Real estate mogul Donald Trump tells Breitbart News that if he formally announces a presidential campaign in 2016—he just launched an exploratory committee on Wednesday to look at a White House bid—the American people should understand they’ve never seen any candidate like him before.
“There has never been a candidate like me,” Trump said in an interview on Wednesday afternoon.
Trump cited his highly successful company as one of the major things he’d highlight if he does formally run for president.
“I built a great company,” Trump said. “I built a tremendous company. If I file and I run, you’re going to see what a great company I built. Everyone knows it’s a great company—but it’s far greater than anyone understands.”
Trump said the reason he’s considering a run for the presidency is because “the country is in serious, serious trouble.”
“There has never been anything like this,” Trump said. “We are being outfoxed by every country, every nation all over the world. You look at the front page of the Wall Street Journal today and Mexico is taking our jobs right out of Tennessee and other places. We don’t have victories in this country anymore. When was the last time you’ve seen a victory? We just don’t have them.”
To fix trade policy, Trump—a highly successful businessman who’s dealt with foreign governments in the course of business—recommends cracking down hard on currency manipulation by places like China and Japan.
“Trade is so easy and so non-complicated. It’s so non-complicated,” Trump said.
Trade with China and all countries, we’re being taken advantage of because we’re being led by fools. We’re being led by people who don’t have a clue. China is devaluing their currency. The new one is Japan, again they’re back to devaluation. A friend of mine who has a big construction company just bought Komatsu tractors, he didn’t buy Caterpillars for the first time—because the Yen is so low that he could buy Komatsu tractors for far less money than the Caterpillars.
This is going to happen in China and Japan and this is going to happen all over, over and over again. With trade, you cannot let them devalue their currency. The fact that China is doing it big league now is unthinkable because they’ve taken our business and now they’re going to take almost all of our business because our companies can’t compete. So I would be extremely tough with China, Japan, and all the other nations that are ripping us off and taking advantage.
The way you’re tough is they sell all of their products in this country, and if they don’t behave and act fairly we start taxing all their products coming into this country. It’s very simple. There’s no choice because we’re not going to have a country if we don’t. We’re rebuilding China, totally rebuilding China.
Trump also said that America needs to secure the border and protect American workers from the foreign labor open borders advocates are seeking to import via illegal immigration. He also noted that former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is “very soft” on immigration in a manner that is “going to be a disaster for this country.”
“We have to get very tough with Mexico because not only are they ripping us on an economic basis by taking our jobs, but they’re also forcing people right through our borders and they’re going right through from Mexico,” Trump said.
If you want to reside in Mexico or you want to become a citizen of Mexico, it’s like the hardest country in the world to become a citizen of. You can’t. But they just send them right through and right through our borders. I would make our borders not be penetrable.
It would be impossible to get through and I would make sure the only ones that get through are the people who get through legally instead of coming like they are right now. Right now, hundreds of thousands of people are walking right through our borders. If you look at Bush, he’s very soft on immigration. Not only Common Core, but he’s very soft on immigration. It’s going to be a disaster for this country.
If the border isn’t secured and the flow of illegal immigration stopped, Trump said, American jobs and the very “fabric of the country” are at risk.
“It’s hurting jobs all over the country. It’s hurting the country,” Trump said. “It’s hurting the fabric of the country, and now all of a sudden they’ll be voting. If you look at Obama, he wants to give them all sorts of advantages over everyone else. It’s ridiculous. It has to be stopped immediately, plus we’re a debtor nation and we can’t afford it. Besides everything else, we can’t afford it.”
Trump added that it is “imperative” that Bush not win the Republican primary or the White House, because America needs strong leadership he can’t provide for the country.
“You cannot have another Bush. We’ve had enough Bushes and we can’t have another one. That’s imperative,” Trump said.
It’s just not going to happen. I don’t think that he will do well in the general and just frankly I don’t think he will do well in the primaries but we will see what happens. We can’t have another Bush. I’ve built a great company, a very valuable company with some of the greatest assets in the world.
I’ve employed tens of thousands, I’ve employed thousands and thousands of people. I’ve taken care of those people. I’ve paid them salaries and I’ve paid their education through me, education, healthcare and everything. I built a great company. I built an iconic company, too.
I have phenomenal assets and I have very little debt. I know what it is to build something. Believe me, whether it’s a Doral or an old post office that we built on Pennsylvania Avenue, in many cases that’s tougher than straightening out this country.
This country has tremendous potential but we have people who don’t have a clue. They don’t have an absolute clue, and unless something is done about it we’re not going to have a country anymore. We literally will not have a country anymore. The country has tremendous potential but we have leadership that is a disaster and doesn’t have influence. I understand it, and the other people don’t.