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[[fi:Donald Trump]]
[[fi:Donald Trump]]
*[http://www.whosaidso.net/2016-trump.html/ Quotes from Trump Debates] Over 150 quotations from 3 debates arranged by keywords: from Afghanistan to Obamacare to Wall. Covered debates: Aug 6, 2015 in Cleveland, OH; Feb 6, 2016 in Goffstown, NH and March 3, 2016 in Detroit, MI. Links in every quote take you to the exact point in the transcript in a popup window.
*[http://bill-of-rights.angelfire.com/2016-trump.html/ Quotes from Trump Debates] Over 150 quotations from 3 debates arranged by keywords: from Afghanistan to Obamacare to Wall. Covered debates: Aug 6, 2015 in Cleveland, OH; Feb 6, 2016 in Goffstown, NH and March 3, 2016 in Detroit, MI. Links in every quote take you to the exact point in the transcript in a popup window.

Revision as of 22:45, 17 August 2016

I don't do it for the money. I've got enough, much more than I'll ever need. I do it to do it. Deals are my art form.

Donald John Trump, Sr. (born 14 June 1946) is an American businessman, investor, author, television personality, and a candidate for President of the United States in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. He is chairman and president of The Trump Organization, founder of Trump Entertainment Resorts, and host of the NBC reality show, The Apprentice.

Quotes

In the end, you're measured not by how much you undertake but by what you finally accomplish.

1980s

  • I said, 'I will build you this incredible, gorgeous, gleaming hotel. I will put people to work in the construction trades and save hotel jobs and the Grand Central area will come around.' So the city made the deal.
  • I have featured and will always continue to feature my name prominently in all my enterprises.
    • Business Week (22 July 1985)
  • I look at things for the art sake and the beauty sake and for the deal sake.
    • New York Magazine (11 July 1988), p. 24
  • I'm not big on compromise. I understand compromise. Sometimes compromise is the right answer, but oftentimes compromise is the equivalent of defeat, and I don't like being defeated.
    • Life, Vol. 12 (January 1989), p. iii
  • A well-educated black has a tremendous advantage over a well-educated white in terms of the job market. I think sometimes a black may think they don't have an advantage or this and that... I've said on one occasion, even about myself, if I were starting off today, I would love to be a well-educated black, because I believe they do have an actual advantage.
    • The R.A.C.E., NBC , quoted in Porter, David D. (13 September 1989), "What Must Blacks Go Through?", Orlando Sentinel, retrieved on 2011-06-06 
  • I like to hire people that I've seen in action. I often hire people that were on the opposing side of a deal that I respect.
    • The Washington Post (23 September 1989), as quoted in The World According to Trump (2005) by Ken Lawrence, p. 25

Trump: The Art of the Deal (1987)

