Subject: FW: TrackerBASE Report: PRES Donald Trump at Economic Club of Washington, D.C 12/15/2014
From: "Sorbie, Sean" <[email-masked]>
To: Research_D <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 9 May 2016 12:02:21 -0700

________________________________
From: American Bridge Tracking
Sent: Monday, May 09, 2016 3:02:17 PM (UTC-05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada)
To: TrackerBase Tracking Reports
Cc: Mitchell Livingston
Subject: TrackerBASE Report: PRES Donald Trump at Economic Club of Washington, D.C 12/15/2014

Tracker Event Debrief Form

TO: Presidential Tracking

FROM:  Mitchell Livingston

Location:  Des Moines, IA

Date: 05/09/16

RE: Donald Trump at Economic Club of Washington, D.C. 12/15/14

_____________________________________________________________

Event Details:

Title: Donald Trump at Economic Club of Washington, D.C. 12/15/14

Location:  Economic Club of Washington, D.C.

Length:  55 minutes

Attendees/Audience:  unknown

Press: c-span

Source: http://www.c-span.org/video/?323309-1/conversation-donald-trump

Summary of Event: Donald Trump was interviewed by David Rubenstein at the Economic Club of Washington, D.C. Topics included the Trump brand’s entrance into the Washington, D.C. business market, his political aspirations, and his overall business goals. He said he was “seriously considering” a 2016 presidential run, and that he plans to make a decision by the spring of 2015.

Key Points:

ClipA:

DR: he is one of the best golfers, tv producers, and all around well known person in the united states. I thought it would be interesting for everyone to hear from Donald trump. So I want to thank you, donald, for coming this evening.

DT: it is my pleasure. Thank you very much.

DR: let me start by asking you this. It is rumored you may go to Iowa soon to do some explore tri -- exploratory work. I would ask you, why you -- why would you consider a home that has a smaller square footage and is much older?

DT: that's a very good question. First, i would like to say, it is such a privilege to be here. So many great friends. One is David Blassi. He said, would you do it? And i have great respect for David and what he represents, so I agreed to do it. It is going to be a great event. Like this is your biggest sellout crowd, and I think we'll have the biggest sellout crowd in Iowa, too. There is a real estate dinner in Iowa, done by a very big company, a terrific company, and they asked me to be the keynote speaker, so I’m there for two reasons, real estate and politics.

DR: let me finish that up. Are you considering getting into politics as a candidate, or are you not sure yet?

DT: I have been building buildings all my life, and we have done a great job. One thing about David, if he didn't think we did a good job, I wouldn't be here tonight. I am considering it. A lot of people think I have fun with it, that I’m playing games, that I enjoy the process. I do enjoy the process to a certain extent. The country is in serious trouble. We just broke $18 trillion in debt, largely in part to places like china and others. We are in serious trouble, so i am considering it very seriously.

DR: when do you think you might make a decision?

DT: sometime after the beginning of the year, sometime in March, April, or May.

DR: so you wouldn't start below the top job, governor or something, just to get a little experience?

DT: well, you know, I’ve dealt in politics all my life. All my life I’ve been in politics, usually as a supporter on the other side. I support people I think will be good. I'm a republican, but I will support people that I think will be good. Frankly, I just think we need something very good, very fast or we're going to be in very big trouble as a country. And a lot of it is common sense. For instance, the torture report. Do we have to announce the torture report? Which, by the way, costs $40 million. I'm trying to understand how it cost $40 million. They paid these guys $40 million. They paid $80 million to come up with the process. I have millions and millions of followers on twitter and Facebook, and when I say something, some people don't like it, but most people do like it. Whether it is a job or the thing I like best, and the thing that I think I am best at is the economy and how to put people to work. That's what we need in this country.

DR: the campaign is typically a two-year process. If you are elected, you have four or eight years of it.

DT: I have a great company with tremendously talented people. I have some of those people sitting at the table right here. I also have children. Three of my five children are in the company. They have done a fantastic job. Four years ago I was leading in the polls. I was beating everybody in the polls. What happened is, I was loving what I do. I would rather do what I do than run for president, but I also love the country more. I just think unless I see someone that is outstanding, I would very much be inclined to do it.

DR: ok. Well, i don't think you can make anymore news than you just made, so –

DT: all right, so let's go home. [laughter]

DR: let's go back to the beginning. Your father was a prominent real estate developer not in Manhattan, but in –

DT: Brooklyn, Queens.

