MSNBC "Hardball with Chris Matthews" - Transcript: Partial Donald Trump Speech:On the Other Republican Presidential Candidates, His Presidential Campaign, Trade, and Immigration

Interview

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

MATTHEWS: Anyway, here it goes.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Thank you. That`s so
beautiful.

AUDIENCE: Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump!
Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump!
Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump!

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Unbelievable. Unbelievable. And thank you very much. They
said a record. Now I understand why they have a record in this room, what
a room. What a place. What a place.

Iowa, do we love it.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Great. Great.

You know, we had a big day today, because a lot of polls came out, and
the polls were really nothing short of tremendous. We had -- and it just
came -- in New Hampshire, which is an amazing place, with, like you,
incredible people, they love the country, and they want to see our country
be great again. That`s what they want. They work hard. They love it.

And we had 35 percent, and the second place was so far back, we won`t
even talk about it, because I want to be nice tonight.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: I want to be nice.

In South Carolina, we had 30 percent, and that was a tremendous poll,
tremendous energy, tremendous money spent, 30 percent, second place.
Again, we`re going to be so nice. Should we be nice or not? Should we be?
Yes. A little bit, a little bit.

So, we had 30 percent. That`s the Monmouth poll, big one. The Gravis
national poll just came out, 40.1 percent. That`s national, 40.1 percent.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: I want the election tomorrow.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Ann Coulter is here.

Ann, can we call for an immediate election, please, OK, like in so
many other countries? I want an immediate election, Ann. All right?

Go out, buy her book, by the way. It`s actually a very good book.
And, oh, is it true.

Now, very importantly for -- for Iowa, anybody ever heard of the corn
kernel? Everybody heard -- the corn kernel poll. We were at 36 percent,
won very easily. And so we had four of them. And that came from the state
fair. And I`ll tell you what. Last week, I came to the state fair. I
came well-equipped in a helicopter. And we took the kids for rides. And
those kids love me. Those kids -- and I love those kids, but we had an
amazing time.

My pilot said, is that enough, Mr. Trump, after going up and down like
a yo-yo. I said, nope, you got to keep doing it.

We had an amazing time. I know it means a lot to the people here and
having gotten that vote is incredible.

So, here`s what`s happening. It`s a little bit of a different
situation. I think maybe than has happened before. A great journalist
called me, somebody that I don`t know but somebody that I have great
respect for, one of the major newspapers.

And he said, "Could I ask you one question, Mr. Trump." "What?" "How
does it feel?" "How does what feel?" He said, "This was the summer of
Trump." Do you believe this? How good is that for my ego? Is that good?

(APPLAUSE)

But they said -- he said -- I mean and he`s really one of the -- now
the press is going to say, who is it, who is it, who is it. But one of the
really top people, not even necessarily a fan of mine but I think he`s
becoming a fan rapidly. He said, how does it feel?

So, I said, why do you ask that question, because it doesn`t feel -- I
man, I`ve got to win. It`s one thing to have the summer of Trump. Doesn`t
mean anything unless we win both the nomination and we got to beat Hillary
or whoever is running, whoever is running.

(APPLAUSE)

No, otherwise it doesn`t mean anything. I don`t know. If you lose,
like, what does it all matter?

And he said, it doesn`t matter if you win or not. What you`ve done
has never been done -- nobody`s ever really seen what`s happened here.
Nobody has really seen this, with the polls and the enthusiasm and the
press, and the ratings.

And you know why those cameras are all red lighted? Because of
ratings. If I didn`t get ratings, they wouldn`t be here. They wouldn`t be
here.

(APPLAUSE)

They`re not nice people. They don`t care about me. They don`t care
about you. They don`t care about anything. The other thing they care
about is ratings.

You know, when I did "The Apprentice" which was a tremendous success,
I was hosting "Saturday Night Live" and Lorne Michaels came up to me. And
it was bedlam. It was bedlam.

The show was number one. It was doing like crazy, and here I am
hosting "Saturday Night Live." My mother and father never would have
believed this. And Lorne Michaels came up to me and said, this is great.

I said, you know, Lorne, it won`t always be like this, some day the
ratings won`t be good and NBC will call me and they`ll say, I`m sorry, Mr.
Trump, but the ratings are no good, we`re going to cancel the show. And he
looked at me and he said -- I never forget it -- he said, no, there`s one
thing wrong. They won`t even bother to call.