File:Hong Sook-ja talking with Donald Trump (cropped).jpg
Sometimes your best investments are the ones you don't make.
  • I don't do it for the money. I've got enough, much more than I'll ever need. I do it to do it. Deals are my art form. Other people paint beautifully on canvas or write wonderful poetry. I like making deals, preferably big deals. That's how I get my kicks.
    • p. 1
  • Sometimes it pays to be a little wild.
    • p. 5
  • Experience taught me a few things. One is to listen to your gut, no matter how good something sounds on paper. The second is that you're generally better off sticking with what you know. And the third is that sometimes your best investments are the ones you don't make.
    • p. 28
  • My philosophy is always to hire the best from the best.
    • p. 31
  • Deal-making is an ability you're born with. It's in the genes.
    • p. 45
  • I like thinking big. I always have. To me it's very simple: if you're going to be thinking anyway, you might as well think big. Most people think small, because most people are afraid of success, afraid of making decisions, afraid of winning. And that gives people like me a great advantage.
    • p. 46
  • I wasn't satisfied just to earn a good living. I was looking to make a statement.
    • p. 47
  • People think I'm a gambler. I've never gambled in my life. To me, a gambler is someone who plays slot machines. I prefer to own slot machines. It's a very good business being the house.
    • p. 48
  • The point is that you can't be too greedy.
    • p. 48
  • I'm a great believer in asking everyone for an opinion before I make a decision. ... I ask and I ask and I ask, until I begin to get a gut feeling about something. And that's when I make a decision. I have learned much more from conducting my own random surveys than I could ever have learned from the greatest of consulting firms.
    • pp. 51–52
  • The worst thing you can possibly do in a deal is seem desperate to make it. That makes the other guy smell blood, and then you're dead. The best thing you can do is deal from strength, and leverage is the biggest strength you can have. Leverage is having something the other guy wants. Or better yet, needs. Or best of all, simply can't do without. Unfortunately, that isn't always the case, which is why leverage often requires imagination, and salesmanship.
    • p. 53
  • My experience is that if you're fighting for something you believe in—even if it means alienating some people along the way—things usually work out for the best in the end.
    • p. 59
  • One of the problems when you become successful is that jealousy and envy inevitably follow. There are people—I categorize them as life's losers—who get their sense of accomplishment and achievement from trying to stop others. As far as I'm concerned, if they had any real ability they wouldn't be fighting me, they'd be doing something constructive themselves.
    • p. 59
  • You can't con people, at least not for long. You can create excitement, you can do wonderful promotion and get all kinds of press, and you can throw in a little hyperbole. But if you don't deliver the goods, people will eventually catch on.
    • p. 60
  • Money was never a big motivation for me, except as a way to keep score. The real excitement is playing the game.
    • p. 63
  • Get in, get it done, get it done right, and get out.
    • p. 65
  • The most important thing in life is to love what you're doing, because that's the only way you'll ever be really good at it.
    • p. 67
  • You can't be scared. You do your thing, you hold your ground, you stand up tall, and whatever happens, happens.
    • p. 89
  • My own mother was a housewife all her life. And yet it's turned out that I've hired a lot of women for top jobs, and they've been among my best people. Often, in fact, they are far more effective than the men around them.
    • p. 173
  • In the end, you're measured not by how much you undertake but by what you finally accomplish.
    • p. 355
  • What I admire most are people who put themselves directly on the line.
    • p. 367
  • In my life, there are two things I've found I'm very good at: overcoming obstacles and motivating good people to do their best work.
    • p. 367

1990s

I'm very liberal when it comes to health care. I believe in universal health care. I believe in whatever it takes to make people well and better.
  • What separates the winners from the losers is how a person reacts to each new twist of fate.
    • Trump: Surviving at the Top (1990), p. 3
  • Leona Helmsley is a truly evil human being. She treated employees worse than any human being I've ever witnessed and I've dealt with some of the toughest human beings alive.
    • Interview, Playboy Magazine (March 1990)
  • I said to the bankers, "Listen, fellows, if I have a problem, then you have a problem. We have to find a way out or it's going to be a difficult time for both of us."
    • Fortune (13 August 1990), as quoted in The World According to Trump (2005) by Ken Lawrence, p. 44
    • Cf. J. Paul Getty: "If you owe the bank $100, that's your problem. If you owe the bank $100 million, that's the bank's problem."
  • You know, it doesn't really matter what the media writes as long as you've got a young and beautiful piece of ass.
  • I'm conservative, and even very conservative. But I'm quite liberal and getting much more liberal on health care and other things. I really say: What's the purpose of a country if you're not going to have defensive and health care? If you can't take care of your sick in the country, forget it, it's all over. I mean, it's no good. So I'm very liberal when it comes to health care. I believe in universal health care. I believe in whatever it takes to make people well and better.
  • The part of my life I think I'm most disappointed in is that I have not had the great marriage. And I would have thought that would have happened, because I came from a home—you know, it's not like some of my friends, they get divorced, but their parents were divorced twice or three times. I came from a home where marriage was just incredible. I mean, my parents truly loved each other.
    • Good Morning America (2 December 1999), as quoted in The World According to Trump (2005) by Ken Lawrence, p. 46