DR: as a young boy you could say you were aggressive, and maybe you were sent to a military academy?

DT: I was. I was sent to military academy. My father said, you could use a little discipline. You are sort of tough to handle. They sent me to a military academy where we had some very tough people working up there. I was supposed to be a smart person, but I was on the aggressive side. They were terrific. These were drill sergeants. We had one major -- he used to be sergeant Tobias. Later he was a colonel, now he's retired, but he was tough. You could not talk back to him. You just didn't talk back to this guy or it was bad, bad trouble. Today they would probably arrest him, it would be on the front page of every newspaper. But it was a good place, it was a tough place. I ended up graduating at the highest rank. So I acclimated. You have a climate. It wasn't my climate, but by the time I finished, I graduated at the highest rank. I learned a lot about leadership, and I learned a lot about a lot of things

DR: you were an athlete?

DT: I was.

DR: you were captain of the baseball team?

DT: yes.

DR: did you ever think of being in professional baseball?

DT: I loved sports. I was on the football team, the wrestling team. Not a good wrestler, not a good basketball player. I did not have good jumping ability. I was not able to get up there. I guess I was a good baseball player. I was recruited, and they wanted me to go to major league. It was different. In those days, you made $3. There was no money, no everything. Ultimately my father had a business in Brooklyn, mostly Brooklyn, New York, as a real estate developer. Ultimately I did that for a lot of the right evens. It became a lot of fun. I wanted to make it more exciting. I always loved show business and I loved other things, but I think we put some show business into the real estate business.

DR: you went to Wharton after the military academy?

DT: right. I majored in finance. I liked finance, but I did well, and I loved the Wharton school of finance. I thought it was a great school.

DR: I read at one point you went into the film business.

DT: yes.

DR: what took you away from that?

DT: it is sort of an interesting story. I went to u.s.c. where they said they had a great school of cinema. When I applied, there was a man who was having troubles in real estate, and he came to me. Smart guy. He said, can you help me? I was only 19 years old. I gave him a lot of advice. This guy was a top broadway producer. I kept talking about movies. He said, i tell you what, you just saved my life. You really know about real estate. You have to be crazy to go into movies. I went into the business with my father. I did some really good deals with him. He was a tough guy. He had a great heart. He was a good man, but he was a tough man. He would never let anyone sign checks for any reason. Today they sign them by computer. But today you press a button and everybody gets paid. Whatever it is, if it's a mistake, they never find it. He would find every check and study it. He would call the people, you are getting too much money. This is a little different than what we have today. So i continued that practice. I sign many, many, many checks. The company has got yep so big it is hard, but i like signing checks because i see what's going on much better that way.

DR: you went to your father, and you said, daddy want to go out on my own. What did he say?

DT: he really respected it. We lived in Queens, and we would look across the east river and I would see those big tall buildings, and I said, pop, that's what I want to do. I want to build those buildings. That's what I have to do. I want to be there. He sort of said, that's not our territory. You don't know anything about that. Let's stay in Brooklyn. My father started building family homes and then apartments. Almost all middle income apartments and some lower income using federal subsidies, the 236 program. Section 8. We had a section 8 program. It was amazing. They gave you the money for nothing. It was a good program for a developer. It also allowed people to live at a very low rent. I said, you know pop, I want to go in. I started with the grand Hyatt. I took an option. It was originally the old com dore hotel. Interesting how my life progresses where we go from that to the o.p.o.

DR: you were 28, 29, and you bought a hotel near grand central station called the commodore and you put in almost no money?

DT: almost no money.

DR: how did you manage to do that?

DT: it was run by pen central railroad. It was run by very good people. It was Victor Palmari & company. One of the people was John Coscanin. Does anyone know him? He's the head of the IRS. He’s a very good man. While I’m a strong republican, he did a very good job running Victor Palmari. I made a good deal with them and took options to the building. After I took Omingses, i went to the city. The city was in deep trouble. I was about 28 years old. I said, look, you are going to have to give me tax abatement or this won't happen. Then I went to Hyatt, I said you put up the money and I’ll get the approvals. I got the approvals. We built the hotel. We were 50-50 partners. It became very successful. Then I did the convention center and lots of other jobs.

DR: let's talk about one of the other famous buildings you did, trump tower.

DT: right.

DR: how did you get the rights to build that piece of land and how did you finance that?