It`s true. They won`t even bother to call. And, you know, "The
Apprentice" was a tremendous hit. NBC renewed it. I may be like the only
one or one of certainly like you can count them on your hand that turned
down a major renewal.

In fact, Mark Burnett said, you got to be kidding. You got to be
kidding. You`re turning down a major renewal. He called it is a renewal.
He said, you`re turning down a renewal.

Nobody turns it down. I turned it down for many, many shows. And you
see the kind of money they paid me. You remember you had that certain
anchor who said he didn`t believe it, bah, bah, bah, and then he had to
apologize. A lot of money, a lot of money, it turned out a lot of money,
because I heads of NBC, the head of Comcast, who`s an amazing guys, great
guy.

We`ll just call him Steve, but I want to tell you, he`s a great guy.
The head of NBC, the head of reality television. They came to my office
like five months ago. They sat in my chairs.

They said, Donald, we want -- we`ve already renewed. We want you. We
love you. They don`t love me so much any more. I have to be honest.

And I said to them, fellas, I really want to run for president. I
want to make America great again. It`s very simple. I want to do it.

(APPLAUSE)

And they didn`t believe me. They didn`t believe me. And I said,
honestly. I`m going to do it. They had the up-fronts. That`s when they
announce all the shows. We`re announcing we`re renewing "The Apprentice"
with Donald Trump. I can`t believe it.

Nobody believed me. My wife said to me, she said, you know nobody
believes your running, because I looked at it serious mostly last time. I
looked at it un-seriously over the years but last year pretty seriously.

I said, what do you mean? She goes, if you ever actually announce,
you`re going to go through -- she knows people like me. Actually I`m a
nice person. Nobody knows that.

It`s true. People don`t -- I tell people, I`m a nice person. In some
ways it`s not good. We`ll talk about China and negotiations. I don`t want
to be a nice person for them. But I am. I love people. I love helping
people.

And my wife to me, Melania, she said to me, she said, if you run,
you`re going to win. But you have to announce because if they take polls
nobody`s going to say you`re running, right? And Ann knows that.

And I said, well, I don`t know. And I`ll tell you why, it takes
courage to run. It really does. You`re really exposing yourself like
crazy.

(APPLAUSE)

The press is honestly a lot of the press is, especially the political
press -- you know the financial press has been pretty good to me over the
years.

In "Businessweek" magazine, they named me a while ago the best in a
people`s poll the best negotiator. Wouldn`t that be nice to have a good
negotiator? I don`t want to brag about it. It`s just -- wouldn`t it be
nice?

I mean, look at what`s happening with China. I`ve been predicting
China -- I`ve been saying China`s taking our jobs, our money, our base, our
manufacturing. I just told the press -- and we owe them. Think of it.
They`ve taken our money and our jobs, our manufacturing. But they`ve taken
everything.

It`s one of the greatest thefts in the history of the world what
they`ve taken out of our country. They`ve rebuilt China, and we owe them -
- think of it. We owe them. They take everything, $1.4 trillion. How do
you do that? That`s like a magic act.

How good are they as negotiators? They take everything and we owe
them money. We owe Japan $1.4 trillion. Same number. We owe them both
$1.4 trillion, for whatever reason. Same number.

The balance, the deficits, the numbers are crazy. If you look at the
deficit we have with Japan, the deficit we have with China, the deficit we
have with almost everybody, honestly, they`re big abusers.

And by the way, I love them. They buy my apartments. It`s true. I
own a big chunk -- the biggest chunk as you maybe know, the Bank of
America. But a lot of people didn`t know.

Actually most people didn`t know I own the Bank of America building in
San Francisco. Big, big, big chunk. It`s a great building. I got it from
the Chinese. I did great.

(APPLAUSE)

They still don`t know what happened. But that`s what we need, right?

I own 1290, big, big chunk, 1290 Avenue of the Americas. Many
building in New York. But I do great with the Chinese, and they`re great
people. The problem is their leaders are too smart for our leaders. Such
very simple.

I`m a free trader. I believe in free trade. I like free trade. I
like free trade.

But free trade`s only good if you have smart representatives. It`s
not good if we have dummies. It`s not good if our leaders are incompetent.
It`s not good if they`ve never read "The Art of the Deal," one of the
greatest books of all time, second to the bible. Way, way, way, deep
second.

You know how far below it is? I said that`s my favorite book of all
time. My second favorite book. What`s your favorite? I said the bible.

