NEW YORK CITY, New York — Should billionaire and GOP frontrunner Donald Trump win the Republican primary in 2016—as he certainly wants to do—he expects he will face Vice President Joe Biden in the general election since he thinks the current email scandal plaguing former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will eventually knock her out of the race.
When asked in a wide-ranging interview with Breitbart News in his office on the 26th floor of Trump Tower if he could envision a general election with him at the top of the Republican ticket and Vice President Biden leading the Democratic ticket, Trump said, “I think so.”
“I think Hillary has got huge problems right now,” Trump said, adding:
Is she going to make it? I hear this thing is big league. Why did she do it? You use the server? Because they’re always looking to go over the edge, whether it’s Whitewater or anything else. They always want to go over the edge. I’m just looking at it saying what the hell was she doing? You know what she was doing. She was guarding from the president seeing what she doing.
Trump said he thinks this email scandal will take Clinton down.
“It just looks like Hillary is going to not be able to run. It looks to me like that’s what’s going to happen,” Trump told Breitbart News. He went on to say:
I think it’s unlikely if you look at what she’s done. What she’s done is ten times worse than what General Petraeus did—far more sensitive documents, top-of-the-line sensitive documents, far more of them. What she did is ten times worse. It destroyed him, so I don’t see how she’s going to possibly be able to run. It’s pretty conclusive right now, too.
Trump previewed some of his policy framework, too, which his campaign is in the process of preparing to roll out. He also explained that most of the policy papers from most of the politicians running against him for president will never see the light of day, and explained how things actually get done “in the real world.”
“Over the next number of weeks, once we get out of August, we’ll be talking about taxes and tax policy,” Trump told Breitbart News, also stating:
We’ll be talking about healthcare policy. We have some really excellent things to come out. I’m already discussing military and plans. With all of that being said, in the real world, you don’t just roll things out. You go out and you negotiate back and forth. It’s a tug of war back and forth with all of these different people you have to get on board. So rolling anything out is a lot different than going in and getting everybody together. It’s called leadership.
Trump compared how he would govern if elected President of the United States to how he’s achieved success in real estate deals.
“When I bought Doral in Miami—which was sought after by everybody, every developer in the country wanted it. I didn’t say, ‘Wow, I’m going to do a ten-point plan on how to buy Doral.’ I went down, and I just fought like hell, and I got it,” Trump said, adding:
I didn’t sit down and say, “Okay, I’ll make a phone call at 7 in the morning, and then I’ll do this, and then I’ll get on a plane.” It doesn’t work that way. I went down and met with the people. I had lunch. I had dinner. I didn’t leave. And I made a great deal. Same thing with Turnberry in Scotland, sold by people in Dubai. I met with them. I worked them. I didn’t do a 14-point plan that says I’m going to make a phone call at 10:30. It doesn’t work that way. So we have to get—as you know, we’ve had no leadership in the country—we have to get everybody on board. For doing that, you need compromise. You need back-and-forth. And it’s not about a plan. It’s about flexibility. You need flexibility. So you could put out a plan, but most of that plan comes back—and you need flexibility to get it done. It can be done beautifully and in harmony and without executive orders all over the place.
Trump also told Breitbart News he’s pleased he remains the GOP frontrunner after a failed attempt by Fox News anchors to wipe him out in the recent debate. He will be going to Iowa on Saturday and will be in New Hampshire on Friday evening.
“So I’m so honored because I went up in all the polls,” Trump said when asked about the recent polls. “In Iowa, I was in second place; now, I’m in first place. Now, the new polls came out from CNN; two of them came out where I’m in first place. It’s such a great honor. I love the people of Iowa. Love the people of New Hampshire. I’m going to Iowa this weekend, and I’m going to New Hampshire on Friday—which is tomorrow.”
The real estate magnate just wrapped up a massively successful trip to Michigan, where thousands came out to see him speak—many of whom are not traditional Republicans. Trump thinks the big crowds that keep coming out to see him are coming because people want a leader like him to stop “incompetent politicians” from further destructing the economy of the United States:
People in this country are really smart. They’re tired of watching incompetent politicians. They get it. They get it. They’re tired of watching our country withering away under the leadership of incompetent people. They know I won’t let that happen. I’m not going to let China continue to destroy us. I’m not going to let Japan and Mexico and all of these countries continue to destroy us. They get it. I’m going to be great to women. You know, all the health issues with women which Jeb Bush has just punted on—which has been disgraceful—the women’s health issues are very important to me. I’m going to be so good on that. I say I’m going to win the women’s vote, and I’m going to win the Hispanic vote. Already you’re seeing Hispanics. That’s been amazing what’s going on. In Las Vegas, I won in the polls by a lot. It’s amazing. But I think more than anything else, they’re tired of watching incompetent people.
Trump told Breitbart News that the Rust Belt—places like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, and others—where blue collar American workers, many of them Ronald Reagan Democrats, are states he will certainly win if he wins the GOP nomination.
“Those are my states,” Trump said.
Trump also said since his appeal goes beyond politics, he expects that should he win the nomination, he’ll bring the GOP more states that Republicans traditionally haven’t had much luck in.
“I believe we will win states that the Republicans were never even thinking about winning,” Trump said.
Throughout the entire interview, which lasted about a half hour, Trump also kept pointing out that he thinks former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush isn’t doing very well as a candidate. For instance, he discussed his appearance on Sean Hannity’s Fox News program—handing this reporter a printout of a Variety magazine article from the outlet’s senior editor, Rick Kissell, that laid out that Trump’s hour-long interview on the show earlier this week pushed it to a four-month-high in ratings, and said Bush would never be able to do that.
“Hannity won the entire evening with my interview the other night,” Trump said. “He’s not going to win it with Jeb Bush. You think he’s going to win it with Jeb Bush? He’s got $100 million, which means he’s a puppet. You know that, right?”