Trump: Obama's approval drop coincides with America's decline

Trump: Obama's drop goes with America's decline

'The Donald' sounds off on President Obama's drop in approval ratings and Americans' lack of confidence in him, plus the latest scandal involving 'sick puppy' Anthony Weiner

This is a rush transcript from "On the Record," July 23, 2013. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: President Obama's approval rating is taking a nosedive, a new McClatchy-Marist poll showing the president's approval plunging 9 points since April to a very grim and unimpressive 41 percent. Now, that is almost the lowest in two years, the poll also showing only 37 percent approve of President Obama's handling of the economy.

And tomorrow, the president kicking off a series of speeches on the economy. So can he change Americans' opinions? Donald Trump joins us. Nice to talk to you, Donald.

DONALD TRUMP, TRUMP ORGANIZATION (Via Telephone): Hi, Greta.

VAN SUSTEREN: So the president's approval rating going down to 41 percent since 51 percent in April. Why?

TRUMP: Well, it's a tremendous drop. But if you look at what's going on with this country, the respect and the lack of respect we have throughout the world -- they just don't respect us anymore.

I can tell you we deal with people and the other countries are just looking at us as a laughingstock. And you look at so many different things. Then you take "Obama care," which has been a total catastrophe. And I guess they gave it a one-year extension. But it's just a mess. It's a mess that nobody wants, that people don't understand.

Businesses are laying off people. Real unemployment -- there's probably 15 percent, not the 7.5 percent that people are reporting because there's so many people just gave up looking for work. So we really do -- we're doing very poorly as a country. And shockingly, we're just not a respected country any longer.

VAN SUSTEREN: What do you think he thinks when he hears that his ratings for handling the economy -- approval, 37 percent, disapproval 56 percent. I mean, those are terrible numbers!

TRUMP: Well, you look at the welfare rolls and you look at the people that aren't working and choose not to work because there's no reason for them to work when they can do just as well by not doing anything. You look at what's going on, and it's probably -- shouldn't be that surprising to him. Maybe he understands it better than we think.

The fact is that he is really putting the country into a situation where people don't have the incentive to go forward. They don't have the incentive to create jobs. And if it continues to go this way, it's going to be very, very sad for the economy.

VAN SUSTEREN: Well, on April 14th, 2009, which was about two or three months after he took office, this is what he said at Georgetown University about the economy and what he's done. He said the first step -- and he was talking about his first couple months in office -- was to fight a severe shortage of demand in the economy. So the Federal Reserve did this by dramatically lowering interest rates last year in order to boost investment. My administration and Congress boosted demand by passing the largest recovery plan in our nation's history. It's a plan that's already in process of saving or creating 3.5 million jobs over the next two years. Did that happen?

TRUMP: Well, it didn't happen, and we lost a lot of manufacturing jobs to other countries. And if you look at what's going on with China and so many others, where they're just really -- they can't even believe what they're getting away with.

I have so many friends that live in China, very substantial business people. They cannot believe what the Chinese politicians, if that's what you'd like to call them, are doing to our politicians or our leaders. And they can't believe what they're getting away with.

So you know, if you're going to have a situation like that, things are not going to be good in this country.

VAN SUSTEREN: He talks about in this speech -- this is in 2009. And I only look at it, try to think of, like, you know, what was he telling us, what was he saying then, and where are we? And he says, I absolutely agree that our long-term deficit is a major problem that we have to fix.

What's happened to our long-term deficit since he took office in the first term?

TRUMP: Well, we're at $17 trillion right now. If you look at the kind of dollars that we owe, $17 trillion. We have huge yearly deficits, and we don't have the jobs. And we're not manufacturing. You know, we used to manufacture. We used to be the great manufacturer of the world. We're not doing that anymore. Health care, all important, everything's important. But manufacturing brings dollars in. We're not manufacturing anymore.

VAN SUSTEREN: You know, if you're at 35,000 feet in a plane and you hit turbulence, you can recover. If you're at 1,000 and you hit turbulence, it's harder to recovery. I mean, we're in a very bleak position. Is there a way for our economy to recover in the short run and really get revved up, or do we have to rethink everything?

TRUMP: Well, you're going to have to rethink everything. This is a country with tremendous potential, but it needs the right leadership. You have to rethink. We have to get this country started again.

You know, other countries are out-entrepreneurial -- you know, whether you take the word entrepreneur -- we're being outfoxed at every corner. We used to be the greatest. We used to have the right people negotiating for us. We don't have the right people negotiating any longer.

And we have to become a wealthy country again because if we're not, we cannot take care of Social Security. We can't take care of health care and Medicare and Medicaid and all of the things that everybody wants, and rightfully wants. We can't take care of them, Greta.

VAN SUSTEREN: Do you see the president as doing more of the same, or do you think as he marches out in the next week or so with his economic speeches, you see a -- you know, that he's going to -- he'll give us a new direction or a new remedy?

TRUMP: Well, I hope he goes a new direction because the old direction isn't working. And we have to incentivize this country to go back to work, and that means individuals. They have to want to work. They have to get that ingredient, that great ingredient that we've always had as a country. We don't have it anymore. There are too many other options that you just can sit back, relax, have a good time and pick up the check. You have to get people wanting to work again, and that's not what's happening in this country.

VAN SUSTEREN: All right, let me talk about your city, the state -- the city of New York. Today, mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner speaking today with his wife at his side. Did you see it? And what did you think?

TRUMP: Well, I did see it, and I know Anthony Weiner. I've known him for a long time, and he's a very sick puppy. There's no question about it. He's got a perversion. If you believe in the doctors of the world, it's very, very hard to reverse perversion. And you know, they say 100 percent. That means 100 percent you're not going to get better.

Now, we have this man running for mayor. He's a sick puppy. And let's see what happens. It's hard to believe. He's doing OK in the polls. Much to the surprise of a lot of people, he's doing OK in the polls.

But his wife was impressive today. She came out in favor. But what happened, as you know, is that he was texting long after they caught him. You know, he was supposed to stop, and he said he was going to stop. And all of a sudden, somebody came out, one of the many women that, by the way, could have been underaged, could have been anybody. He didn't even know who they were. But he's texting, and in the worst way, with photographs of horrible things. And you know, he's doing this long after he said he wasn't going to be doing it anymore. He's a sick guy.

VAN SUSTEREN: Donald, thank you, as always.

TRUMP: All right. Thank you very much, Greta.