Donald Trump talks bringing jobs back to America
Presidential candidate discusses trade deals, government spending and health care at 'Hannity' town hall
This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," March 9, 2016. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
(CHEERS)
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: All right, we're in beautiful Fayetteville, North Carolina, a special edition of "Hannity" with a lot of our friends!
(CHEERING)
HANNITY: Thank you for being here.
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HANNITY: We have for the full hour the leader on the GOP presidential nomination side. Let's give a warm North Carolina, Fayetteville, welcome, Mr. Donald Trump!
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
AUDIENCE: Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump!
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
HANNITY: Grab a seat. Wow.
DONALD TRUMP, R-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is a big deal.
HANNITY: It's a big deal. Mr. Trump, I want you to know we here on Fox, unlike a lot of the rest of the media -- I noticed that when you have big crowds -- we've had to turn away thousands -- we show the full crowd, so I know that you've talked about that.
TRUMP: Right. It's always nice to show the crowd. We have a great crowd. This is beautiful.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: And you know, Sean, right outside, like about a mile down the road, we have another crowd right after this.
HANNITY: Of 12,000 people.
TRUMP: Yes, 12,000, 13,000, 14,000 people. Who's going there? Is anybody going?
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: Thanks for being -- all right, you are maybe one week away. If you were to win Florida and Ohio, and polls show that -- the RealClearPolitics average is about -- you're plus-18 in Florida.
TRUMP: Right.
HANNITY: There's a Fox poll that came out today that showed you more than double Marco Rubio, at 43 percent to his 20 percent.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
HANNITY: If you win Florida and Ohio, you are well on your way to the nomination to be the Republican nominee for president. How would that make you feel?
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TRUMP: It would make me feel great because we're going to beat Hillary...
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TRUMP: ... and we're going to make America great again.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: It would make me feel great.
HANNITY: Yes. You know, I want to -- I know that you've talk a lot -- and I've had an opportunity, and I'm thankful for the opportunity -- I've interviewed you and all the candidates throughout this process, and I watch the criticism. I watch the debates. These debates have been getting pretty fierce, right?
And I want to give you an opportunity, if this does happen to you, what -- how do you fix our broken economy? I just told this crowd we have 95 million Americans out of the labor force, 50 million in poverty, 46 million on food stamps.
You know, all these young people, we have stolen from all our young children. We've doubled the debt. This president will accumulate more debt than every other president before him combined.
Walk us through the details. How do you fix it?
TRUMP: OK. So what's happened to the country is trade deals done by incompetent people. We have incompetent people.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: We've made terrible trade deals. What we've done even worse than trade in the pure sense is our companies are leaving because we almost encourage companies to get out of the country because we have no policies. We don't know what we're doing. Other countries devalue their currencies, and they make it impossible for companies to stay. You see Carrier leaving, they announced last week, 1,400 people. Ford is moving massive operations into Mexico. Nabisco is leaving Chicago.
It's not going to happen with me, Sean. That's not going to happen with me. And you go...
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TRUMP: You go -- and I know North Carolina very well, by the way, because I have property in North Carolina, you know, in Charlotte.
HANNITY: Is there any state you don't have property in?
TRUMP: Not too many.
(LAUGHTER)
TRUMP: But actually, I have a -- on Lake Norman -- does anybody know Lake Norman?
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TRUMP: It's an incredible property, trump National, and it's like an incredible property and with great people and great members, and everybody's happy, the most beautiful homes you've ever seen.
And this is a great part of the world, but they also -- they lose industry. They're losing tremendous industry. And we're losing industry all over the country. And they're moving. They're moving to other places. A lot of them are moving to Mexico. Don't underestimate -- it's like the new China on a smaller level, but like the new China.
So we will bring our jobs back, Sean. We're going to bring our jobs -- as sure as you're sitting there, we are going to bring out jobs back into this country for the first time!
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: And we're going to stop -- we're going to stop being the country that's just pushed around, you know? Recently, you saw Vicente Fox. He was the former...
(BOOS)
HANNITY: He was on my T.V. show. He and I had a big fight.
TRUMP: Oh. OK, well, I...
HANNITY: You missed that edition.
TRUMP: And he said, We will not pay for the wall, and he used the word, right? He used the "F" word. And I said, Can you imagine if I used that word? With him, it wasn't even like a scandal, I thought he'd be in the front page of the papers.
He said, We will not build that you-know-what wall. And I said Whoa, whoa. That's terrible. But actually, what he ultimately said, he said, We're not going to finance it. We're not going to pay for it.
And I said to myself, wow, we've made -- you know, he would never say -- they would never agree to it. Now they're saying they're not going to pay for it. They will pay for the wall. We're going to build the wall. We're going to pay for the wall. We're going to stop businesses from leaving our country, and we are -- they are being...
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TRUMP: And they are being drained out of our country, our jobs, our money, our base, and our factories. We are -- we're going to stop this.
HANNITY: You don't expect he's going to write a check, but what you're saying is that they will have to make concessions.
