Donald Trump: Everyone's shooting at me because of my poll numbers

This is a rush transcript from "On the Record," July 22, 2015. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: Donald Trump declares war. Yes, the real estate mogul and presidential candidate is fighting back and taking on his critics. And tonight, he is dominating many polls. Presidential candidate Donald Trump joins us.

Nice to talk to you, Donald.

DONALD TRUMP, GOP PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Hi, Greta.

VAN SUSTEREN: OK, Donald, you said that Senator McCain was not a war hero and you also gave out Senator Lindsey Graham's cell phone number yesterday. I agree with you on both those things. I think he is a hero, Senator McCain. And I don't think you should have put out that phone number out on air. But having said that, do you want to do-over on those two things?

TRUMP: No, not at all. Sharyl Attkisson, the great reporter, came out and said I was absolutely right. And even you, the way you just said it, was wrong about McCain.

What I'm angry with McCain about is he has done such a horrible job with the veterans, taking care of the veterans and working with the veterans. They are very unhappy. They are miserable.

I mean, these people, I see them all the time, all over on the campaign trail, and they are devastated by the way the veterans administration is not taking care of them. They are being treated just horribly.

And as far as Lindsey Graham, I don't even know him. But he came up to me. He wanted to get involved and wanted me to get him on, excuse me, Fox. And I said, what do I have to do with Fox? He said, well, could you give me a reference? I don't even know him.

Then he asked for a campaign contribution. He left his number three or four years ago. And I said here is a guy that used bad language when discussing me and I'm not allowed to say something back? So I told the story to a totally overflow crowd in South Carolina, which was an amazing crowd, actually. It was absolutely amazing. And we all had a lot of fun with it.

They don't even like him. They are from South Carolina. He is from South Carolina. They don't even like him, but I told the story. But, you know, why should I allow him to say really negative, like call me a name like a baby. He was like a baby. So we had some fun at his expense and that's fine as far as I'm concerned.

VAN SUSTEREN: All right, well, the one person you haven't sort of locked horns with yet is Senator Marco Rubio, but today on "Fox & Friends," he took a slap at you.

He said that he did not believe the behavior is dignified or worthy of the office he seeks. He was talking about President Obama. But then he says, then he goes on to say that Mr. Trump is employing, basically, the language you are employing is not worthy of the office you speak.

TRUMP: Well, I'm not employing bad language, it is people against me. And as far as Marco is concerned, he is he very, very weak on immigration. I mean, the illegal immigrants coming in.

And you know, he took a very weak stand and then his poll numbers dropped down low and now they are still pretty low. But we know where he is coming from. He is very, very weak on immigration, and frankly, I think he is trying to get his poll numbers up.

So everyone is shooting at me because I have the highest poll numbers by far and so they are trying to hit me. I never realized it would be like this in politics. I think real estate is a lot easier.

VAN SUSTEREN: Well, "The New York Daily News" put out your phone number today, but they gave your office phone number, but they didn't give your cell phone.

TRUMP: Well, that's all right. The good news is nobody reads "The New York Daily News." I'm not even sure they had any response to that. Very few people read it. It's a dying newspaper which is good for the public because it deserves to be put to sleep.

VAN SUSTEREN: Well, I've been sent a lot of articles in the past few days, where you and I you are linked together in the same article because in march of 2012, should you become the nominee for the republican party and should you have to face off with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

In March of 2012 you told me, which is what is going all over the news, I think she works really hard and I think she does a good job. I like her. You have changed your view? Should you have to square off with her?

TRUMP: No, she works very hard. I have no problems with her.

VAN SUSTEREN: She does a good job?

TRUMP: Excuse me, she was the worst secretary of state in history. This is a long time ago. And you have to understand, I was a business person. I get along with everybody, democrats, liberals, republicans, conservatives. I help everybody as a businessman. And that's one of the reasons I put in a net worth more than $10 billion with some of the greatest assets in the world because when I need something, they all treat me great because why would I say bad things about her when I may need her and I may need other people?

And that's part of the problem with the system, Greta, because the system works that way. You contribute to everybody, when you need them, they are always there. Hillary was always there, anybody would be there. I will tell you when it comes now down where you are competing against her, the system is no good. She is controlled by the lobbyists. She is controlled by the donors of the special interests. And, frankly, I used to be one of them. I mean, I used to be somebody that was in business.

Now, for the first time in my life, I'm a politician, and I can say this is the way it is. And I understand the system, and I know why the system is broken.

I will give you another example, Jeb Bush. He had a meeting with lobbyists. They raised a lot of money for him. Picture on the front page of a big paper. Picture of Jeb Bush with all these lobbyists. They are not going to do the right thing for the country. They are representing China. They are representing all different kinds of interests. Many of them adverse to the United States. He is controlled by those people.

When they go to him and they say, Jeb, you vote this way, he is going to vote that way. Nobody knows the system better than me and I have many lobbyists, also. But now I'm in a different world. Now I'm in the world of politics. I don't want any money. I don't need any money as you possibly have seen. And, frankly, I'm not going to be controlled. All I'm going to do is what's right for the American people and what's right for the United States.

VAN SUSTEREN: I also read today that you may be going to the border. And I should add that last night. I spoke to Kate Steinle's mother who was here in Washington talking about her daughter who was shot and killed out in California by illegal immigrant.

And it was interesting to me, Donald, that I think that she was originally in favor of sanctuary cities, still is in favor of sanctuary cities, but she was appreciative of you putting the spotlight on this issue. And I wondered, I mean, where does this go with this immigration issue and do you worry about the Hispanic vote come, you know, next first election day?

TRUMP: Well, first of all, she is a great woman and that's a great family. I can imagine how incredible Kate was. What a shame, by an animal that came in, five times he came in and shot her. And it's a disgrace that it's allowed to happen. And I brought the subject up. And I'm getting tremendous credit for it right now, Greta. Tremendous credit.

So we're going to see what happens. I am going to the border. The border patrols have invited me. We have so many people. They want me there because these are tremendous people that are strong people. They want to do their job. They are not allowed to do their job at the border.

And I want people to come in legally. And, as you know, I employ thousands over the years have employed thousands of people and thousands of Mexicans and Hispanics. And, you know, an interesting poll came out in Nevada, I'm way up ahead of everybody else. But something that was even more important to me, I'm way, way up on Hispanics.

The Hispanics, I was number one by far. It wasn't even close into the 30's. And I said if I get the nomination, I will win the Hispanic vote. Because I'm going to bring jobs back to America. I'm going to take them back from China. I'm going to take them back from all these other countries that are taking our jobs because our leaders don't know what they are doing. And the Hispanics will vote for Donald Trump.