2000s

Get going. Move forward. Aim high. Plan for a takeoff. Don't just sit on the runway and hope someone will come along and push the airplane. It simply won't happen. Change your attitude and gain some altitude. Believe me, you'll love it up here.
It’s very exciting we have a new president. It would have been nice if he ended with a 500 point up instead of down. It’s certainly very exciting. His speech was great last night. I thought it was inspiring in every way. And, hopefully he’s going to do a great job. But the way I look at it, he cannot do worse than Bush.
Without passion, you don't have energy; without energy, you have nothing. Nothing great in the world has been accomplished without passion.
  • I think the regulations are very tough, but I think they could be made tougher. And where they really have to be made tougher is when somebody is proven to be dishonest, not a mistake, not an honest mistake because look, people make bad business deals all the time. When somebody is proven to be dishonest, really harsh punishment has to take place.
    • Hardball with Chris Matthews (15 July 2002), as quoted in The World According to Trump (2005) by Ken Lawrence, p. 23
  • Now, if your boss is a sadist, then you have a big problem. In that case, fire your boss and get a new job.
    • Trump: How to Get Rich (2004)
  • If you don't tell people about your success, they probably won't know about it.
    • Trump: How to Get Rich (2004), p. xiii
  • Get going. Move forward. Aim high. Plan for a takeoff. Don't just sit on the runway and hope someone will come along and push the airplane. It simply won't happen. Change your attitude and gain some altitude. Believe me, you'll love it up here.
    • Trump: How to Get Rich (2004), p. 74
  • Watch, listen, and learn. You can't know it all yourself—anyone who thinks that they do is destined for mediocrity.
    • Trump: The Way to the Top: The Best Business Advice I Ever Received (2004), p. 20
  • All of the women on 'The Apprentice' flirted with me - consciously or unconsciously. That's to be expected.
  • I don't like firing people. It's not a pleasant thing and it's sad. ... In some cases, it's a terrible, terrible situation for the person who gets fired, how strongly they take it. So it's not something that any rational or sane person can love doing, but it also happens to be a fact of life in business.
    • Boston Herald (7 January 2004), as quoted in The World According to Trump (2005) by Ken Lawrence, p. 16
  • People say, "Do you have the same opportunity today as you had years ago?" And I said, "Absolutely." You always have an opportunity. There's always an opportunity, especially in this country.
  • If Ivanka weren't my daughter, perhaps I'd be dating her.
  • The war is total disaster. It's a catastrophe, nothing less. It is such a shame that this took place. In fact, I gained a lot of respect for our current president's father by the fact that he had the sense not to go in to Iraq. He won the war and then said let's not go the rest of the way and he turned out to be right. And Saddam Hussein, whether they like him or didn't like him, he hated terrorists. He'd shoot and kill terrorists. When terrorists came in to his country, which he did control and he did dominate, he would kill terrorists. Now it's a breeding ground for terrorists. So, look, the war is a total catastrophe...and they have a civil war going on.
  • I make that --- twice now, on a Monday I let returning Iraqi injured soldiers come to the premises. The most beautiful people I've ever seen. But they're missing arms and legs, they're with their wives, sometimes they're with their girlfriends. And the tears are coming down the faces of these people. I mean, thousands and maybe hundreds of thousands, and the Iraqis that have been just maimed and killed. This war is a horrible thing. Now, President Bush says he's religious. And yet 400,000 people, the way I count it, have died, and probably millions have been badly maimed and injured. What's going on? What's going on? And the day we pull out it's going to explode. We're keeping the lid on a little bit. It's still a catastrophe, but the day we pull out, because they're in a civil war. Whether we want to admit it or not, they're in a civil war.
  • Hillary Clinton I think is a terrific woman. I am biased because I have known her for years. I live in New York. She lives in New York. I really like her and her husband both a lot. I think she really works hard. And I think, again, she’s given an agenda, it is not all of her, but I think she really works hard and I think she does a good job. I like her.
  • If I'd started in business thinking I knew everything, I'd have been sunk before I started... Never think of learning as being a burden or studying as being boring. It may require some discipline, but it can be an adventure. It can also prepare you for a new beginning.
    • Think Like a Champion: An Informal Education In Business and Life (2009), pp. 16–17