TRUMP: Well, there's many different ways.
HANNITY: So in other words, you don't expect Mexico to say...
TRUMP: No. No.
HANNITY: ... Yes, Mr. Trump, here's a check for $10 billion.
TRUMP: Because politically, it's not feasible. It wouldn't look good.
HANNITY: So you think the deals that you make will more than compensate for the wall.
TRUMP: Yes, even if we tax them. We may tax them, OK? It doesn't make any difference.
Look, we lose a tremendous amount of money. We have a trade deficit with Mexico, $58 billion a year. People don't know that. The wall's going to cost $10 billion dollars, OK? That's a Trump wall, beautiful wall. It'll be done properly.
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TRUMP: It'll be way up there, Sean. You'll be very proud of it. And it'll look good, too, as good as a wall can look. And it's going to have a door in it, you know, a big, big -- a really beautiful door. You know what that means, right? People are going to come in...
HANNITY: Legally.
TRUMP: ... but they're going to come in legally. They're going to come to our country.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
HANNITY: You know I've been to the border 10 times, and -- I should tell these -- I went out with border patrol -- hi.
I've been out on border patrol agents on horseback, all-terrain vehicle. I've been there with them when gang members were arrested. I've seen drug warehouses. I saw a tunnel in a San Diego office building dug from Mexico up through that office building. And we know the statistics.
Here's the questions. I want to get back to the economy. Government spending is out of control.
TRUMP: True.
HANNITY: How do you -- how do we stop the growth of government?
TRUMP: So I've been watching him for so many years, and you can learn from this guy and you can learn from the guests. You know, sometimes, you get criticized. Oh, he gets his information from television.
Well, the people that write the greatest of all papers are always on television, also.
HANNITY: Good point.
TRUMP: But I do watch this one right here, and he had a thing called...
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TRUMP: We can learn. We can learn from our Sean. He's got a thing called the penny plan. It's a very simple plan, right?
HANNITY: Want me to tell it?
TRUMP: Yes. Go ahead.
HANNITY: (INAUDIBLE) one cent out of every dollar every year for six years, you balance the budget. No more increases built into government spending. They've got to live within their means.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
HANNITY: It's amazing.
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TRUMP: Except the military.
HANNITY: You would not cut the military -- you would increase spending on the military.
TRUMP: I would. I would increase on the military, but I'd take more than a penny out of certain (INAUDIBLE)...
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
HANNITY: What do we do -- every time you look at the equation -- all right, you got discretionary spending, and then we have Social Security and Medicare, the third rail.
TRUMP: Right. Right.
HANNITY: Would you consider raising the retirement age? Would you consider maybe getting rid of cost of living benefits...
TRUMP: I am...
HANNITY: ... COLAs?
TRUMP: ... going to leave it the way it is. And I'll tell you what. We're going to make our country so rich, it's going to be so good. We're going to make it good again. We're going to make it vibrant again.
We had no growth in the last two quarters, essentially no growth. It's unheard of. If China gets down to 7 percent, just like they're going to have a national catastrophe. We have nothing. We have nothing left.
We've been stripped. If we get our growth up to 4 percent or 5 percent, and I think that's absolutely doable, we can pay for everything. We can have plenty of money left over for infrastructure.
You know, the infrastructure of our country -- and it's also great jobs, but the roads, the airports, the hospitals, the tunnels, the bridges...
HANNITY: You don't think we'll have to cut entitlements?
TRUMP: I don't want to cut entitlements, no. I don't want to...
HANNITY: All right, so let me then...
TRUMP: I don't want to cut entitlements.
HANNITY: I want to...
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
HANNITY: There's two issues that you have discussed with me in detail, and I want -- maybe if you can explain to this audience. The money the corporations have overseas...
TRUMP: Right.
HANNITY: ... trillions of dollars...
TRUMP: Corporate inversion.
HANNITY: ... and you talk about -- corporate inversions, repatriating the money...
TRUMP: Right.
HANNITY: ... and energy independence and the number of jobs that will be created doing that.
TRUMP: Right. Exactly. Well, look, we spend a tremendous amount of money on energy in the sense that we're protecting all of these people that don't like us too much, folks.
And I'll give you an example. Saudi Arabia -- no problems with Saudi Arabia. They were -- before the prices went down, they were making a year ago -- they were making a billion dollars a day, a billion a day, money that -- like nobody's ever seen.
We protect them for peanuts, for practically nothing, and we've spent a tremendous amount of money. South Korea -- when you want a television set, we go to South -- LG, Samsung, they're all made in South Korea. It's a monster in terms of economic -- that goes with air-conditioning, it goes with so many different things, even ships coming out of South Korea.
You look at China. You look at so many different -- you know that we actually have a -- it's not a lot anymore, but we actually subsidize China. We give them subsidies for certain things. You've seen that, too. It's sort of a little bit of a scandal. It's not a huge amount of money, but it's still money. We're subsidizing things in China.