DT: that was owned by a company named Conseco. Originally it was Genesco. That was from Nashville, Tennessee. It was run by a father and son. It was a public company. They were fighting like cats and dogs. Unlike your children and my children, by the way, so far. We're going to keep it that way. But they were fighting like cats and dogs. I loved reading the papers. I saw the trouble that they were having, that Genesco was in deep trouble, and I knew they owned a department store. So I called the head of Genesco, and I went to Nashville, Tennessee. I have a warm spot in my heart for Nashville. I took an amazing -- I made an amazing deal there. I took an option on the site. As soon as that option was announced, every developer in the world went there. 57th and fifth is the best site. But it was too late because I already had it signed. They tried to get out of it. They saw it was more valuable than what I paid. Then I dealt with a great man, Walter Hogan, who was head of Tiffany's. He took Tiffany's from troubles to great levels. And I bought the rights to tiffany's and some other companies, and it turned out to be a tremendous success called trump tower. When I bought the rights to tiffany's, I had the right to call it tiffany tower. I went to a very street smart guy called tiffany's tower. I went to a very smart guy, stein, and i asked him, i can call the -- use the name "tiffany," but i want to call it trump. What do you think?

DR: when did you realize putting your name on something you would put a higher price on it.

DT: a lot of people think -- I had this brilliant strategy of naming. Honestly, it just happened. It started with trump tower. I did the grand Hyatt first. That was my first job. I did the Jacob Javitz convention center. Then when I did trump tower -- I never thought at a young age, like 30, I would have the best piece of land in the world. It never changes. That piece of land was the best then and it's the best now. We signed a lease with Gucci that's one of the greatest retail leases ever signed, as you understand. I never really knew. When I called it trump tower, a lot of things happened. Because of the prominence of the location, I was able to get it zoned. A lot of people said, you'll never get it zoned. You will never be able to build an all glass building. Anarch tech tral critic gave it phenomenal reviews. Later on, Herbert Vuchamp of the "new york times" gave it phenomenal reviews. Then I ended up writing "the art of the deal" and that named a best seller.

DR: you live in new york?

DT: I do.

DR: do you think there are enough buildings for all these millionaires in new york? Park avenue? Have you seen this?

DT: and friends of mine are doing it. They had the advantage early on. They are very good people. I think they are going to do ok because it is early. But the ones coming on line, there are so many of them. I look at the plans. I study them. I know which story is available five years before the lease comes due. I look at all the plans in Manhattan, and I don't see anyway. Russia has been taken out of it, over the last year, as you know. A lot of Russian that is were buying these apartments are no longer buying these apartments. They have bigger problems. Frampingly, I don't see anyway they are going to do it. Now that's an opportunity for you. He has a site to build a 100-story building on the site. I don't love the site, but it is good. The great always works. The good doesn't always work in real estate. He had a 90 story building, 100 story building. He wanted to sell it to me. I've been through great, great times, but I had to fight like crazy to keep everything going. I said, you know, you do it because I don't have the guts any more to do it. He said, I promise I won't tell anybody you said that. But it is true. I see the market will be over-saturated.

DR: let me ask you. You are having this success, you are building trump tower, other things. You bought an airline, the shuttle, and then you got involved in gaming and Atlantic City. Then the economy collapsed, and many people thought you would not be able to survive. How did you end up getting ahead?

DT: I wanted to continue living my lifestyle. I liked planes and -- in those days I wasn't married, and I liked planes and beautiful women, and I didn't want to lose my lifestyle. In the airline business, that was sort of like the best asset. So the market had totally crashed, but the banks came to me and people came to me and I made a deal where it was a great deal to buy the shuttle, even in difficult times. I made a great deal to buy the plaza. I made an unbelievable deal in getting out of the plaza. It worked out really well. Other things I did -- actually David and I were speaking before, and I said, you know, the crazy thing about Atlantic City, I was there during the boon time when it was -- then Atlantic city changed. I fought like hell. They built the civic center in the wrong location. The politicians took over Atlantic City and absolutely destroyed it. But Atlantic City for me has been a great experience. I got out seven years ago. Again, I made a lot of money. I do play the bankruptcy laws. Not individually, but corporately. Many other people do, too. You look at Cesar’s is going to go bankrupt. I buy a building. The building is in turmoil. It's got a big mortgage, the bank is being vicious and ruthless. I buy the building. I call up the banks. They are not nice. I throw it into a chapter, I beat the hell out of them, and then I get huge reductions, and then I make a lot of money out of the building. When I buy the building, I use it as a tool. The enemies -- I call them the losers and haters. I call them that on twitter. I call them the losers and the haters. I use that as a business tool. Many of your friends, you look at who, whether it is Sam Dell, Leon Black or Carl Icon with t.w.a. we use the same names, however when I do it to my advantage, they say trump went bankrupt. If David does it, they don't say that. So that makes you smarter than me.

