Trump's World View

This is a rush transcript from "On the Record," June 29, 2009. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: Moments ago, Donald Trump went "On the Record."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VAN SUSTEREN: Donald, nice to talk to you, as always.

DONALD TRUMP, PRES. & CEO, TRUMP ORGANIZATION: Thank you.

VAN SUSTEREN: Donald, do you think that President Obama will break his campaign pledge that he won't raise taxes in any form on anyone who makes $250,000 a year or less?

TRUMP: Well, the country's in very, very serious trouble from a financial standpoint, and I have a feeling that maybe he made the statement, but if you look at taxes, if you taxed 100 percent of the wealthy and you taxed 100 percent of their income and they paid a fortune, it's a tiny fraction of what the country needs. The real money is in the large numbers. And I guess he maybe will have to do this. I don't know what his campaign pledge was. It's never good to break one of those pledges, but he may very well have to do that.

VAN SUSTEREN: Well, here's what he said in Dover, New Hampshire. He said, "I pledge that under my plan, no one making less than $250,000 a year will see any type of tax increase, not income tax, not capital gains tax, not any kind of tax."

TRUMP: Well, I think that's wonderful and I hope that can happen, but I guess he's got trillion-dollar deficits that nobody ever heard -- you know, we never heard the word "trillion" before, now we're hearing the word "trillion." So it's going to be a tough situation. Again, a vast majority of the money needed has to come from a vast majority of people. And it's very interesting because they say tax the wealthy, and as you know, the tax -- the wealthy are being very heavily taxed, but the wealthy make up a very, very small portion of the ultimate taxes needed, Greta.

VAN SUSTEREN: What is your thought about the health care reform that is being at least proposed, at this point?

TRUMP: Well, I think it's noble, except I just don't know how a country that's in such debt -- we are really a debtor nation right now, and I just don't know how a country in this kind of trouble can afford it. It's very -- I love the idea, but can this country afford it? Will it destroy the country? Will it destroy other people that have been paying into health care for years? I mean, will that destroy other people? It's a very, very tough situation. I love it from many standpoints, but can this country afford it? And maybe this isn't the right time.

VAN SUSTEREN: And if we don't do it, then -- I mean, then people suffer. If we do do it, we go into deeper financial trouble.

TRUMP: It is a very, very serious problem, and that's why it hasn't happened previously. But does the country get into a deeper problem that ultimately is going to hurt everybody?

VAN SUSTEREN: The president and the Congress passed a $787 billion stimulus package in February. Are you seeing positive effects, negative effects, or is it still just sort of neutral?

TRUMP: Well, I don't see any effect at all. I can tell you that from a standpoint of business, the business is just very average and less than average, and I have not seen the effect. I think that perhaps it'll have an effect, but it'll also have an effect on the country because it's -- you know, it's borrowing so much money to create stimulus. And whether or not it's the right stimulus, you have to find out. We'll know about that in two years. But I have not seen much of an effect.

I can tell you this. OPEC is raising oil prices and absolutely draining and sucking the blood out of the country. There's no reason for $70 oil. That's very expensive. And OPEC is doing its thing. And as usual, nobody does anything about OPEC. You know, they like to blame it on speculators. Speculators are peanuts by compared to the power that OPEC has. So OPEC is draining the life blood out of this country, number one.

And number two, we're going to see what happens, and you know, over a period of time, but if oil prices continue at this level -- I've always been told by the smartest people if oil is over $20 to $30 a barrel, you've got yourself a big problem. And again, nobody brings it up. Interest rates, hopefully, will stay low. But the biggest problem is banks are not loaning money. So between OPEC and the banks, we've got ourselves problem. The banks are not loaning money. No matter who you are, no matter how rich you are, if you want to go and borrow money to create a big job or do some great, noble thing where lots of people go to work, you cannot go to a bank to borrow money.

VAN SUSTEREN: So what -- if you were president, what would you do about the fact that OPEC -- the price of oil is shooting up, and the second thing is that the banks aren't losing (SIC) money? If it were President Trump today, what would you do?

TRUMP: Well, the first thing I'd do is get my biggest, smartest person, my toughest, smartest person, and have them negotiating, and I would try and divide OPEC because what they do -- any time anybody strikes oil, they invite them into OPEC. If you have a store and I have a store and we set prices, we go to jail. OPEC is totally setting the price of oil and destroying many countries because of it! I mean, destroying -- this country, the biggest problem we have is OPEC. And it ultimately got us into a problem. We had $150-a-barrel oil and it got us into a very big problem. Now oil that should be $20 a barrel is at $70 a barrel, and this country can't afford it. The other thing is, they gave billions and billions of dollars to the banks, and the banks aren't loaning the money!

VAN SUSTEREN: So what do you do? How do you put your foot on the throat of these banks to loan the money that has now been given to them (INAUDIBLE)

TRUMP: You have to force the banks to loan money that you gave and the taxpayers gave. They are just sitting there, not loaning the money. They're building up their balance sheets, and it's disgraceful. That's number one.

And you have to do something about OPEC. OPEC has to be destroyed in the sense -- in an economic sense. You have to do something about OPEC. They can't -- it really is an illegal situation that they're doing from any standpoint in most countries. But they're doing it and they laugh. The truth is, I know people involved with OPEC. They laugh at the stupidity of our country. They laugh at us. They laugh at the stupidity of our politicians in this country. They do whatever they want to do.

There's oil all over the world in tankers. They can't even bring them in because there's so much oil. And OPEC has $70-a-barrel oil. They are laughing at the stupidity of our leaders!

VAN SUSTEREN: So I guess you're saying we're being taken.

TRUMP: We've been taken for years and nobody does anything about it. And you know why? Because they've hire every lobbyist in Washington. You don't even hear this! Other than from me and a couple of people, you don't even hear this. And then I watched one of the oil ministers the other day say -- and laughing to himself -- Oh, yes, it's the speculators. Let me tell you, The speculators are peanuts compared to the power of OPEC. The speculators don't have that kind of power. OPEC does because they tell everybody how much oil to sell and at what price. It's ridiculous. And yet there's so much oil right now, it's all over the world, you can't even -- the tankers are loaded with it! They don't know what to do with it! They'll end up dumping it in the ocean, which the environmentalists I'm sure will love. There's so much oil, and it's $70 a barrel and that's ridiculous.

VAN SUSTEREN: Donald, as always, thank you. And I look forward to you coming back very soon.

TRUMP: Thank you very much, Greta. Good luck.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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