But Japan -- we protect Japan. Now, Japan's interesting because we protect them. If we're attacked, they don't have to do anything. If somebody attacks Japan, we end up in World War Three. We have to go and fight for Japan, but they don't have to fight for us. I mean, this is the way it is. Germany -- we take care of Germany. We protect Germany.
Now, the money we spend on our military is massive, and everyone says we spend 10 times more money than everybody else. But we're spending it protecting other nations. And many of those nations are very rich. They've got to pay up. We want their help. They've got to pay up, OK? They got to pay up.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
HANNITY: Let me ask this...
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HANNITY: I think -- I don't think there's a person in this crowd that isn't worried about their health care.
TRUMP: Yes.
HANNITY: We have "Obama care."
TRUMP: Right.
HANNITY: You said...
(BOOS)
HANNITY: I think we came to the right town.
TRUMP: The health care savings accounts is something that -- I know you like it, but yes, we could have "Romney care," right?
(LAUGHTER)
TRUMP: See how that's worked out in Massachusetts, right? That's been a beauty.
Look, we -- we have -- you know, you have concepts. You have different concepts of health care. But one thing, we don't have any competition. There's no competition. We're going to let there be tremendous competition. And the health care savings accounts -- I'll tell you something, so inexpensive for the people, so inexpensive for the country.
You know, ObamaCare is going to destroy -- you talk about budgets. In '17 -- here's the good news -- it explodes, unless the Republicans give him more money. You know, they gave him more money in this last budget to keep it going. It's going to implode. It's going to -- it's...
HANNITY: How was -- you mentioned last...
TRUMP: You know, I'm going to be president when it implodes. I'm going to get the blame when "Obama care" implodes.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Not good.
HANNITY: But you'll replace it with health savings accounts...
TRUMP: Absolutely.
HANNITY: ... with competition and portability.
TRUMP: Absolutely.
HANNITY: You can take it job to job.
TRUMP: You can take it from place to place.
HANNITY: And I could buy -- if I wanted to buy health insurance here in North Carolina, even though I'm stuck in New York, where I pay an unreal rate of taxes, I'd be able to do that?
TRUMP: You can do that. And you can move around. And it's sort of like ownership. It's almost like ownership. And it also gets people to negotiate with their people. Like, you see a doctor, you can negotiate with him because you don't want to use too much of your money. I mean, it's really an asset.
Right now, we have plans that are so out of control. And "Obama care" is out of control. The cost of "Obama care" by 2017 will be astronomical. You know when you see -- to the country, it will be astronomical. And by the way, the premiums are going up 25, 35, 45 percent. People -- is that correct? Right?
(APPLAUSE)
HANNITY: And more.
TRUMP: No, no. And more.
HANNITY: And more.
TRUMP: People are absolutely getting killed. So it won't exist in 2017. It'll explode. It'll blow up.
HANNITY: You know, young people have been -- the way this is designed, it's like a Ponzi scheme, "Obama care," where young and healthy people pay for the sick, the elderly and the disabled.
Young -- most young people, all they really need is a catastrophic plan, high deductible. If God forbid they had an accident, God forbid they got cancer, then they would be given the help that they need, and they can incentivize a checkup a year. That's a lot cheaper than...
TRUMP: Well, the problem is...
HANNITY: ... if you stub your toe.
TRUMP: The thing with "Obama care" is the young people aren't joining. And the people that they really want to pay for other people that do have difficulty -- I mean, you know, preexisting and difficulties -- those people aren't joining. The people with difficulties are all joining. And it's just not working.
HANNITY: All right...
TRUMP: It never was going to work. It never had a chance to work.
HANNITY: Stay right with us. We have Mr. Donald Trump for the entire hour. We're in beautiful Fayetteville, North Carolina.
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HANNITY: "Hannity on the Road" continues straight ahead.
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HANNITY: And welcome back to beautiful Fayetteville, North Carolina, "Hannity on the Road," as we continue for the entire hour with 2016 Republican front-runner Donald Trump.
All right, Mr. Trump, let me talk a little politics process with you. You saw this meeting that took place in Sea Island, Georgia. Mitch McConnell was there, a lot of rich millionaires and billionaires.
(BOOS)
HANNITY: You heard the speech of Governor Romney. There seems to be a concerted effort to prevent you from getting the 1,237 delegates because they want a brokered convention. They want a contested convention.
John Kasich said, Well, that would (ph) even be exciting, and he acknowledged to me that would be the only path he would have to the nomination.
TRUMP: It's the only way he can get it. And he's got a lot of problems, I think, in Ohio. Look...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE)
TRUMP: Thank you, I think.
(LAUGHTER)
TRUMP: Look, it's very sad. I heard 59 planes flew in from all over the world. These are people that are taking advantage of our country. These are people that I know many of them. I can even look at their plane and say who owns this one, who owns that one. I know them.