2010s

2011

  • Because if you're not born in the United States, you cannot be president. And, there is a real question. And if this birth certificate exists, you know what I get a kick out of? The Governor of Hawaii says, "I remember when he was born 50 years ago." I doubt it. I think this guy should be investigated. I doubt it. He remembers when Obama was born? Give me a break! He's just trying to do something for his party. The fact is, if you're not born in the United States, you cannot be president. He is having a hard time — he spent millions of dollars trying to get away from this issue, millions of dollars in legal fees trying to get away from this issue. And I'll tell you what, I brought it up just routinely and all of a sudden, a lot of facts are emerging, and I'm starting to wonder myself whether or not he was born in this country.
  • Donald Trump: Meredith, he spent two million dollars in legal fees trying to get away from this issue. And if he weren't lying, why wouldn't he just solve it? And I wish he would, because if he doesn't, it's one of the greatest scams in the history of politics, and in the history period. You are not allowed to be a president if you're not born in this country. He may not be born in this country. And I'll tell you what, three weeks ago I thought he was born in this country. Right now, I have some real doubts. I have people that actually have been studying it and they cannot believe what they're finding.
    Meredith Vieira: You have people now, down there searching—
    Trump: Absolutely.
    Vieira: I mean, in Hawaii?
    Trump: Absolutely. And they cannot believe what they're finding. I would like to have him show his birth certificate, and can I be honest with you, I hope he can. Because if he can't, if he can't, if he wasn't born in this country, which is a real possibility, I'm not saying it hap— I'm saying it's a real possibility, much greater than I thought two or three weeks ago, then he has pulled one of the great cons in the history of politics. And beyond politics.
    • Today, NBC, 7 April 2011 
    • regarding Barack Obama
    • Two million dollars is the sum of all the Obama presidential campaign's post-election legal expenses.[1]
  • David Brody: Radical Islam: to Evangelicals, this is a bread and butter issue. You said there's a Muslim problem in this country. What do you mean by that exactly?
    Donald Trump: Bill O'Reilly asked me is there a Muslim problem? And I said absolutely, yes. In fact I went a step further. I said I didn't see Swedish people knocking down the World Trade Center. It was very interesting. I thought that was going to be a controversial statement and somebody, I think it was Dennis Miller introduced me, he was doing like an analysis of me, he said, I love it. The guy said what the truth is. He didn't mince his words. He didn't say, 'Oh, gee, no there's not a Muslim problem, everybody's wonderful.' And by the way, many, many, most Muslims are wonderful people, but is there a Muslim problem? Look what's happening. Look what happened right here in my city with the World Trade Center and lots of other places. So I said it and I thought it was going to be very controversial but actually it was very well received. I think people want the truth. I think they're tired of politicians. They're tired of politically correct stuff. I mean I could have said, 'Oh absolutely not Bill, there's no Muslim problem, everything is wonderful, just forget about the World Trade Center.' But you have to speak the truth. We're so politically correct that this country is falling apart.
    Brody: With some evangelicals there are some problems with the teachings of the Koran. Do you have concerns about the Koran?
    Trump: Well, I'll tell you what. The Koran is very interesting. A lot of people say it teaches love and there is a very big group of people who really understand the Koran far better than I do. I'm certainly not an expert, to put it mildly. But there's something there that teaches some very negative vibe. I mean things are happening, when you look at people blowing up all over the streets that are in some of the countries over in the Middle East, just blowing up a super market with not even soldiers, just people, when 250 people die in a super market that are shopping, where people die in a store or in a street. There's a lot of hatred there that's some place. Now I don't know if that's from the Koran. I don't know if that's from some place else. But there's tremendous hatred out there that I've never seen anything like it. So, you have two views. You have the view that the Koran is all about love and then you have the view that the Koran is, that there's a lot of hate in the Koran.
