RUSH: (chuckles) I've gotta tell you, you may not know this -- well, you probably know this -- but there's a polling outlet out of North Carolina that generally tends liberal, Public Policy Polling. You are up leading the entire Republican field now with 26% of the vote. Huckabee is in second place at 17%. Does this surprise you? When you started this, did you think that you would be at the top of the heap this quickly?
DONALD TRUMP: Well, I didn't --
RUSH: People didn't know for sure that you were running.
DONALD TRUMP: I didn't think it would go this fast, Rush, but to be honest with you -- and I don't even know if it's me or the message -- the fact is I look at what's happening to this country, I look at the way China is just ripping us off, I look at OPEC the way they are ripping us off with the oil prices. I mean, people are gonna be paying six and seven dollars a gallon for gasoline very, very soon; and you're gonna be up to $150 a barrel; and they wouldn't even be there if it weren't for us. I look at South Korea. What they do to us is unbelievable. Even a smaller country, Colombia, they're signing a trade packet. We lost last year -- let's call it "lost" -- $4 billion with Colombia, fourth largest country in Latin America, $4 billion. With China this year, Rush, we're gonna lose $300 billion, and that wouldn't happen if I was there.
RUSH: What does it tell you...?
DONALD TRUMP: People hear it and they like me, I guess.
RUSH: What does it tell you that the ChiComs say that they're gonna start divesting themselves of our T-bills? What does that tell you?
DONALD TRUMP: They won't divest because we have the power they don't have the power, Rush. Rush, if we ever wanted them to stop manipulating their currency, which makes it almost impossible for our companies to compete -- and I know because I build buildings, and I have to get so much stuff whether it's curtain walls or other things from China, and I hate do it. But they manipulate their currency to such an extent that it's very hard, almost impossible for our companies to compete; and if you ever said to them, "Folks, the game is over." You know, we're rebuilding China, Rush. We're rebuilding China. They're building bridges like twice the size of the George Washington Bridge.
The George Washington bridge is like a small bridge. They are building airports, they're building cities, with our money -- and it's mostly from us because we have leadership that doesn't know what they're doing. If you ever said to them, "There's a 25% tax, a 25% tax in all of your products coming in," we would, first of all, never really probably have to oppose the tax because they would come to the table -- if you meant it, if you really meant it -- so fast. Now, if they didn't come to the table, we'd make a fortune. We've take in a lot of money and guess what? Jobs would start going to Alabama and North Carolina and all our places. So when you ask me about the polls, people know -- and I made a lot of money with the Chinese, believe me.
Both in terms of selling them very big apartments -- I sold one for $33 million recently to a Chinese gentleman -- but also in terms of deals. I made a lot of money with the Chinese, and I know the Chinese very well. By the way, they don't love us. I will tell you that. Just in case anybody has any question. They don't. When I see Obama having a dinner at the White House, Rush, for the president of China -- who's been screwing us worse than anybody other than OPEC -- for years, it's not the right and appropriate location for a dinner, believe me. So there are ways of handling it, and they need us, Rush. That's the one thing. They always say, "Oh, but they have our debt." Think of it they take our money and then they loan it back to us and we have to pay 'em interest. It's very... It would be something to solve very easily, if you have the right messenger. We don't have the right messenger. Obama is the wrong messenger.
Originally Posted by lacarnut