And they're all flying in because, you know, they don't want to have strong borders. They want stuff flowing across the borders. They don't want to have taxation when countries treat us unfairly because they benefit from that. And we have to. Otherwise, we're going to continue to lose our businesses. I mean, you have China sending things into this country, no tax, no nothing. If you want to do business in China, it's almost impossible. And if you get your product there, you're going to pay a tremendous tax.
But so -- you know what? I want -- I want beautiful, free borders. I want everything to be nice, but it doesn't work.
HANNITY: But this is a concerted -- this is a concerted effort to prevent you from getting the nomination, and it appears, based on the names of the people there, that they're willing to spend millions and millions and tens of millions of dollars to stop you.
TRUMP: Well, you know, they've already spent it. I mean, we had -- we had a great night last night.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: I love you. It's a great group. Look, we -- didn't we have a great night last night? Was that...
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TRUMP: What happened last night with all the victories, I mean, that was a tremendous -- even my -- even some of these pundits who are the absolute worst, least talented -- I won't talk about them on your show...
HANNITY: All right.
TRUMP: ... because they happen to be on Fox, many of them.
HANNITY: Oh.
TRUMP: But I will say, they...
(LAUGHTER)
HANNITY: Pound the host, all right.
TRUMP: They even said...
HANNITY: All right.
TRUMP: -- that was a...
HANNITY: Yes.
TRUMP: That was a phenomenal evening for Trump. And you know, the victories -- and not only the victories, the victories, the margins of -- they were landslides. They were all landslides. So here's what...
(CHEERS)
TRUMP: Here's what -- here's what's happening. The biggest story in politics today is the fact that during the Republican primaries, so many people -- millions and millions of additional people are showing up to vote.
It is a phenomenon. It's been on the cover of Time magazine numerous times. I've been on the cover of Time magazine, like, four times in a short period of time, can you believe it?
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: I've been on, I think -- I think two times in my lifetime, and I've been on four times. This is -- politics is really a lot of fun.
But the fact is, we -- we have -- altogether, we have a movement going on. And it's a movement of competence and common sense...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're a great (INAUDIBLE), Donald Trump!
TRUMP: And -- thank you. It's a movement -- it's a movement of competence and common sense and low taxes and...
HANNITY: Last...
TRUMP: -- and so many other things...
HANNITY: Last time...
TRUMP: ... and by the way, and borders, and borders...
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: And...
HANNITY: Last night, you said something...
TRUMP: And they would be so foolish, Sean, to give it away.
HANNITY: I agree with you.
TRUMP: Millions of people, they would be so foolish to throw that away.
HANNITY: When you see the numbers and the percentages, this percentage increase on the Republican side, clearly, the energy is there.
TRUMP: Yes.
HANNITY: On the Democratic side, it is depressed. It's down 35...
TRUMP: Thirty-five percent down.
HANNITY: ... 40 percent.
TRUMP: Right.
HANNITY: So last night, you talked about reconciliation. You talked about unity. You talked about bringing the party together, electing Republican senators and congressmen, and even conversations with Paul Ryan. Bring us in that conversation. How are -- how are these people...
TRUMP: All right...
HANNITY: -- that are right there now responding to you behind the scenes?
TRUMP: Well, some have called me, and some it's very personal and very quiet and confidential. And I've been called by the biggest people in the world of politics. I've been called by certain establishment people that you wouldn't even believe.
I was called by Paul Ryan, who was very, very nice. He couldn't be -- I like Paul Ryan. I've all -- always liked. I like maybe a little bit stronger border than he would like, and that's OK and we can get that done. But he called and he was -- he was very, very -- it was very, very good that he did.
HANNITY: You said something else last night...
TRUMP: And others -- and by the way, and others.
HANNITY: Some have questioned -- you've been -- look, you're a tough businessman, a fighter. Some of the debates we were discussing with the crowd before have gotten very intense and -- and some said, Well, Donald Trump -- this is what Mitt Romney was saying -- doesn't have the temperament to be president. You said last night, I can be as presidential as anybody. Talk...
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
HANNITY: Talk about the temperament that you think a president needs.
TRUMP: You know, it -- it's actually quite a complicated subject. I had 17 -- there were 17 people that started, all capable people, you know, senators and -- and governors. I mean, we're not talking about babies. And they got there by -- by guile and intelligence.
So I started off with 17. Everybody that's attacked me is gone. Do you ever notice that? Wouldn't that be nice for our country? Everybody...
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TRUMP: So we're now down to four. But you know, when I'm doing that, I can't be so nice. When I'm being attacked viciously -- I mean, Jeb was very vicious. They were all very vicious. And they're all gone. And they're gone, like, where their poll numbers were 11 and then they attacked me and they go zero and they say bye-bye.
And these are not people that like me. And these are among the people that are, you know, ganging up to try and do something.
Look, I -- I feel -- number one, I know this. I could be the most presidential person other than -- I always joke and say other than Abe Lincoln. He was pretty good. He was a serious president, right? He had the serious president look.
