FOX "Hannity" - Transcript: Trump Interview

Interview

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HANNITY: All right, joining us now with reaction is the author of "Crippled America: How to Make America Great Again," 2016 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

It looked like you had a great time. Did you have fun doing that?

TRUMP: I did. It was really fantastic. And I was so happy to see when the numbers came in the following day, the ratings, it was really -- it made me very happy to see it because it is a lot of work and it's a lot of pressure, frankly. You know, you're on the -- you know if you make a little mistake, you're going to be criticized very badly for it.

So people treated me very nicely, and the number of viewers -- I guess it was almost 50 percent higher than the opening night, which was with Hillary and Miley Cyrus. So I can tell you Lorne Michaels and everybody over at "Saturday Night Live," Sean, they were very happy.

HANNITY: Did you -- were there some skits that you felt were a little too over the top? It was reported that maybe you didn't want to do this. I'm in the middle of a presidential campaign. Did that happen?

TRUMP: Yes, there were. I mean, I could have done some things that would have been wildly popular, but I thought it would have been inappropriate. They had one, you know, conceivably, where you attack Ben, and I didn't think that would be nice under the circumstances.

And they had a couple of others that were a little bit risque, and I thought maybe it wouldn't have been so good.

HANNITY: Let me...

TRUMP: It would have been good, I think, for viewers. I don't think it would have been good for me in terms of running for an election.

HANNITY: We showed the moment where the, quote, "president of Mexico" says, Here's the check for the wall. There was another moment, Larry David, because we had the controversy leading into this appearance. -- let me show that and ask you if this was an opportunity for you. Let's roll the tape.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: And we're going to have a lot of fun tonight!

LARRY DAVID, COMEDIAN: You're a racist.

TRUMP: Who is hell is -- oh, yes. I knew this was going to happen. Who is that?

DAVID: Trump's a racist!

(LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: It's Larry David. What are you doing, Larry?

DAVID: I heard if I yelled that, they'd give me $5,000.

(LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: As a businessman, I can fully respect that. That's OK.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: In a way, for those that have been critical of you, was that an opportunity to say, This is ridiculous?

TRUMP: I think so. You know, it was something that I approved, and it was even my idea to a certain extent. And I thought so. Larry was fantastic. He's a great guy. And he said, Let's do this, because people are saying, Well, maybe somebody in the audience will say this. I said, well, maybe we can do it first. That'll be great.

And it was really -- it was played all over the world. That whole thing was -- I mean, many of the parts. I think the Mexican wall might have been the most popular thing that came out, the check. and it was a check for $200 million (sic) or something. It was just fun.

HANNITY: Well, I asked that question...

TRUMP: And the next line was, Well, I don't need this much money. You know, I held up the check. I said, well, I don't need this much money. I think it was for -- yes, it was, like, $200 billion or something.

So it was fun. But you know, very true in a lot of ways. I will build a wall. The wall will be built. It'll be a real wall. It'll be done properly. People will not -- all you have to do is ask Israel how do walls work because there are walls that work, believe me. And this wall will work.

And people will come into the country, but they'll come in legally. And everyone's going to be happy. We'll stop the drug trade. We'll stop a lot of things that are happening right now. It's a cesspool right now, what's going on, and people are coming in that are, you know, loaded up with drugs and they're selling drugs.

And a lot of great people are coming through, but a lot of people are coming in that should not be coming through the border. And this has nothing to do with anything. It's just we need a wall. We need it badly. You see what's happened. You look at Kate in San Francisco. You look at Jameel (ph) in Los Angeles. I mean, crime is unbelievable, what's going on.

HANNITY: Let me ask you about that...

TRUMP: We'll straighten it out. People -- and by the way, people will come into the country, but we're a country of laws. They'll come in legally.

HANNITY: You -- I read your book, which you just released. And you seemed to soften a hair where you maybe wanted to revise and extend your remarks somewhat when you said the vast majority of undocumented immigrants are honest, decent, hard-working people who came there to improve their lives, their children's lives.

TRUMP: True.

HANNITY: But do you think that if you had a do-over, you would have said that first, and we're also getting murderers and rapists, which we also know to be a fact, too?

TRUMP: Well, you know, look, I say -- I speak very bluntly. And I think we have to speak -- it's not politically correct maybe sometimes. I think the way I said it was proper. I think people looked at it -- you know, it was very interesting. When I made my opening remarks, everybody thought I made a wonderful speech. And we went for about a week-and-a- half, and then all of a sudden, somebody said, Oh, wait a minute. Maybe we could interpret it a certain way. And they misinterpreted what I said.

So I don't think I'd do anything differently. I'm number one in the polls, as you know, in every single -- I think I'm number one in every single state. I'm now number one again in Iowa. I had lost Iowa for a period of time, and I didn't quite understand it.

HANNITY: Well, let me ask you about it...

TRUMP: I think I would have done exactly what I'm doing.

HANNITY: Because the last two -- you're right, the last two Iowa polls has you in the lead, the last two national polls, Fox News, Quinnipiac have you in the lead, last two New Hampshire polls, since (ph) 84 days until the Iowa caucuses. Why do you think you had the hiccup? And number two, you know, what are your plans -- as I was asking you last time, they're now -- everyone's telegraphing they're coming after you with all -- you know, guns blazing and a lot of money in negative ads.

How are you going to counter that?

TRUMP: Well, if they do, I go after them times 10. I mean, that's what the deal is. And you know, there's no reason for that. I think for the Republicans, that's a very bad thing for the Republican Party. But if they do, I come after them times 10, and that's the way the game is played, I guess.

I will say there wasn't much of a hiccup, Sean, because most of the polls had me in number one. And then a poll came out, I think it was CBS, where I was a little bit behind. And people thought about it as though bigger than Benghazi -- they were talking about bigger than Benghazi, the one poll, finally, and they were so thrilled.