  • I heard he was a terrible student, terrible. How does a bad student go to Columbia and then to Harvard? I'm thinking about it, I'm certainly looking into it. Let him show his records.
    • Associated Press interview, 2011-04-25
    • Madison, Lucy (25 April 2011), "Trump: How did Obama get into the Ivy League?", CBS News, Archived from the original on 2013-06-28, retrieved on 2011-05-01 
    • about Barack Obama, who graduated from Columbia in 1983 and graduated magna cum laude with a Juris doctorate from Harvard Law School in 1991
  • Today I'm very proud of myself, because I've accomplished something that nobody else has been able to accomplish. I was just informed, while on the helicopter, that our president has finally released a birth certificate. I want to look at it, but I hope it's true, so that we can get on to much more important matters, so the press can stop asking me questions. He should have done it a long time ago. Why he didn't do it when the Clintons asked for it, why he didn't do it when everyone else was asking for it, I don't know. But I am really honored, frankly, to have played such a big role in hopefully, hopefully getting rid of this issue. Now, we have to look at it, we have to see, is it real? Is it proper? What's on it? But I hope it checks out beautifully. I am really proud, I am really honored.
    • press conference, 2011-04-27
    • "Trump Questions Obama Birth Certificate", TMZ, 27 April 2011, retrieved on 2011-05-01 
    • Regarding the release of Barack Obama's full birth record from Hawaii that morning
  • The word is, according to what I've have read, is that he was a terrible student when he went to Occidental. He then gets to Columbia and then gets to Harvard. I heard at Columbia he was not a very good student, and then he then he gets into Harvard. How do you get into Harvard if you are not a good student? Maybe that's right, maybe that's wrong, but I don't know why he doesn't he release his records. Why doesn't he release his Occidental records?
    • press conference, New Hampshire, 2011-04-27
    • "Schieffer: Racism underlying Trump's assertions", CBS News, 27 April 2011, Archived from the original on 2013-06-28, retrieved on 2011-05-01 
    • About Barack Obama, who transferred to Columbia from Occidental College in 1981, graduated from Columbia in 1983, and graduated magna cum laude with a Juris doctorate from Harvard Law School in 1991
  • I blame our leaders. Here we have China, ripping this country off like nobody's ever seen before, and we have the president of China come, a few months ago, to Washington, and we give him a state dinner. Now when people are screwing you, you don't give 'em state dinners. [...] What we do, is we sit down in my office for a couple of hours. We either make a deal where you stop manipulating your currency or not. If we make a deal, you can have a state dinner if you want. If we don't make a deal, you take McDonald's, and you go home.
  • The messenger is important. I could have one man say [effete voice] "We're going to tax you 25%", and I can say another, "Listen, you motherfuckers, we're going to tax you 25%." [...] I'll tell you what's going to happen. When they believe the message— they don't believe it right now— when they believe the message, they're going to do one thing. They're going to give us anything they want.
    • Trump's speech at the Treasure Island Hotel and Casino targeted the U.S. relationship with China, OPEC countries, and Saudi Arabia, on 2011-04-28.
    • "Trump calls U.S. leaders "stupid"", Reuters, 29 April 2011, retrieved on 2011-05-01 
    • Catalina Camia (29 April 2011), "Trump fires f-bombs in Vegas speech", USA Today, retrieved on 2015-01-03 
  • It's like in golf. A lot of people — I don't want this to sound trivial — but a lot of people are switching to these really long putters, very unattractive. It's weird. You see these great players with these really long putters, because they can't sink three-footers anymore. And, I hate it. I am a traditionalist. I have so many fabulous friends who happen to be gay, but I am a traditionalist.