But I was a great student. I went to the best schools, all that stuff. I mean, I have what it takes. But you have to -- when somebody's attacking you personally and attacking you viciously, I guess they say you should -- some people say, Just stand up and let them say whatever they want. You're presidential. It doesn't work that way. I would be run out of town...
(CHEERS)
TRUMP: ... if I did that -- it doesn't work that way.
HANNITY: All right...
TRUMP: No, no, Sean...
HANNITY: No, I'm listening.
TRUMP: At the right time -- at the right time, I will be so presidential that you'll call me and you'll say, Donald, you have to stop that.
(LAUGHTER)
TRUMP: But -- but you know what? It -- it is true, and I think you understand, when they attack me, I have to attack back. I'm a counter- puncher. When they attack me, if I don't attack back -- you know, the press could say, Oh, he should act more presidential. And then like a couple of days ago, I gave a speech, they said, That was so presidential. I can be presidential.
But when you're being attacked and when you attack back, they say it's not presidential.
HANNITY: But I see after -- after you've had victories and you hold these press conferences...
TRUMP: Right.
HANNITY: ... that's more the person -- I've known you for 15-plus years or 16 years. That's the person that I've always known. Now, it's going to be a little different scenario. I know the Democratic playbook. Assuming it's Hillary -- and I know how you feel about that.
(BOOS)
HANNITY: Assuming -- assuming it's Hillary, they're going to say Republicans are racist, sexist, homophobic. They want to poison the air, water, kill children, throw granny over the cliff -- oh, and they hate America.
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: And it's what they did with Romney, and especially (INAUDIBLE)...
HANNITY: That's what they do all the time.
TRUMP: ... especially with Paul on entitlements. Remember the famous wheelchair over the cliff and all.
HANNITY: Yes.
TRUMP: But look, I was hit only once by Hillary, and that was four weeks ago. And we haven't heard from her since. And I...
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: And -- and I will tell you -- and I will tell you, I was not given proper credit because she went down during that period of time, and they gave the credit. When Bernie Sanders all of a sudden started doing, well, they gave all the credit -- I did a big favor to him.
But she said something about me, and I said something very strong about her and Bill. It was just to counter. I haven't even started on her yet. And let me just tell you this...
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: The one person she does not want to run against is me, that I can tell you. You know, I watched...
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: I watch -- I watch on your show, Ted Cruz, and I watch these people, and they say Oh, well -- number one, I'm beating her beautifully in polls. In fact, one came out today where I'm beating her very nicely in polls. But I haven't even started on her yet.
HANNITY: So you're saying this is a preview of coming attractions.
TRUMP: No, no, I'm just saying we're going to win. I'm just saying we're going to win.
HANNITY: Right.
TRUMP: And the other guys aren't going to win. One thing I do that nobody else can do, I'm going to bring places like Michigan into play. Nobody else is going to win. Ted Cruz and -- and Rubio -- I think Rubio is out of it now. But Ted Cruz -- Ted Cruz is not going to win Michigan. Ted Cruz is never going to win Michigan.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
HANNITY: We've got to take a break. We're in beautiful Fayetteville, North Carolina. It's "Hannity on the Road." We'll continue with the GOP presidential front-runner, Donald Trump. "Hannity on the Road" continues.
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(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: And welcome back to beautiful Fayetteville. We're in North Carolina. We're on the road with "Hannity," and the GOP presidential front-runner of the moment, Donald Trump, is with us.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
HANNITY: I want to give you an opportunity -- you're in the -- or you're on the debate stage, and you're always in the middle. I guess that's good because that means leading in the polls.
TRUMP: Every -- every single debate.
HANNITY: Yes.
TRUMP: Yes, so far.
HANNITY: Yes.
TRUMP: We're going to keep it that way folks, OK?
HANNITY: All right, but...
(CHEERS)
HANNITY: ... the biggest criticism -- and when I read social media about you, is some people that are on the conservative side, they listen to Ted Cruz's attacks, they listen to Rubio's attacks, the other opponents, and they say Donald Trump's not going to be a conservative because he was not a conservative in New York.
Tell us where you are conservative in your mind, what kind of conservative you are, how do you define conservatism?
TRUMP: So let me start off by saying it's true, years ago and -- and 100 percent, I was a businessman. One of the magazines said Donald Trump is a world class businessman. I had to get along with everybody.
And I'd get along with everybody. I didn't know I'd be running for office someday. In fact, I was told if you're very successful, you basically can't run for office. And I understand that because you go under a microscope.
But I took -- I was friendly with everybody. I helped everybody. I contributed to everybody. And to be honest with you, when I needed somebody or I had to make a phone call, everybody took my call. I got along. That's very good. That's not a bad thing, that's a good thing.
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TRUMP: So I think people understand that.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: And that includes Hillary. It included everybody. If I needed a secretary of state, they were there. I mean, that's what we're supposed to do.
When I saw the country going so bad, when I saw the Iran deal being made and I said, don't make that deal, I see so many things going wrong, I see these horrible trade deals, I said, Let's do this. I'm going to go -- I'm going to run, and let's see how it works out. I -- I decided to run. And from literally June 16th, I've been number one. And as you say, it's center stage.
