens, and my father said - and I love my father. I learned so much. He was a great negotiator. I learned so much just sitting at his feet playing with blocks listening to him negotiate with subcontractors. But I learned a lot.

But he used to say, "Donald, don't go into Manhattan. That's the big leagues. We don't know anything about that. Don't do it."

I said, "I got to go into Manhattan. I got to build those big buildings. I got to do it, Dad. I've got to do it."

And after four or five years in Brooklyn, I ventured into Manhattan and did a lot of great deals - the Grand Hyatt Hotel. I was responsible for the convention center on the west side. I did a lot of great deals, and I did them early and young. And now I'm building all over the world, and I love what I'm doing.

But they all said, a lot of the pundits on television, "Well, Donald will never run, and one of the main reasons is he's private and he's probably not as successful as everybody thinks."

So I said to myself, you know, nobody's ever going to know unless I run, because I'm really proud of my success. I really am.

I've employed - I've employed tens of thousands of people over my lifetime. That means medical. That means education. That means everything.

So a large accounting firm and my accountants have been working for months, because it's big and complex, and they've put together a statement, a financial statement, just a summary. But everything will be filed eventually with the government, and we don't need extensions or anything. We'll be filing it right on time. We don't need anything.

And it was even reported incorrectly yesterday, because they said, "He had assets of $9 billion." So I said, "No, that's the wrong number. That's the wrong number. Not assets."

So they put together this. And before I say it, I have to say this. I made it the old-fashioned way. It's real estate. You know, it's real estate.

It's labor, and it's unions good and some bad and lots of people that aren't in unions, and it's all over the place and building all over the world.

And I have assets - big accounting firm, one of the most highly respected - 9 billion $9,240,000,000.

And I have liabilities of about $500 million. That's long-term debt, very low interest rates.

In fact, one of the big banks came to me and said, "Donald, you don't have enough borrowings. Could we loan you $4 billion"? I said, "I don't need it. I don't want it. And I've been there. I don't want it."

But in two seconds, they give me whatever I wanted. So I have a total net worth, and now with the increase, it'll be well-over $10 billion. But here, a total net worth of - net worth, not assets, not - a net worth, after all debt, after all expenses, the greatest assets - Trump Tower, 1290 Avenue of the Americas, Bank of America building in San Francisco, 40 Wall Street, sometimes referred to as the Trump building right opposite the New York - many other places all over the world.

So the total is $8,737,540,000.

Now I'm not doing that...

I'm not doing that to brag, because you know what? I don't have to brag. I don't have to, believe it or not.

I'm doing that to say that that's the kind of thinking our country needs. We need that thinking. We have the opposite thinking.

We have losers. We have losers. We have people that don't have it. We have people that are morally corrupt. We have people that are selling this country down the drain.

[11:45:00] So I put together this statement, and the only reason I'm telling you about it today is because we really do have to get going, because if we have another three or four years - you know, we're at $8 trillion now. We're soon going to be at $20 trillion.

According to the economists - who I'm not big believers in, but, nevertheless, this is what they're saying - that $24 trillion - we're very close - that's the point of no return. $24 trillion. We will be there soon. That's when we become Greece. That's when we become a country that's unsalvageable. And we're going to be there very soon. We're going to be there very soon.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Make America strong.

TRUMP: So, just to sum up, I would do various things very quickly. I would repeal and replace the big lie, Obamacare.

I would build a great wall, and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me, and I'll build them very inexpensively, I will build a great, great wall on our southern border. And I will have Mexico pay for that wall.

Mark my words.

Nobody would be tougher on ISIS than Donald Trump. Nobody.

I will find - within our military, I will find the General Patton or I will find General MacArthur, I will find the right guy. I will find the guy that's going to take that military and make it really work. Nobody, nobody will be pushing us around.

I will stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons. And we won't be using a man like Secretary Kerry that has absolutely no concept of negotiation, who's making a horrible and laughable deal, who's just being tapped along as they make weapons right now, and then goes into a bicycle race at 72 years old, and falls and breaks his leg. I won't be doing that. And I promise I will never be in a bicycle race. That I can tell you.

I will immediately terminate President Obama's illegal executive order on immigration, immediately.

Fully support and back up the Second Amendment.