But there wasn't much of a hiccup because if you look at New Hampshire, if you look at South Carolina, if you look at Nevada, no matter where you look, I was number one. You look at the state of Florida, the great state of Florida. I mean, all of them number one.

Now I'm number one again in Iowa, and which I'm very -- you know, I was very surprised to see that I was a little behind in Iowa because I have such a great relationship with the people of Iowa. In fact, I'm going there again next week.

HANNITY: Yes.

TRUMP: So I was a little bit surprised.

HANNITY: Let me...

TRUMP: So I don't think it was as much of a hiccup as you said.

HANNITY: Well, in other words, it did break your streak of being in the lead in the polls. All right, let me ask you about Ben Carson. You said four times in one day that he had a pathological disease. He's admitted that he had anger issues when he was a young kid, that he did go after his mother with a hammer, that he nearly tried to stab somebody.

The issue came out -- I thought he actually gave a pretty good explanation about the ROTC and West Point. But my question to you is, why do you say a pathological disease, when the narrative of his life story is that he changed his life from that point forward and then he became a student and then he became a doctor and followed his dream?

TRUMP: Because he wrote it. I didn't say it, he wrote it. He wrote that in a book. He wrote in his book that he had a -- either pathological disease or a pathological temper, or there was something. Actually, one of the shows called it disease, and I don't know if that's the word he used, but pathological was used, and I think the word might have been "temper."

But you know, pathological's a very serious word. When you say that you're pathological about something -- like, usually, you associate it with the word "liar," he's a pathological liar. But he actually wrote that word in his book. That wasn't me saying it. And I was surprised, frankly, that it was put in the book. And it was reported very lightly.

And hey, look, I hope everything's OK with Ben. I've gotten along great with Ben. But you know, he's having a hard time. The pyramids are solid structures. You can't put grain in the pyramids because they're solid structures, other than a little -- a little thing for the pharaohs in the bottom, as you understand, OK?

But the pyramids, as an example, they were not built for grain because they're solid. These are very strong, solid structures. They don't have beams going across connecting and big hollow spaces underneath. You know, they're solid. So I don't quite get that one.

But there were other things. But the word "pathological" was used in his book by Ben.

HANNITY: All right, we'll take a break. We'll come back. We'll have more with Donald Trump coming up right after the break.

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HANNITY: As we continue on "Hannity," we continue with 2016 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. Mr. Trump, I know a lot of outrageous things are said during campaigns. A political action committee came out with an ad exploiting children, attacking you, one of the worst ones I've ever seen in my career following politics.

I want to play a little of it and get your response. Let's roll tape.

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HANNITY: What is your reaction to that?

TRUMP: I think it's sad. It's pathetic. It's been horribly received. People that actually were somewhat opposed to me are now big fans of mine. They thought it was a disgrace that an ad like that could take place, that they'd use that kind of language with children.

They think the people that, frankly, put them up probably are, like many of our politicians, incompetent because it's a virtually incompetent ad. But to use children with that kind of language is disgraceful. I've actually gotten a lot of support because of those ads.

HANNITY: Let me ask you about you and Marco Rubio have had a back and forth going. And you actually said that Marco Rubio can't even handle his own credit card, how is he going to be able to handle U.S. finances? His retort was, well, his father never lent him a million dollars to get his business started.

Why do you think this is such an important issue because the back and forth continues?

TRUMP: Well, it's not my issue. This is an issue that's been brought up about Marco. This has nothing to do with me. This all came out of the Jeb Bush fight with Marco, and people have been talking about his credit cards and his use of credit cards.

This is not my issue with Marco. I couldn't care less. I mean, it's an issue that he'll resolve, hopefully. And I'd like to see him resolve it. But this is not my issue with Marco. This is an issue that's been going on for a while.

HANNITY: Let me ask you -- you also talked about -- and some people - - and it's been written about on National Review in particular, I think have been particularly hard on you -- and you talked about your transition from being a Democrat to a Republican. And what you said was, you know, you saw what liberal Democrats were doing to the country. You said, A single payer is not going to work here and that this wasn't really an evolution. You say it's who you've always been, but you saw how bad the left's policies, the impact that it's had on the country.

Can you explain that maybe to some conservatives that say, Well, he just recently became a Republican?

TRUMP: Well, it's not recent. It's a long time ago. But Ronald Reagan became -- you know, Ronald Reagan was a liberal Democrat, essentially, and he decided and as he grew old older -- and this does happen with quite a few people, he became a Republican, a somewhat conservative Republican, actually. And he was terrific.

And I was a Democrat, and I was also in a city that was almost entirely Democrat. You know, if you look at Manhattan and New York City, where had I worked and had my business and started my business, and you know, everybody was Democrat. The Republicans don't even run people for many offices because they have no chance.

So you know, you grow up in that environment. But as time went by, I just liked the conservative principles much more. I think they work more. I think they work better. And I just...

HANNITY: How would you...

TRUMP: ... gravitated toward that.

HANNITY: For example, I consider myself a Reagan conservative. I'm a registered conservative in New York, which you can do and you can't do in a lot of states. If you had to explain to somebody in just a few words, how do you describe yourself politically?

TRUMP: Well, I'm a conservative person. I would say that Republican Reagan conservative maybe would be another way of doing it. I was a big fan of Ronald Reagan. I thought a lot of him. And I would have to add the word Republican because I am. I'm a Republican. But I'm a Republican conservative. And we have to throw Reagan in there because, you know, I just -- I believed in him.

HANNITY: All right, Mr. Trump, thank you for your time. As always, we appreciate it.

TRUMP: Thank you very much.

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