Donald Trump full interview Part 1 (CNN interview with Anderson Cooper)

[0:00] Let's talk polls first of all. Washington Post poll on Monday. Great news for you. Huge lead in the Republican field. Quinnipiac poll came out today, though. Not so good news for you. In the general election voters, Colorado, Iowa, Virginia, you have the worst favorability ratings of anyone, Republican or Democrat. Negative favorability ratings. I mean, it was two to one. Hillary Clinton also did badly. I haven't seen it. I really don't know. I haven't seen it. Do negative favorability ratings worry you? I don't think so. I mean, I've I've turned a lot of them around in [0:30] as you know, North Carolina was negative and now it's like tremendously positive. And when people hear what I say about the vets and how strong my commitment is to the vets, they've been treated so badly and to the border, which is just horrible. I mean, every time people listen to me, all of a sudden it becomes very favorable. A good example would be North Carolina where it's so positive. I haven't seen that. But I think generally speaking, we're doing very well and certainly we're doing well in the ABC Washington Post poll and every other poll that I've seen in the last couple of weeks. [1:00] So you think you can turn around because a lot of people say, look, those those kind of unfavorability ratings, that does not bode well. You think you can turn that around? I don't know. I mean, who knows? I'm doing this for the good of the country. Somebody has to do it. Politicians are never going to turn this country around. Our country is a mess. The politicians are going to destroy this country. They're weak and they're ineffective and they're controlled by the lobbyists and the special interests. So well, I don't I have no idea. You talk about the lobbyists and the special interests, though. You and I talked last time. You've given a lot of money. [1:30] to politicians over the years. You give to Democrats. You give to Republicans. Aren't you part of the problem? Absolutely. Absolutely. I was on the other side. They will do whatever I want up until you decide to run. So isn't that hypocritical to say, oh, this is a problem, but I'm going to make the most of this problem. It's called playing the game. I was a businessman. I made a fortune. I made a lot of money. I posted over 10 billion dollars. So in order to make money, it's OK to play the game. Well, it's called your life. I mean, I'm a businessman and I contribute to people and they treat me nicely. [1:59] And everything else. So how do you change it? How do you change that culture? I understand the culture. Look, I just read an article where Bush is meeting with all these lobbyists in Washington, has a meeting with all these lobbyists. Every one of those lobbyists that gives money, they expect something for it. And that's a bad thing. Don't you have a lobbyist, though? Absolutely. I've had lobbyists and I've had some very good ones. They could do anything. They can take a politician and have them jump off this ledge. Can you actually change that culture of corruption? [2:30] Far too much money. I don't need anybody's money. I'm not running with anybody's money. I'm spending my own money. But the lobbyists have they totally control these politicians. Just take a look in one of the articles very recently. I see Bush with the lobbyists and he's sitting there with all of these people. They're totally telling them what to do like a little puppet. And the same with Hillary and the same with everybody else. Now, when I'm in business, I'm part of that game. When I'm in this, I now know when somebody comes back and forth. [2:58] I mean, can you really be a guy who says, I am able to do that very easily. That's not hypocritical. Not at all. Look, I'm going to do, I've made a lot of money. A lot. I've heard. And I don't need money. And I don't need money to run. I don't need $5,000 a year, $10,000. These guys are desperate for money. I don't need it. I'm going to do what's right for the country. Who'd run your business if you're president? My children and executives. I have very good executives and great children. They're very good. Talking yesterday, Jeb Bush said, if we embrace this language of divisiveness and ugliness, we'll never win. Well, when you say divisive, okay. He said, [3:28] No, but you're quoting him. So when you quote divisive, I mean, I get called all these horrible names by Lindsey Graham, who I don't even know. I didn't start it with Lindsey Graham. I couldn't care less about Lindsey Graham. He's registered at, I think, zero in the poll. [3:43] By Rick Perry from Texas, who was up in my office a few years ago. I just posted a picture of him shaking my hand, looking for money and looking for support. And he was up, you know, people say, you know, I call it hypocrite. [3:54] But they're saying horrible things. Like, I don't even know these people. And they're saying these. Now, am I supposed to, you know, just say, oh, it's okay for them to say one guy, I guess it was Lindsey Graham called me a jackass. [4:06] So am I supposed to say, oh, it's okay if I'm called a jackass. You have to fight back. The country has to fight back. Everyone's pushing our country around. We can't allow that, Anderson. [4:16] Is it