TRUMP: Now, what happens is this. I'm a conservative person. I'm very conservative in many respects, but I'm a conservative person, but I like to say a common sense conservative because I'm conservative on independence in energy. I'm very, very, very conservative on the border and on all of that.
I'm extremely conservative on the military. We're going to rebuild our military. It's going to...
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: -- than ever before. I'm very, very conservative on our vets. Our veterans are treated horribly and we're going to take care of our veterans.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: we're going to treat -- we're going to take care of our veterans. Our veterans are treated -- honestly, our veterans are treated, in many cases, worse than illegal immigrants who come across and -- and have a lot of -- pose a lot of problems.
I'm very, very conservative when it comes to education. We're getting rid of Common Core. We're going to have local education.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: We've already discussed repealing and replacing ObamaCare. It's going to happen.
HANNITY: You'd put education back to the states completely?
TRUMP: Yes, 100 percent.
HANNITY: All the money would go to the states?
TRUMP: Let's put it back to the states. Yes, because it's better, absolutely.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: You know, Sean, it's interesting, we are in the top 30. We're number 30 in the world, the United States. Number 30 in the world on education, right? We're last, number 30 in the world. You have Sweden and Norway and Denmark and China number one and, you know, one through four. But we're number 30, and yet we're number one per pupil in terms of money spent. So we spend more per pupil. And number two doesn't because they're so much less expensive. So we spend the most by far, and we're at the worst part of the list. It's not going to happen anymore, Sean. We're going to bring it back to the local. I've seen it. I've seen where the parents are involved. The parents love their kids.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: I've seen it. The local education is the way to go.
HANNITY: Is there anything that you think you're liberal on?
TRUMP: Not liberal. I mean, but I am common sense. Look, here's the one thing that the conservatives can get me -- free trade. I'm a free trader, just so you understand. But free trade has to go along with the word smart trade. I don't want to be a free trader, you know, it's free on our side, but on their side, they're killing us, OK? Like China. And I have great relationships with China. And I made a lot of money in China. I've made a fortune in China dealing with China. And I don't blame China. I blame our leaders. I wish our leaders were doing -- they -- they currency manipulate greater than anybody in the history of the world.
HANNITY: So then here's my question. So every time your opponents are attacking you, are they attacking your old positions and not --
TRUMP: They like to attack the old positions and they also say I'm not a free trader. Let me tell you --
HANNITY: So this is my --
TRUMP: I love free trade --
HANNITY: -- here's my other question.
TRUMP: Trump, we don't have the capability. Our leaders aren't smart enough to deal with the other leaders. These guys in China, in Mexico, in Japan, these are total killers. These are smart, smart people. They stay awake at night thinking about what to do, whereas Obama is out playing golf, OK?
HANNITY: You've also said --
(APPLAUSE)
HANNITY: You've also said -- you've -- you've explained from the first day -- debate on how you became pro-life. You're very pro-Second Amendment. I know your son Don is a big hunter and --
TRUMP: Right. Totally.
HANNITY: And you carry a gun in New York?
TRUMP: Yes, I do. And I'm a member of the NRA.
(APPLAUSE)
HANNITY: OK.
TRUMP: So my -- and my -- and my sons are members of the NRA.
HANNITY: If all of -- do you pledge -- I guess for those people that write me on Twitter and Facebook and say Hannity, you're too nice to Mr. Trump and you don't challenge him on his conservatism, are -- is it your promise and pledge that everything you just listed, energy independence, cutting the budget, the penny plan, the military, the borders -- hang on. If everything you're saying, is that a promise and a pledge? This is you.
TRUMP: That's a pledge. You know why it's a pledge?
HANNITY: No.
TRUMP: And I wouldn't do that if I thought --
HANNITY: Yes.
TRUMP: Who wouldn't pledge that stuff? I mean it's like basic common sense.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: But I remember when Jeb -- and Jeb Bush is a nice guy, but I know Jeb would stand up and say he is not a conservative. He would look in the -- he is not a conservative. And he'd look in the camera. And people would say, so what. I mean, do you want to have -- and he'd say it, to a large extent, because of free trade. I am totally for free trade, but it's got to be a double -- it's got to be a double --
HANNITY: You think that's the main thing that --
TRUMP: Well, no --
HANNITY: Let me ask you --
TRUMP: -- it's draining --
HANNITY: One other issue comes up.
TRUMP: Sean, it's draining our country. It's draining our country.
HANNITY: I agree with you. I'm not disagreeing.
TRUMP: And you know what? If we had smart leaders -- the problem with free trade is you need smart leaders on your side, too. And we don't have those people. But Carl Icahn, the smartest people in the world are in our country, business leaders. I have them lined up. I have Carl Icahn.
HANNITY: You have --
TRUMP: I have Steve Wynn is so incredible. He's a smart guy.
HANNITY: Steve?