2012

  • Mitt is tough. He is smart. He is sharp. He is not going to allow bad things to continue to happen to this country that we all love. So Gov. Romney, go out and get em. You can do it.
  • No, I've never really changed. Nothing's changed my mind. And by the way, you know, you have a huge group of people — I walk down the street, and people are screaming, "Please don't give that up."

    A lot of people are questioning his birth certificate. They're questioning the authenticity of his birth certificate. I've been known as being a very smart guy for a long time. I don't consider myself birther or not birther, but there are some major questions here and the press doesn't wanna cover it. The press just refuses to cover it. Now if that were somebody else, they would be covering it, and they'd be throwing people out of office. But they don't want to cover it. So it's interesting.

  • Wolf Blitzer: Donald, you're beginning to sound a little ridiculous, I have to tell you.
    Donald Trump: No I think you are, Wolf. Now let me tell you something, I think you sound ridiculous, and if you'd ask me a question and let me answer it —
    Blitzer: Here's the question, did the conspiracy start in 1961 where the Honolulu Star-Bulletin and the Honolulu Advertiser contemporaneously published announcements that he was born in Hawaii?
    Trump: That's right. That's right. And many people put those announcements in because they wanted to get the benefit because of getting so-called born in this country. Many people did it. It was something that was done by many people even though they weren't born in the country. You know and so do I... And so do a lot of your viewers. Although you don't have too many viewers.
  • Donald Trump (clip): I have people that actually have been studying it and they cannot believe what they're finding.
    Meredith Vieira (clip): You have people now, down there searching—
    Trump (clip): Absolutely.
    Vieira (clip): I mean, in Hawaii?
    Trump (clip): Absolutely. And they cannot believe what they're finding.
    Wolf Blitzer: All right, tell us what your people who were investigating in Hawaii, what they found.
    Trump: Oh, we don't have to go into old news. That's old news.
    Blitzer: Well, what did they find?
    Trump: There's been plenty found. You can call many people. You can read many, many articles on the authenticity of the certificate. You can read many articles from just recently as to what the publisher printed in a brochure as to what Obama told him, as to where his place of birth is. And that's fine, Wolf.
    Now, it's appropriate, I think, that we get to the subject of hand, which is — at hand, which is jobs, which is the economy, which is how our country is not doing well at all under this leadership, which is how are we going to do something about energy, which is really that things that I wanted to talk to you about, but you like to keep going back to the place of birth.
  • Ariana Huffington is unattractive both inside and out. I fully understand why her former husband left her for a man- he made a good decision.
  • Robert I'm getting a lot of heat for saying you should dump Kristen- but I'm right. If you saw the Miss Universe girls you would reconsider.
  • Republicans didn’t have anything going for them with respect to Latinos and with respect to Asians... The Democrats didn’t have a policy for dealing with illegal immigrants, but what they did have going for them is they weren’t mean-spirited about it... They didn’t know what the policy was, but what they were is they were kind... He had a crazy policy of self deportation which was maniacal... It sounded as bad as it was, and he lost all of the Latino vote... He lost the Asian vote. He lost everybody who is inspired to come into this country... Take care of this incredible problem that we have with respect to immigration, with respect to people wanting to be wonderful productive citizens of this country.

2013

  • I keep asking, how long will we go on defending South Korea from North Korea without payment? South Korea is a very very rich country. They're rich because of us. They sell us televisions, they sell us cars. They sell us everything. They are making a fortune. We have a huge deficit with South Korea. They're friends of mine. I do deals with them. I've been partners with them, no problem. But they think we're stupid. They can't believe it. We are defending them against North Korea, we're doing it for nothing. We're not in that position. When will they start to pay us for this defense? Isn't it really ridiculous when you think of it? They make a fortune on the United States and then they got some problems, and what happens? They call the United States to defend them, and we get nothing?
  • As everybody knows, but the haters & losers refuse to acknowledge, I do not wear a “wig.” My hair may not be perfect but it’s mine.
  • 26,000 unreported sexual assults in the military-only 238 convictions. What did these geniuses expect when they put men & women together?

2014

  • No more massive injections. Tiny children are not horses—one vaccine at a time, over time.
  • Katy Perry must have been drunk when she married Russel Brand - but he did send me a nice letter of apology!