presidential, though? I think it's presidential to fight back. To give out somebody's phone, to give out a personal phone number of an opponent. Well, that was a long story. I mean, you have to see the whole story, the way it morphed, okay? That was a whole story where he wanted to get on Fox and Friends. And he called me up out of the blue. I never met the guy. Then he wanted to come in for campaign contributions. He gave me his personal. And then he starts hitting me years later. And I happened to have this crazy phone number. And I held it up. I said, this guy was over here. And actually, as you probably know, the room was packed. It was standing room only. In fact, [4:46] they had other theaters. There was overflow crowds. They had all sorts of closed-circuit television into other rooms. The place went wild. We all had a good time. [4:55] But is that presidential? I think so. I think it's fine. Is that something, as president, when you're opposed by somebody in Congress, you would give out their personal phone number? I was hit by somebody unfairly. I was called names by somebody. So he was up to somebody that's hitting me, saying what a bad guy I am, was up in my office asking for money and asking if I can get him on television. [5:12] If you're president of the United States, you're going to be hit by half the country who's probably not going to like you. That's true. Are you going to call them dumb, stupid? No, I think it's a little bit different. Right now, I'm trying to do something to make the country great again. [5:24] Politicians will never make this country great again. Now. As president, you would change your tone? Oh, I think so. I think I'd deal very differently. Do you have the temperament to be president? [5:32] That's what, I mean, that's the question that Jeb Bush was really raising about the divisiveness, about the language. I mean, the kind of, I mean, like you take, you have a no prisoners approach. Somebody attacks you. [5:42] No, I don't have that. I'm very different than you would think. Right now, I'm fighting because I'm number one in the polls by far, and I'm being attacked on all sides. When you're attacked, you have to, in my opinion, [5:52] you're going to be attacked all the time. Excuse me. In my opinion, yeah, but this isn't the same thing. In my opinion, when attacked, you have to, you know, defend and attack back, okay? I'm being attacked by certain people. Actually, Bush, I think he's probably a nice guy. I don't think he has the temperament. And by that, he is a nice guy, but he doesn't have the temperament. You know why? He's too low key. He's too laid back. [6:17] Can you imagine Bush negotiating with China? You want to talk about temperament? I'll introduce you to the Chinese. They have temperament. But can you imagine Bush negotiating trade deals with China? [6:29] His brother, George W. Bush, when he was running, said that he would be a uniter, not a divider. What would you be? [6:34] I think I'd be a great uniter. We're not united now. We have a president that whether people love him or hate him, the world is a mess. Hillary Clinton, by the way, was the worst secretary of state in the history of this country. [6:47] In my opinion. But we have a president right now, excuse me, doesn't get along with Russia. Doesn't get along with anybody. I mean, the only one he gets along with is Iran. And even that's sort of very suspect because they want to blow everybody up. [6:59] Back in 2007, 2008, I saw a quote on Wolf Blitzer. You said to him that Hillary Clinton surrounds herself with smart people and she'd probably be a good negotiator against Iran. [7:07] Well, maybe she could be, but I don't think so. I don't think so. I know her very well. And again, when I'm in the private sector and I'm a businessman, I like everybody because I have to deal with these people. [7:16] I'm not going to go and attack people. I have to deal with these people. [7:19] So a Donald Trump as president would be a different Donald Trump than we've seen on the campaign trail. [7:23] Well, take a look at the world today. Who do we get along with? We get along with almost nobody. Our allies are decimated. [7:30] We did a stupid thing in Iraq by going in. And you know that in 2004, I was totally against going in. [7:36] If you look, July of 2004, Reuters, probably stuff before that. But July of 2004, Bush actually sent a group to talk to me because I was getting a lot of publicity on the fact that we shouldn't be doing Iraq. [7:47] I am the most militaristic person. But you have to know when to use the military. [7:51] I said, you will decimate this country and you'll create an imbalance in the Middle East like you've never seen before. That's what's happened. [7:58] And I said, Iran will take over Iraq and the second largest oil reserves in the world. And I also said, and other groups will take over that'll be worse than Saddam Hussein. [8:08] You know what happened, Anderson? It's ISIS. They took over the oil. [8:12] Have you ever publicly acknowledged making a mistake? [8:16] Look, everyone makes mistakes. Do I publicly acknowledge making a mistake? [8:20] Have you ever said, you know what, I made a mistake. Sorry about that. [8:22] Yes, I mean, I don't think about it. I don't like to make too many mistakes.