It`s not even close. People were shocked. They were shocked that I
actually said that. But it is the greatest book of all time, the bible.
Nothing even close.

So, we have a situation where people that run for political office --
and I`ve heard this for years -- they do really take chances and it is
something that`s not very pleasant.

And you read things about yourself that don`t exist, very little good,
but a lot of bad things that aren`t true. And I have to tell you with that
I`ve met some unbelievable really talented political reporters, but I`ve
also met very bad ones and very dishonest ones. And we have to do
something about our country. We have to take it back.

You know, I`ve been using a term that hasn`t been used in a long time.
It`s called the silent majority. You`re the silent majority. I`m the
silent majority.

(APPLAUSE)

And they`re tired of politicians other than -- are there any
politicians in the room? Because we`re excluding you. You`re fabulous.

But politicians are all talk and no action. Talk and no action.
That`s true. They`re tired.

(APPLAUSE)

You know, I`ve been watching Bush on the border. He`s in a seersucker
suit talking about, yes, oh, yes, the anchor baby, oh, I shouldn`t say
anchor baby.

You know, he puts out a report saying "do not use the term anchor
baby." Then I used it, my polls go through the roof and now he`s using
anchor baby and he`s taking criticism.

And you know the funniest thing is that he`s taken tremendous
criticism for use the term "anchor baby" and I use it all the time and
nobody cares when I say it because they sort of expect it from me, I think.
Right? Right?

(APPLAUSE)

Crazy. Crazy.

But politicians are all talk no action. You know, I saw that at the
debate and I love doing the debate, I was treated very unfairly.

(APPLAUSE)

But it was fine because I won every poll. "Time" magazine. We won
the polls. I was so happy. But then I was treated -- I watched the
politicians and the politicians talk. Now I have heard that Jeb Bush was
the mentor to Marco Rubio. Nice -- two nice people.

I think Jeb is a nice person. He`s very low energy. I`m not used to
that kind of a person.

(LAUGHTER)

I`m just not used to it. I`m used to dealing with killers. People
that go argh.

I mean, you know, negotiating with Japan, negotiating with China.
When these people walk in the room, they don`t say, "Oh, hello. How`s the
weather? So beautiful outside. Isn`t it lovely? How are the Yankees
doing? Oh, they`re doing wonderful. Great" They say, "We want deal."
They jump out of the seat.

But I watched -- by the way, before I say this, who would you rather
have negotiating against China? Against Iran? What a deal that is, OK?
You talk about incompetent people. Against anybody, Jeb Bush, Hillary
Clinton or Trump?

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

I think so. I think so. You believe me. Believe me.

(CROWD CHANTING)

Thank you. You know, it`s funny, I was degraded on a speech I made
recently. They gave me all A`s, they said the one mistake he makes is that
he speaks through the applause.

That`s true. You know what? Because I don`t have time. It`s true.
They gave me this great mark. They said his speak -- they love the way I
move my hands. I never even thought of it.

They said they love this, that, but they said he speaks so well, but
hi speaks through his applause and it`s bad for him because he kills a lot
of applause. And I thought about it and I said, you know, "That`s right."
and I tried not doing that. But I want to get going. I want to get things
done. Does everybody here know that, right, you know?

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

So Jeb Bush was Marco Rubio and Marco Rubio is a nice guy. And so is
Jeb Bush, I think he`s a nice person. But I don`t care. I don`t care if
he`s nice. I want somebody that`s going to make us great deals and make us
rich again and he can`t do it.

(APPLAUSE)

So, Marco Rubio was not supposed to run, right? Because he wouldn`t
run because his mentor in Florida, the state of Florida -- which, by the
way, I beat both of them in the polls. Can you believe it? A sitting
senator, a governor and Trump is way the hell up here. It`s crazy.

(APPLAUSE)

But -- but Marco Rubio wasn`t supposed to run. All of a sudden he
announced he`s running and people thought it was very disrespect to a
person that brought him along. Slowly brought him along, right?

So beautiful.

So, what happened -- and it was interesting -- I said, oh, now if it
was me, if I were Bush and I brought somebody along and I -- I`m older than
Marco and, all of a sudden, the guy, the young guy that I brought along
says, "I`m running against you and it`s not my turn but I don`t care
because I`m really anxious, I`m really driven. For myself, I`m driven."
And he said "I`m running against him and I don`t care."