2015

  • So I said to myself, you know, nobody’s ever going to know unless I run, because I’m really proud of my success.
  • Donald Trump: Oh, well, if you look at the statistics, of people coming— I didn't say about Mexic— I say the illegal immigrants— if you look at the statistics on rape, on crime, on everything, coming in illegally into this country, they're mind-boggling. If you go to Fusion, you will see a story about 80% of the women coming in– I mean, you have to take a look at these stories. And you know who owns Fusion? Univision. It was in The Huffington Post. I said, let me get some of these articles because I've heard some horrible things. I deal a lot of talking with people on the border patrol. They're incredible people. They help our country.
    Don Lemon: But I want some clarification–
    Trump: No, but Don, all you have to do is go to Fusion and pick up the stories on rape, and it's unbelievable when you look at what's going on. So all I'm doing is telling the truth.
    Lemon: I've read The Washington Post, I read the Fusion, I read The Huffington Post. And that's about women being raped, it's not about criminals coming across the border entering the country.
    Trump: Somebody's doing the raping, Don, I mean, you know– I mean, somebody's doing it. You think it's women being raped, well who's doing the raping? Who's doing the raping? I mean how can you say such a thing. So, the problem is you have to stop illegal immigration coming across the border. You have to create a strong border. If you don't, we don't have a country.
I can't apologize for the truth.
  • I don't know. I really don't know. I don't know why he wouldn't release his records.
  • Our great African American President hasn't exactly had a positive impact on the thugs who are so happily and openly destroying Baltimore!
  • The U.S. will invite El Chapo, the Mexican drug lord who just escaped prison, to become a U.S. citizen because our "leaders" can't say no!
  • Failing candidate Hillary Clinton, who is desperately trying to hold on to her lead in the democratic primary against Bernie Sanders, is knowingly putting out lies about my stance on illegal immigration. I said "Mexico is sending"— I'm not knocking immigration or immigrants, but rather am very critical of the country of Mexico for sending us people that they don't want. Likewise I am very critical of illegal immigration and the tremendous problems including crime, which it causes. She is desperate, she is sad, and she is obviously very nervous when she has to revert to issues that have already been settled given the absolute accuracy of my statement. She speaks about "my tone" and that's the problem with our country's leaders. They are more worried about tone than results! It's not about being nice— it's about being competent. Hillary should spend more time producing her illegally hidden emails and less time trying to obfuscate a statement by me that is totally clear and obviously very much accepted by the public as true. I am honored, however, that she is attacking me, instead of Jeb Bush. Obviously she knows that JEB is no longer her real competition. The last person she wants to face is Donald Trump.
  • Get rid of gun free zones. The four great marines who were just shot never had a chance. They were highly trained but helpless without guns.
  • Donald Trump: 15,000 people showed up to hear me speak. Bigger than anybody and everybody knows it. A beautiful day with incredible people that were wonderful, great Americans, I will tell you. John McCain goes, "Oh, boy, Trump makes my job difficult. He had 15,000 crazies show up." Crazies. He called them all crazy. I said, they weren't crazy. They were great Americans. These people— if you would have seen these people— you— I know what a crazy is. I know all about crazies. These weren't crazy. So he insulted me and he insulted everybody in that room...
    Frank Luntz: He's a war hero.
    Donald Trump: He's not a war hero.
    Luntz: He's a war hero.
    Trump: He is a war hero—
    Luntz: Five and a half years in a POW camp.
    Trump: He's a war hero 'cause he was captured. I like people that weren't captured, OK? I hate to tell you.
    Luntz: Do you agree with that?
    Trump: He's a war hero. He's a war hero because he was captured, OK? You can have— and I believe— perhaps he's a war hero, but— but right now he said some very bad things about a lot of people.
  • I am not a fan John McCain because he has done so little for our Veterans and he should know better than anybody what the Veterans need, especially in regards to the VA. He is yet another all talk, no action politician who spends too much time on television and not enough time doing his job and helping the Vets. He is also allowing our military to decrease substantially in size and strength, something which should never be allowed to happen. Furthermore, he was extremely disrespectful to the thousands upon thousands of people, many of whom happen to be his constituents, that came to listen to me speak about illegal immigration in Phoenix last week by calling them "crazies". These were not "crazies"—these were great American citizens. I have great respect for all those who serve in our military including those that weren't captured and are also heroes. I want to strengthen our military and take care of our Veterans. I want to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN especially for those that serve to protect our freedom. I am fighting for our Veterans!
  • I see Rick Perry the other day. ... He's doing very poorly in the polls. He put on glasses so people will think he's smart. And it just doesn't work! You know people can see through the glasses!
  • I'm a Republican, I'm a conservative, I'm in first place, I want to run as a Republican and I think I'll get the nomination... [Hillary Clinton] is easily the worst Secretary of State in the history of the country. She's going to be beaten and I'm the one to beat her.