DR: I doubt that. In a number of interviews I’ve read, you filed for bankruptcy.

DT: I never went bankrupt.

DR: one of the deals you did, I would say you stole the property , but legally. You bought Moralogo. Today it is probably worth $200 million. How did you buy that when it was pretty cheap

DT: you know from Florida that is one of the greatest pieces of land. We turned it into the Mora largo club, which has been very successful. I went there and it was $38 million. I stayed, I -- I said, I don't want to pay that. They wanted $38 million. The Margorie Peast foundation, when she died, they sold the beach. The friend of mine was a great friend of mine. He founded Kentucky fried chicken.

DR: Massey?

DT: Massey. He was unfortunately very sick. He had cancer. I went to him. I said, would you do me a favor? Can I buy the beach? It is on 22 acres, a massive beach. They sold the beach for $2.5 million. He said Donald, you are a friend of mine. I will sell it to you. I paid $2 million for it. Then I announced I’m going to build the ugliest building ever. I didn't want anybody to buy moralogo. I -- it was embarrassing. I put this thing it was almost a wall. I did it for a reason. Then people, many, many people wanted to buy moralargo, but they wanted access to the beach. I said no, no, no. Then a couple years later I got a call. They said we want to sell moralargo. I said, what's your price and they said $8 million. I didn't get along with them actually. She was the daughter of the great Margorie who was married to the great e.f. huton. When she opposed my buying this, I said a statement. Margorie was a great woman. I said she was born with her mother's beauty but not her mother's brains. This was not a good quote on the front page of the long beach post in terms of a long-term relationship. But they sold it. This is something. David negotiates. You say a company is worth a billion, he will say, I’ll give you $5 hundred million. When they said $8 million, I didn't negotiate. I was afraid they would change their mind. I turned it into a club.

DR: after you bought it, you realized the flight pattern was over it.

DT: yes.

DR: and you sued Palm Beach. And to drop the law suit

DT: they gave me tremendous amount of land in West Palm Beach. I made a golf club, which is one of the best in Palm Beach. I bought a foreclosure. In fact, i love foreclosures. Especially when it is somebody else's. I bought a big piece of land in foreclosure. I said, what am i going to do with it. I bought this one out of foreclosure, out of what i did. I ended up with a tremendous lawsuit. I had a good lawyer, and they ended upset ling the lawsuit by making me a deal to buy 500 acres at a good piece of land in palm beach. I turned it into a club. Now moralago and that club, do a tremendous amount of business off each other.

DR: he food is great, you always go around and say hello to people. It is true. So you own a lot of golf courses. Why is -- some people say golf is going like this.

DT: i have been buying golf courses. For example, in loudon county, 6 hundred hookup acres right up the road. One of the gentleman i made the deal with is here, so I’m not going to talk too much about it. But they are great people. We turned that into a tremendous success in Washington. What i do like is this, first of all, golf is doing well all over the world. They have just approached it for the next Olympics. It has never been. Golf is doing well if you have good places. But what i really like also is the real estate. When i have 6 hundred hookup acres on the Potomac river. When i have 800 acres on the Pacific Ocean facing cat lienia island -- Catalina island facing Los Angeles.

DR: you are a handicapper of?

DT: 3 or 4

DR: Have you ever played with tiger woods?

DT: I have played with everybody. Tiger, Phil, everyone. They are amazingly talented people. Like you in business and a couple of the other folks in the room in business. You look at this triangle, it is that tip of the triangle that you have. So they are tremendously talented people and really good people. One of the things I like about golf that I like is when I buy these courses, I’m buying tremendous amounts of land. I say, you know, I’m going to close a golf course some place, I’m going to own 600 acres on the Potomac River or I’m going to own 800 acres on the pacific ocean. It's a statement I always make. I never lost money on a lake, river, or an ocean. In Scotland i just bought Turnberry, probably the most important of the majors. It is just a great thing. That is 1,000 acres on the ocean. I don't want to sell it. But it is great real estate. The other minor thing, too. I have made tremendous deals because of my relationship to golf. I played golf with people that love golf. I have become great friends with them.