I would really go after that guy. I`d say he`s the most disloyal guy.
He`s a terrible person. He`s horrible and I hate him. OK?

(LAUGHTER)

I`d that. Or at least I`d say it to myself, OK? Probably not to the
world but believe me I wouldn`t be -- so I saw them on the stage where
recently and Jeb saying, "Oh, Marco`s a dear friend of mine. He`s a dear,
dear friend. He`s such a wonderful person." And Marco saying "Oh, I love
Jeb."

You notice Jeb never uses his last name? Why? Because he`s ashamed
of it! Why? But if I were Marco -- but in particular if I was Jeb I
wouldn`t say, "Marco`s a good friend of mine."

Marco did something that he wasn`t supposed to do. He ran. I`ve
never said this before and I watch these two guys and they`re hugging and
they`re kissing and they`re holding each other.

Very much like actually Chris Christie did with the president.

(APPLAUSE)

I`m only kidding.

No, but they`re hugging and they`re kissing. They`re hugging and
they`re kissing and they`re proclaiming their great deep love for each
other and I`m saying politicians -- all talk, no action, it`s all bull,
we`ve got to stop.

We need people in are going to take us to the promised land. We need
people that are going to be great.

So, again, we look at Mexico -- thank you.

You look at Mexico, which is the new China, by the way. They`re doing
great. And what`s come out, you know? A lot of incoming, as Rush Limbaugh
said. He said Trump has taken more incoming when I first announced.

All I did was tell the truth. But you look at Mexico, the new China.
You look at Ford building a massive plant there. You look at other
companies from Europe, from all over.

A plant was going to be built in Tennessee, big, big, billion-dollar
automobile plant. It`s not being built in Tennessee anymore. It`s going
to go to Mexico.

Nabisco -- I have holdings in Chicago, I have a great building in
Chicago. Nabisco, they have a factory, big factory, they make Oreos. I`m
never eating Oreos again, ever, ever.

Yes, maybe. Maybe if I can find some made in the United States, I
will.

But they`re closing their big plant in Chicago and they`re moving it
to Mexico. What`s going on? I mean, how stupid are we?

You`re right.

So where and why are we doing this? Why are we allowing it to happen?

So, what I would do if I were president, I talk to these people.
Somebody has to talk to them. If you don`t talk to them, it`s never going
to change. It`s never going to happen.

And you can get them to stay in Chicago. You can get them to build
someplace else in the country. You can get Ford, believe me, to stay in
this country.

Now, sometimes, it`s so unfair, the trade agreements, if you look at
the amount of business that`s been moves out of our -- whether it`s Mexico
or many other countries -- been moved out. It`s absolutely uncontrollable
by the people that we have currently and we can do something to change it.

Now, let me just tell you -- and I tell people this all the time. I
go to Nabisco or I go to Ford and I said, fellas, I don`t want you. I
don`t want you. I have Carl Icahn ready. Killer, killer.

I have other people already. I have so people that are so nasty, so
mean, so horrible nobody in Iowa will want to have dinner with them.

(LAUGHTER)

It`s true. They`re horrible human beings. I admit it. They`re Wall
Street killers. Most of them, a couple of them are nice, like 2 percent.
But they`re the greatest negotiators in the world.

I know the best, I know guys that are overrated. I know guys that are
really good. I know people you`ve never heard of that are better than all
of them.

We`re going to use our best. But I would say to, let`s say, the head
of Ford, and you`ve heard me say this because that`s a big abuse, $2.5
billion for a plant? How many plants do we close to build a new plant in
Mexico? $2.5 billion.

You`re right.

So how many do we do. So I would say very simply, fellas, sorry, you
have to move back. Now, when they build those cars, trucks, and parts,
they send them over. No tax, no nothing.

And they`ve come up with a new scheme. Illegals are going to drive
the cars over -- no, it`s true! It`s true! It`s true!

(APPLAUSE)

Because it`s -- it works so nicely. Nobody`s going to check them.
Why just drive beautiful cars, that I`ll probably keep them and just live
happily for the rest of their lives in the United States, you know?

But we have to do something about it. Now let`s say Jeb Bush is
president. He knows it`s wrong. He`s not a stupid person. I don`t think.
I don`t know, what do I know?

But let`s say he`s president and he knows it`s wrong. He`s going say,
"No, no, no, we don`t want that."

END TRANSCRIPT

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