TRUMP: You know Steve.
HANNITY: Yes.
TRUMP: Phil Ruffin, Andy Beal, one of the greatest bankers in the world. These are super brilliant guys, make so much money when the market goes bad. He always gets it right when it goes good, he gets it right. I have the smartest people in the world. They're ready to come and help. We use political hacks to negotiate our deals and we lose all the time.
HANNITY: Can I interpret from that statement that you would --
(APPLAUSE)
HANNITY: -- that you would take in a lot of people from outside government? For example, you started with 17 people. Some of these governors, by the way, did have very solid records in their states.
TRUMP: Oh, sure.
HANNITY: Because I think they've governed more conservatively. I think Republicans feel betrayed by Washington Republicans because they haven't stood up to Obama. They would not use the power of the purse.
(APPLAUSE)
HANNITY: They made promises they can't keep. Would you -- would you hire -- the people, in your mind, that you would want to surround yourself with --
TRUMP: Here's where you're wrong on -- I've never said he was wrong on anything.
HANNITY: Oh, boy, here we go.
TRUMP: But let me just tell you where you're wrong.
HANNITY: Now I feel like Chris Christie. Go ahead.
TRUMP: Even the people on the stage, like -- like Ted Cruz. You know I mean, I will tell you, they are controlled by the donors. They are controlled by the special interests.
HANNITY: I don't disagree with you.
TRUMP: They are controlled --
HANNITY: About --
TRUMP: They are controlled by lobbyists, totally controlled by lobbyists.
TRUMP: And I can tell you this --
HANNITY: But if you're president --
TRUMP: -- and I'm self-funding. I'm putting up my own money.
HANNITY: But if you're president, wouldn't -
(APPLAUSE)
HANNITY: -- the people you hire listen to you?
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: But they --
HANNITY: All right.
TRUMP: But, but, Sean, these guys are all controlled by the special interests, 100 percent. I mean look, I was there. I was a member of the establishment nine months ago, right? I was -- who was better at it than me? I was great at it. But I also saw it was wrong. And politicians will do what's right for the people that gave them the money, not what's right for the country.
HANNITY: Let me -- a quick follow-up, and we don't have a lot of time in this segment.
(APPLAUSE)
HANNITY: And I want to ask this. Are you really committed to -- to creating a political earthquake -- that's the best term I can come up with -- a revolution -- a revolution in DC where you are going to break down the core of corruption that exists in that city? Do you think you can do that?
TRUMP: Yes, well --
(APPLAUSE)
HANNITY: I have 30 seconds.
TRUMP: Right. Let me tell you, Sean, I don't think we need an earthquake. We need -- we need intelligence, we need energy, we don't have energy. We need certain things. We don't need the word "revolution." It's not going to be a revolution. We are going to make our country so great and so smart and so strong and we don't need the -- I mean the words, the words you used are beautiful words, but honestly, we're going to do it with less than that. We are going to do everything that you said, but it's not the word "revolution."
HANNITY: OK. I thought I turned my phone off.
(LAUGHTER)
HANNITY: All right, we've got to take a break. We're in Fayetteville, North Carolina. We continue for the hour with Donald Trump.
(APPLAUSE)
HANNITY: Thanks for being with us, "Hannity on the Road."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: And welcome to beautiful Fayetteville, North Carolina. It's "Hannity on the Road." We're glad you're with us for the full hour with Donald Trump.
(APPLAUSE)
HANNITY: You know, so I got here today. I came in to the airport. And I ran into a friend of mine that's a mutual friend of Colonel Oliver North. Really great guy, and an American hero, and a great American, yes, sir.
(APPLAUSE)
HANNITY: And his former bodyguard, hi, how are you? Good to see you. He had a guy with him, and I want to bring him up. His name is Corporal Tony Porta. He's the head of Vets for Trump. I want him to tell you his story.
(APPLAUSE)
HANNITY: Why don't you take my seat? Go ahead. I'll go stand off to the side. You sit down. So --
TRUMP: So nice.
(APPLAUSE)
HANNITY: You told -- he's the head of Vets for Trump.
TRUMP: Great guy.
HANNITY: How many tours of dirty did you serve?
USMC CPL. TONY PORTA, VETERANS FOR TRUMP COALITION SPOKESPERSON: One, sir.
HANNITY: OK, and you have now been six years in recovery from a horrible IED explosion that killed two of you friends?
PORTA: Yes, sir.
HANNITY: And you told me, and again this just happened today at the airport, you told me a horrible story about how the Veterans Administration is treating you. You're with Vets for Trump. And I thought you could tell him your story and hopefully get the story you want to hear and fixing the V.A. which has just been morally corrupt.
PORTA: Yes, sir. Congratulations.
TRUMP: Thank you.
PORTA: Congratulations on last night. You did awesome.
TRUMP: That was good. He's been my friend. He's been my friend. Thank you, Tony. Thank you.
PORTA: My name is Corporal Tony Porta. I'm a U.S. Marine.
