Trump: Bloomberg ‘Couldn’t Get Elected Dog Catcher in New York’

Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,”  while committing on former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Democratic convention speech attacking him, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump declared, “Michael Bloomberg couldn’t get elected as a dog catcher in New York.”

Partial transcript as follows:

STEPHANOPOULOS: Mike Bloomberg very tough on you a the Democratic convention.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BLOOMBERG: Trump says he wants to run the nation like he’s running his business? God help us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHANOPOULOS; Called you a con man, reckless. Even seemed…

TRUMP: He doesn’t know me well.Michael Bloomberg, when he had a problem in Ferry Point, which is a massive job where his administration was a mess, they couldn’t get it built. They called me. I took it over. I got it done in a year. Michael Bloomberg couldn’t get elected as a dogcatcher in New York.

STEPHANOPOULOS: In the past you said he was a great mayor.

TRUMP: Sure, he was good. But his last term was terrible. He did a terrible thing his last term. And frankly a lot of people didn’t like him. He spent a fortune to get elected. Shouldn’t have gone to a third term. The snow removal was a disaster. He had a problems. Michael Bloomberg had a big problem with Ferry Point in the Bronx. They called me. I made a deal. I took it over. I got it built. I got it open. It’s open today. It’s very successful.

And think, personally, I think he made a deal with Hillary where he gets a job, because he’d like to — because Michael Bloomberg has wanted to run for president for probably as long as you have known him and guess what? He never had the guts to do it. And now I see this guy up on stage saying negative things. He knows nothing about me. He’s never been to my office. I don’t know him well.

STEPHANOPOULOS; You played golf together.

TRUMP: Maybe once.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Here’s what he hit you on in the speech….

TRUMP: And I hit the ball a lot longer, and a lot better.

STEPHANOPOULOS: He hit you for hypocrisy in the speech. For selling products overseas, gaming the visa system to hire foreign works at low wages. And just this week BuzzFeed reported that Mar-a-Lago is putting out application for 78 more visas for foreign workers even though…

TRUMP: Should I tell you about it? Mara-a-Lago is a very successful club in Palm Beach, Florida, the Mar-a-Lago club, and during the season, it’s very, very hard to get employees.

STEPHANOPOULOS: The local employment agencies say they have more than 1,000 people…

TRUMP: We interview — and we have a lot of people. We come with a lot of people. But it’s very, very hard to get people in Palm Beach during the Palm Beach season. It’s called the Palm
Beach social season. And what we do is we sometimes we have to bring people in.

As far as product, our country doesn’t make product anymore. You have other countries devalue their currencies. They make it impossible. You look at suits and ties and shirts. You look at steel, you look at so many different things, it’s…

STEPHANOPOULOS: But our country does make those products, but you don’t.

TRUMP: Very small. 3 percent of our product is made in apparel. And much of the material comes from overseas.

It’s very — if you want to get a television today — I buy thousands of television sets. If I want a television, I would love the buy American-made televisions like they used to have where they had GE and Sylvania and all of the different. Today, it’s Samsung, it’s LG, it’s Sony. We don’t make televisions anymore.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But you’re out there saying other American companies must come and create jobs here, but you’re not willing to do it yourself.

TRUMP: This is nothing new what you’re saying. I talk about this during my speech. When I do ties, I bid them out. And I go all over the place. You have companies over in different countries where they devalue their currency and they make it impossible for American companies to compete. The hat, Make America Great Again. I fought like crazy to find a company in this country that could make the hats. And I found one. And they’re American-made, but it’s — because I knew the first thing people would do is, where is the hat made. OK, Make America Great. But it is very, very hard for our companies to compete, because other company — other countries — and it’s really the countries, other countries take advantage of us.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Here are numbers of hiring of foreign workers. Since 2010, 300 U.S. applicants in Mar-a-Lago, 17 hired, more than 500 visa applications.

TRUMP: Well, you know what? I don’t hire the people. But if you look at all the other places in Palm Beach, they’re all doing exactly the same thing. And you know why they’re doing that? You know why they’re doing that? Because you can’t get people, George.

STEPHANOPOULOS: What do you think a voter thinks when they hear you say I can’t find American workers. I can’t find American workers.

TRUMP: I think the voter understand it, because they understand that — you know, you’re not reinventing the wheel here with these questions. These get asked all the time. I’ve been asked about Mar-a-Lago. I have many other places where I don’t have to do that, because you have a normal season.

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