Now, it's very interesting. Today I heard it. Through stupidity, in a very, very hard core prison, interestingly named Clinton, two vicious murderers, two vicious people escaped, and nobody knows where they are. And a woman was on television this morning, and she said, "You know, Mr. Trump," and she was telling other people, and I actually called her, and she said, "You know, Mr. Trump, I always was against guns. I didn't want guns. And now since this happened" - it's up in the prison area - "my husband and I are finally in agreement, because he wanted the guns. We now have a gun on every table. We're ready to start shooting."

I said, "Very interesting."

So protect the Second Amendment.

End - end Common Core. Common Core should - it is a disaster. Bush is totally in favor of Common Core. I don't see how he can possibly get the nomination. He's weak on immigration. He's in favor of Common Core. How the hell can you vote for this guy? You just can't do it. We have to end education has to be local.

Rebuild the country's infrastructure.

Nobody can do that like me. Believe me. It will be done on time, on budget, way below cost, way below what anyone ever thought.

I look at these roads being built all over the country, and I say I can build those things for one-third. What they do is unbelievable, how bad.

You know, we're building on Pennsylvania Avenue, the Old Post Office, we're converting it into one of the world's great hotels. It's going to be the best hotel in Washington, D.C. We got it from the General Services Administration in Washington. The Obama administration. We got it. It was the most highly sought after - or one of them, but I think the most highly sought after project in the history of General Services. We got it. People were shocked, Trump got it.

[11:50:00] Well, I got it for two reasons. Number one, we're really good. Number two, we had a really good plan. And I'll add in the third, we had a great financial statement. Because the General Services, who are terrific people, by the way, and talented people, they wanted to do a great job. And they wanted to make sure it got built. So we have to rebuild our infrastructure, our bridges, our

roadways, our airports. You come into La Guardia Airport, it's like we're in a third world country. You look at the patches and the 40- year-old floor. They throw down asphalt, and they throw.

You look at these airports, we are like a third world country. And I come in from China and I come in from Qatar and I come in from different places, and they have the most incredible airports in the world. You come to back to this country and you have LAX, disaster. You have all of these disastrous airports. We have to rebuild our infrastructure.

Save Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security without cuts. Have to do it.

Get rid of the fraud. Get rid of the waste and abuse, but save it. People have been paying it for years. And now many of these candidates want to cut it. You save it by making the United States, by making us rich again, by taking back all of the money that's being lost.

Renegotiate our foreign trade deals.

Reduce our $18 trillion in debt, because, believe me, we're in a bubble. We have artificially low interest rates. We have a stock market that, frankly, has been good to me, but I still hate to see what's happening. We have a stock market that is so bloated.

Be careful of a bubble because what you've seen in the past might be small potatoes compared to what happens. So be very, very careful.

And strengthen our military and take care of our vets. So, so important.

Sadly, the American dream is dead.

But if I get elected president I will bring it back bigger and better and stronger than ever before, and we will make America great again.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

BERMAN: All right. Ladies and gentlemen. You saw just like we did Donald Trump just announced he is running for president. In a way I'm glad we watched it together because I'm not sure when I'm kidding when I said well, it might look back and say we remember where we were when it happened. For better or for worse.

BOLDUAN: Yes. So here to discuss as he spoke for 45 minutes. What we all just experience in that announcement, John Avalon, S.E. Cupp and Errol Louis. Are all here to weigh in.

S.E., speaking to you, before we went into the speech by Donald Trump and I saw you say he basically was winging it. Nothing to do with the prepared remarks that he put out. But I think kind of emblematic of the theme and tone of his remarks. One that got all our attention is when he says, I will be the

greatest jobs president that God ever created. What do you think?

S.E. CUPP, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What do I think? There are no work, how do you even have a straight face right now. There are no work to describe what just happened. Yes, I got an embargoed speech, it was nothing like what we just saw. The embargoed speech was serious, it was maybe 10 minutes long.

Trump was winging it from the very beginning he walked on that stage. I think it might be the first time a presidential announcement included the word, crap. Which he said. He said we've got stupid people he said this country's got losers. I mean, it was a rumbling mess of speech. That said, it was very entertaining. I was howling, howling.

BERMAN: Very entertaining.

CUPP: Yes.

BERMAN: You know, Errol, I have to tell you, I mean, our Twitter people just railing against and saying things how can you keep this guy on TV, this is a forest. But he is in the race. Polls show he will likely be at the first two debates coming up, the Fox debate and the CNN debate. He is in the top 10 right now on the national polls. So what do you do with this?