DR: you make deals on the golf course?

DT: I make tremendous deals on the golf course. I have friends like terry linden. He has done a great job with Macy's. We play golf together, and others. I could never have the relationship with these people if i said, let's go out to dinner, let's go out to lunch. I have made many, many deals -- actually, the trump tower site, one of the great real estate deals, i really started that with a round of golf with somebody that was very attuned to that whole situation in Nashville with Genesco.

DR: you mentioned Macy's. There's a Macy's not far from here. You can buy Donald trump clothing. How do you pick the clothing?

DT: I have people that come to me and they show me. I don't penned huge amounts of time. Macy's does a fantastic job.

DR: I used to spend a fortune. $500 on a tie. A little piece of water gets on the tie, it's ruined. These look better and they are like steel

DT: Mark Burnett who did survivor, a great guy. I don't know him. I took it and fixed it, made it great. It is the number one rink in the world for ice skating. They wanted to do cbs, les morlan, another great guy. They wanted to do a survivor set live. They built an ice skating rink on the building behind. And Mark Burnett called me, he said I have a content for a show, and I’ll only do it if you do it. I said what's -- what is it? He said you are hiring people and ultimately you are firing people. He didn't use that word. 15 different times the apprentice has been copied. I'm happy to say every single one of them has been a failure. You know all the people that have done them. I said, let's take a look, and we did it. I have an agent from William Morris. A big agent actually. He said it will never work. Don't do it. You will embarrass yourself. I said i have a problem. I shook hands with Mark Burnett. He said don't do it. Two things people don't know, my hair, which it really is. You know that. I hope you know that. Also I’m an honorable person.But they assume I’m not. I shook hands. I shook hands with the head of NBC. I shook hands with Mark Brunett. Anyway, the show goes on. It started at 10 clock, it went -- it started at 10, it went to 8. It wasn't expected to be successful. They thought to have a successful show you have to have women predominantly. It went to the number one show in the world. I was the number one show in the country, number one television show. And the agent called me up, and he said Donald, could I see you. I said about what, Jim? He said your show just went to number one. Congratulations. It is a fantastic tribute. I'd like to come over and say hello. I said, what do you want? He said, I think I’m entitled to a commission. I said what do you think it should be? He said $4 million. I said Jim, you're fired. sometimes in our business it takes years and years for a deal. With that business it's all about ratings. So we're going on January 4th with a new show. The concept was, we would let people go over a course of 16 weeks. The first show, the first season, there was one guy, and he was a nice guy, but he was really pathetic. So bad I got angry at him. I said so and so, you're fired. The whole place went crazy. That's how that came about. It wasn't scripted. There is no script. We don't have any script at all.

DR: where do you shoot that?

DT: we shoot it in trump tower. We actually had a special board room that's made. People say why don't you use a real board room? Well, it is real a a studio. Behind the board room they have at least 32 cameras in the board room when they are filming.

DR: have you hired anyone?

DT: yes. Bill Rancic did a good job. Numerous people were on the show. When I was going to -- if I thought somebody was really great and I thought I wanted to hire them, I would never let them win because then the price goes up. I would always make sure I fired them sometime prior to the end. But i fired a number of them.

DR: let's talk about two things you have done in the Washington area. One, you bought the Fuji estate.

DT: yes

DR: you didn't pay that much for it. How did that come about?
DT: John is a friend of mine. I was much younger than him, but he and I always liked each other. He used to go around saying, Donald trump is a smart guy. I don't want to brag, he used to say Donald trump is the smartest of the young people. He got married. That marriage was a disaster. He said, you should build a winery with the money I gave you. She did. It went bust. I bought it from the bank. They had hundreds of millions of dollars in it. It is now the largest winery on the east coast. It is called trump wine and champagne and everything. My son Eric trump runs it. It has become fantastic. It is so beautiful. People are getting married there. He had a car collection where he had these massive buildings and I turned them into ball rooms. And people are getting married there. It is right next to universal, Virginia. Right next to the home of Thomas Jefferson. Touches the property. It is a beautiful area. We are very proud of it. The winery is beautiful. They built a magnificent winery. It is sad, they never really got to use it.

DR: here you worn the right to build a hotel at the old post office building. How did you win that one? Did you pay the highest price?