(APPLAUSE)
PORTA: I joined the Marine Corps 2005 because I wanted to do my part. I wanted to serve to protect my new country. So I deployed to Iraq in 2007. And May 5th, 2007, I lost two of my best friends. And I suffered these injuries. I really don't mind about my injuries. I'm really, really hurt by about my two friends. But I'm here for a reason. I'm here to fight. I'm here to help my fellow veterans. I'm here for them.
TRUMP: Right.
PORTA: So, I was really struggling. I was in San Antonio for six years, over 100 surgeries just to -- just to be this way.
TRUMP: OK.
PORTA: So after that, I retired. I went back home. Home wasn't home anymore. So I moved to West Virginia. I moved to West Virginia in -- I went to many V.A.'s. A couple of V.A.'s were awful. Awful. I was there. I was waiting for appointments for several weeks. And now I'm going to smaller V.A. It's really good. I like it. It has a lot of problems. But I'm here for the other veterans. I'm here for them because I cannot --
(APPLAUSE)
PORTA: thank you. I cannot see my fellow veterans killing themselves for lack of help.
TRUMP: That's terrible.
PORTA: I can't do that.
HANNITY: Let me -- only because of the constraints of time. I know you want to ask him. The vets have been treated horribly.
PORTA: That's true.
HANNITY: And you're sticking up for the vets and helping those with PTSD and those that have been suffering and those that have been mistreated like you have.
PORTA: Yes, sir.
HANNITY: And your question is, what is the president going to do to fix this?
TRUMP: OK. You know, Tony, it's been one of my big things. I've seen you around and I've been your friend to a sense and we're going to be better friends. But we have to help the bets. And you know it's always been a been big part, a staple in the speeches. I always mention the vets, and I don't mention the military without talking about the vets. The Veterans Administration is corrupt. It's a corrupt deal.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: And I say this, and I say it very strongly. We're going to take care of the vets. And when they have to wait for two weeks and a week --
HANNITY: Some died waiting.
PORTA: They die waiting. And we're going to make it so if they have waiting, we're going to move them out and get them to doctors in the area. It's going to cost less money, and we're going to take care of them immediately. Hospitals that are not even doing well in the area that can take them immediately. And we'll pay those bills, and I'll tell you what, Sean. It's going to cost a lot less money and we're going to save tremendous numbers of lives and have great medical care. But that's the beginning. We're going to take care of the vets.
(APPLAUSE)
PORTA: One more thing, sir. I'm here representing vets for Trump. When you become president, I don't want you to work for those guys who are giving tons of money to a lot of people.
TRUMP: Right.
PORTA: I want you to work for us.
TRUMP: That's right.
PORTA: For us. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: You take care of yourself, OK?
(APPLAUSE)
HANNITY: We're going to take a break from Fayetteville, North Carolina, "Hannity on the Road." More with Donald Trump when we continue.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: Welcome back to Fayetteville. We're in North Carolina, "Hannity on the Road" with GOP frontrunner Donald Trump.
(APPLAUSE)
HANNITY: I know I've asked you about this before. And we only have two minutes in this segment. It's a short segment, but ISIS, homeland security, I'm sure everybody worries about the next 9/11, God forbid, ever happens to this country. How do we defeat them? and do you think we need boots on the ground?
TRUMP: We have to knock them out. I was not, and I said it loudly, I am the most militaristic person in this room, other than maybe Tony. Tony might be bigger.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: But I will tell you, I believe so strongly. But we have to know what to do, when to do it. We should not have been in Iraq. We destabilized the Middle East. Now, then we got out wrong. Obama got us out so badly. When he announced a date and he announced we're going to move, I mean, who ever heard of a thing like this? So we got out very badly. We should have left people behind. We should have had a lot of other things.
But we're going to knock out ISIS so fast. And we have to be a little bit unpredictable. Sean is saying, and I do, I have a specific thing, but we have to be a little bit unpredictable, Sean. I'm so tired of saying, well, we're going to attack from here and we're going to attack from --
HANNITY: You don't want to telegraph it.
TRUMP: I don't want to talk about it. I want to just do it.
(APPLAUSE)
HANNITY: We'll take a break, final moments as we continue from Fayetteville, North Carolina, "Hannity on the Road" with 2016 Republican frontrunner Donald Trump, stay with us.
(APPLAUSE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: And welcome back to "Hannity." We're in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
(APPLAUSE)
HANNITY: All right, last question, you said it to me once. If you are elected president and Loretta Lynch covers, if there is a criminal referral by the FBI and they cover for Hillary and they don't indictment her, you will pursue it? But we've got about 20 seconds.
TRUMP: The answer is you have to.
(APPLAUSE)
HANNITY: Did you all have a good time tonight?
(APPLAUSE)
HANNITY: Thank you all for being with us. Mr. Trump, thank you, we appreciate it. Good to see you. Thank you.
That's all the time we have left. We're in Fayetteville, North Carolina. We'll be back here tomorrow night. As always, thank you for being with us.
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