ERROL LOUIS, POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: What do you do with it? Well, those of us who are big fans of open debate and free speech, we have - we're getting a little gut checks here. You want free speech, this is what you get. You have somebody who is polling on the same range as somebody like Governor Kasich of Ohio. Governor Christie in New Jersey.

[11:55:00] The public seems to know or like something about this guy. So we'll take it for it is. I would caution everybody. The first election I have ever voted in a long time ago was in 1980 and people said, Ronald Reagan he was playing opposite to chimpanzee, he couldn't be a seriously candidate for office and he won the presidency twice.

You know, people like to compare Donald Trump to PT Barnum. PT Barnum served in the Connecticut, State legislature and was very bridged to it. And he was being a great entertainer. So, we might get some entertainment but we might also get some very bit of conversation about government.

BOLDUAN: And also John, what do you think about this? I mean, will voters take him seriously? Would senators take him seriously? What segments the Republican country is Donald Trump speaking to?

JOHN AVLON, POLITICAL ANALYST: This was all populous scrutiny. But it wasn't an infomercial about Donald Trump and how successful and rich he is right now. Is and how stupid everyone else America is. It will resonate to some people sometimes likes to say. But do not underestimate the absurdity of what we just endured. I mean, this was basically a speech that was 50 percent how rich

and successful and the Donald Trump was he can get the CEO for on the phone and he is going to take on the Chinese but he loves them he just sold them a big apartment. I mean, that was about his unhinged and we're going to see on a presidential stage...

BERMAN: Gives clowns of bad names.

BOLDUAN: Errol says, you know, he says with a smile on his face don't write him off, you're writing him off though, yes.

AVLON: Oh, I'm not writing off some people and as PT Barnum said, there' a sucker born every minute, it would be enough in the American poll. But let's offer just a reality check to what we just saw. This isn't remotely analogous to Ronald Reagan a two-term governor in California. Not even a little bit. This is reality TV show star trying to run to pump up his profile even more because he is drunk on pure ego.

BOLDUAN: Talk about this does practically to the race because did do something interesting there. I mean, he calls out people like Jeb Bush by name who says, how the hell can you vote for this guy? What kind of a problem does this create for the other candidate, S.E.

CUPP: You know, as he said before he was announcing, depending on which Trump shows up, you know, if there is a very serious Trump mistaking this candidacy seriously and came out with a serious policy. Speech which he is capable of doing, then I think he could have potentially given, you know, the frontrunners in this campaign a reality check.

Maybe kept them on their toes, kept them populist. But if the performer Trump showed up, all I think does is make the second and third tier candidates look serious by default. Someone like Ben Carson is now going to look serious which is troubling and deeply disturbing. Because Trump is apparently going to be out of to look serious, which is troubling, deeply disturbing, because Trump apparently to China, instead serious policy speeches.

Now, I don't know maybe this was the big performance and the rest of his campaign is going to be serious, which in which case Errol makes a good point. I mean, you know, you could potentially get some serious policy and have serious debate about government through a Trump presidency.

This is a sneak preview though, no. I don't think we're going to get anything close to that.

BERMAN: All right. S.E., Errol, John Avlon, thanks so much.

BOLDUAN: Thanks to you guys so much. Greatest ever according to S.E. Cupp we'll remember that. We also need to crack a very important term though to some very important news that we're hearing. Some of the information of the security threat at a Naval station in Philadelphia.

Let's get right over to Barbara Starr. Barbara you're picking up new information. What's going on?

BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning Kate and John. CNN has learned a short time ago that Naval Station activity in Philadelphia has gone to force protection level, very significant that means, there is a potential threat of an imminent attack as the Pentagon defines it.

What has happened this morning is the FBI notified the Navy earlier this morning. It had potential intelligent of a potentially credible attack. They informed the Navy that this intelligence centered around the Naval support activity in Philly. This is an area just off the Delaware river where the Navy maintains offices, warehouses, supplies there's no optional activity there. No ship, nothing like that. But a place where there are a lot office workers and a lot of activity.

The FBI said it had an intelligence of a potentially credible threat that Navy then about 90 minutes ago moved to significantly raised protection level. Local media reports say that workers are being evacuated from the area being sent home more information is expected.

John, Kate.

BERMAN: All right. Barbara Starr for us. Thank you so much. The news, are credible threat against naval installations in Philadelphia. They have been evacuated for now. Thanks, Barbara.