DT: I think we had the best concept, and I had one of the best financial statements. They wanted to make sure it was built. I have to tell you, the head of the GSA was so professional. Have you people in government; some of them are phenomenal people. It was really about content almost more than price. Some people had it as an office building. It was the highest, most sought-after piece of property in the history of the GSA we put in a proposal. Our architect was here. We put a fantastic proposal to do one of the great hotels of the world. We had the location. We had the bones. The building is magnificent. Some people think it is their favorite building in Washington. It has been a very controversial thing. As you know, people wanted to rip it down. People were marching in the streets to stop it. They chose us because we have a great track record, and importantly, because the concept of the hotel puts more people to work.

DR: how many rooms will there be?

DT: we will have 300 rooms. We will have the largest luxury ball room in the tri-state area. It is a big project. We will spend over $200 million on the renovation. I had a choice today. I arrived a couple minutes early. I said we can go over to the building now -- I said, do I go over to the building and get dusty, my shoes everything dusty or do I sit around in a corner somewhere in the hotel here and wait for David and say ok Dave, I’m ready in two hours. I said you know what? I'm going to go to the hotel. So my shoes are a little dusty, but that's ok. So is my suit, but these are minor details. I am very proud of it. I shouldn't say this, certainly we are in a very nice hotel, but Washington doesn't have the great luxury hotel that it should have, and everybody knows that. This will be one of the great hotels. The hotel I have in Chicago was rated the best hotel in North America by conde nast traveler. I think this is going to be rated one of the best hotels in the world.

DR: will it have trump on the outside?

DT: yes, but very, very little. [laughter]

DR: ok. Because I was in Chicago the other day, and the trump name

DT: well, that's a 94 story building. But that was very controversial. I got the approval to put it up. But the letters went up, and they are 48 feet high right on the side of the river. They said, this is terrible. We're going to pass a law that nobody ever can do it again. Nobody ever can do what trump did. I said i agree 100%. By the way, the law just passed, and I’m very happy about it.

DR: it is difficult for wealthy parents to raise kids that are not spoiled or rebelling. How did you raise kids that are not spoiled or rebelling against their father?

DT: you have great children, and I know your daughter, and she's so amazing. It is very complicated. I tell this to everybody. From the time they were 2 years old I would say listen, no drugs, no alcohol, no cigarettes. I don't want drugs -- they didn't know what it was. They would be 15. No drugs, no alcohol, no cigarettes. I have seen people like you, like me, very substantial people where they have children and they become alcoholics, they become drug addicts. They become other things. I add the cigarettes because if you can stay away from cigarettes, it is good. I don't smoke. But i have friends of mine, they are very strong. They can't stop. They can't stop drinking. I went to the wharton school. I had a friend. He hated the taste of scotch. But he tried to develop a taste for scotch. I saw him recently. He's a total alcoholic. He developed a taste for scotch. I see many, many people very smart and successful that have children that are very, very smart. As smart as you are going to find. Children that could go to Harvard, Yale, Wharton, any of the schools, but they are addicted to drugs and alcohol. I also say no tattoos, by the way. But that seems to be failing. I think the tattoo thing I’m going to have to just stop. I was always very strong on that because you are put at such a tremendous disadvantage as a child. You see it because you hire all these young geniuses. If somebody is i drinker, if somebody is on drugs, it's not going to work. I just say, you can't do that. You have to drum it into their heads, no matter what you do

DR: let's suppose you don't get to be president of the United States. The chance of getting elected is relatively small for anybody, right?

DT: I hate too admit it, but you ‘re right.

DR: so if you don't get to be president, you will do this for another 20 years or so?

DT: the interesting thing about real estate, everybody in real estate is old. They never retire. They really do it instead of plastic surgery. It is true. They fix the building. Like i can fix the old post office instead of getting a facelift. I can make it look so beautiful, and that's my baby, that's me. Real estate people they don't retire. Other businesses they retire. My father had an expression, "to retire is to expire." it's a tough expression. I had a friend, a big banker. He had to retire at 65. He was a vibrant guy, great guy. Very powerful. He could approve a $500 million mortgage or loan without even going to committee. That's not bad. He was forced to retire at 65. I saw that man get old within a period of one year. It was the most incredible thing. I also saw him say to me, i have a lot of friends. I said you have friends, but a lot of people won't call you back. He said to me the other day, you are the only one that calls me back. All those other guys, they don't return my calls. They used to return my call before i made it, and now they don't return my calls. That's say -- a sad thing, but it's life. I love doing this more than running and getting abused by Chris Matthews. Mrs. Matthews is in the audience. I love her, actually. He has always been great, but boy did he turn liberal over the last 10 years. That's ok.

DR: people are fascinated by your lifestyle and so forth. Your plane has your name on it. Is that a advertising device?

DT: I guess. It is a Boeing 757. It can only go through the major airports. It is probably a form of branding that I don't think about. It was a little by osmosis. I would get higher rents and higher numbers than other people .

DR: people are fascinated by your hair. Why is that?

DT: I don't know. It is legitimately my hair. I heard a story the other day. In the preponderance he -- in the second paragraph he said "he wears the worst hair piece." but it is my hair. I have always combed it the same way more or less. I do get abused about the hair, but I’ve actually become somewhat immune to it. When you know it is yours, you don't care. It may not be pretty, but it is mine.

DR: what about the economy?

DT: I love the fact that oil is dropping. I always said oil should never be up at those levels. It's a fixed level. I read that Saudi Arabia is purposefully keeping the price down to -- you do business with Saudi Arabia. And so do I. I have a lot of friends. They buy a lot of apartments, this and that, and they have space in buildings I own. I don't really believe that. There is a theory that they are keeping the price low to destroy all these new people coming out -- who knows. A lot of people say the economy is slow because -- obviously Russia is getting killed right now. The unemployment rate is not 5.8 or 5.3, the real rate is probably 20%. Because people stopped looking for jobs. They consider them employed. There are so many people up there that gave up looking for jobs or they are part time or something else. The fact is, I think your economy is obviously not doing so well. Now, the stock market is the one ray of hope. I've never been a stock market person. But about three years ago, 2 1/2 years ago, I bought a tremendous amount of stock. First stock ever. I never believed in letting other people run my money. I would see some of these guys make tremendous amounts of money to run some company that is frankly easy to run. I never liked it. I bought stock, because I thought, I’m getting free money. Our getting free money. The interest rate is so low. Also in my c.d.'s, they were offering me one quarter of one percent. I feel like such a genius every day, up, up, up. And I sold my stocks a few weeks ago, everything. Because I’m not a great believer in the leadership of the country and I’m not a great believer in decisions being made with respect to the country, and usually that would lead somebody that's intelligent to go and do something. So I sold all of the stocks that I bought. But I’m not a stock market guy. But the reason I did it was because the interest rates are so low. At some point those rates are going to be pretty high, and that's going to be a difficult time, I think, for the country.

DR: would it be fair to say you don't suffer from a lot of self-doubt. I'm more like woody Allen. I don't really know what i should be doing, I’m not sure if i made a mistake. You don't have that issue so much?

DT: I probably do have that issue. I think a lot about different things. You know, Alan Greenberg

DR: Ace.

DT: Ace. one time I’d bought a stock, it went up a lot, and i sold it. A week later, somebody announced it was going to be bought. I would have made double the money if I had kept it. I said, Ace, you did a horrible thing. What did you do? He said, and that's the first time he ever got angry at me. He said never, ever talk about a deal that's been made. Cross that deal off your head -- because he's a trader. He's a great trader, right? He said never, ever talk about it. He said it with anger. He's never been angry at me before. It was sort of interesting. It was a lesson that I learned. I am happy. I sold the stock. They have gone up a little since, but they have been having some pretty bad times the last week or so, so it will be interesting to see what happens. I like to be invested in things I’ve run. I don't run these companies, and i think do -- I’ve seen too many people that do. In your case, I have tremendous respect for this man.

DR: let me ask you a final question. What is the most fun about being Donald trump?

DT: I have to be very careful with that answer. I could get into a lot of trouble. I could say, i have had a lot of fun in my life. I have wonderful children, a wonderful wife. My children are great. I think the best part is that I love what I do. I really enjoy what I do. I think the hardest part is the fact that i can't go anywhere. Like i use -- it used to be i could walk the streets of Manhattan, I could see signs that something is for sale. I can't do that anymore. A lot of that started with "the art of the deal" when that became the number one book, then it went to the apprentice, when "the apprentice became successful. But I will tell you, I have a great time with my life. I have a lot of brilliant friends. It was a great honor to be interviewed by you. I don't know how many people -- this is truly one of the great men and great success stories.

Thanks and good byes.

Video File Label:                     141215_MJL_606

Clip Label:                               141215_MJL_606_A