  • Jose Diaz-Balart: Mr. Trump, you know 53,000 hispanics turn 18 years of age in this country every month, born in the country of voting age. 54 million plus hispanics — many feel that what you said when you said that the people who cross the border are rapists and murderers—
    Donald Trump: No, no, no! We're talking about illegal immigration and everybody understands that. And you know what? That's a typical case. That's a typical case of the press with misinterpretation. They take a half a sentence, they take a half a sentence, then they take quarter of a sentence and put it all together. It's a typical thing...
    Diaz-Balart: I'm not finished with my question.
    Trump: No, no! You're finished!
  • I think that I would be a great uniter. I think that I would have great diplomatic skills. I think that I would be able to get along with people very well. I've had a great success in my life. I think the world would unite if I were the leader of the United States.
I think the big problem this country has is being politically correct.
  • You know, when you put out policy, like a 14-point plan? A lot of times in the first hour of negotiation, that 14-point plan goes astray, but you may end up with a better deal. That's the way it works. That's the way really life works. When I do a deal, I don't say, "Oh, here's 14 points." I got out and do it. I don't sit down and talk about 14 points.
  • Hillary Clinton was the worst Secretary of State in the history of the country. The world came apart under her reign... I will be the one to beat Hillary.
  • You've seen my statements, I do very well, I don't mind paying some taxes. The middle class is getting clobbered in this country. You know the middle class built this country, not the hedge fund guys, but I know people in hedge funds that pay almost nothing and it's ridiculous.
  • Audience member: We have a problem in this country, it's called Muslims. Our current President is one. We know he's not even an American. We have training camps growing where they want to kill us. That's my question, when can we get rid of them?
    Donald Trump: We're going to be looking at a lot of different things. A lot of people are saying that and a lot of people are saying that bad things are happening out there. We're going to be looking at that and a lot of different things.
  • Am I morally obligated to defend the president every time somebody says something bad or controversial about him? I don't think so!
  • This is the first time in my life that I have caused controversy by NOT saying something.
  • You can be politically correct if you want, but are you trying to say we don't have a problem? ... Most Muslims, like most everything, I mean, these are fabulous people... But we certainly do have a problem, I mean, you have a problem throughout the world. ... It wasn't people from Sweden that blew up the World Trade Center.
  • The first thing I'd do in my first day as president is close up our borders so that illegal immigrants cannot come into our country.
  • You ever see guys with nothing on their desk? They always fail. I don’t know what it is. I’ve seen it for years.
  • He was such a nice guy. And he said, Oh, I'm never going to attack. But then his poll numbers tanked. He's got -- that's why he's on the end -- and he got nasty. And he got nasty. So you know what? You can have him.
  • Written by a nice reporter. Now the poor guy - you ought to see the guy: ‘Uhh I don’t know what I said. I don’t remember!’ He’s going, ‘I don’t remember! Maybe that’s what I said.’
  • My policy has always been the same. We're fighting ISIS and Assad is fighting ISIS, but we're backing rebels to fight Assad. You can't fight everybody, you have to pick who you want to fight. And now you've got Turkey, who like ISIS more than they like others, no one really knows because we don't have people that know what they're doing. So in my opinion, you go along, and Russia does not like ISIS, and people are starting to find out. I mean in all fairness lost an airplane, got blew out of the air. So Russia is not a fan of ISIS. Russia is bombing the hell out of them, starting to bomb them. I say isis is our number one threat. We can't be fighting everybody at the same time. ISIS is our number one threat. I would bomb the hell out of them -- I like to do one thing at a time. I would knock the hell out of ISIS. I would hit them ... so hard like they've never been hit before.
  • They're using them as shields. It's a horrible thing. They're using them as shields. But we're fighting a very politically correct war. And the other thing is with the terrorists. You have to take out their families. When you get these terrorists, you have to take out their families. They care about their lives. Don't kid yourself. But they say they don't care about their lives. You have to take out their families.
    • When asked how he would deal with civilian casualties. In an interview with Fox & Friends. [4] (December 2, 2015)
  • Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on... According to Pew Research, among others, there is great hatred towards Americans by large segments of the Muslim population. Most recently, a poll from the Center for Security Policy released data showing “25% of those polled agreed that violence against Americans here in the United States is justified as a part of the global jihad” and 51% of those polled, “agreed that Muslims in America should have the choice of being governed according to Shariah.” Shariah authorizes such atrocities as murder against non-believers who won’t convert, beheadings and more unthinkable acts that pose great harm to Americans, especially women.
  • These are people that are outside the country, so we're really not talking about the Constitution. And it's not about religion. This is about safety. This has nothing to do with religion. It's about safety.
  • We're doing really well with the evangelicals, and, by the way: And again, I do like Ted Cruz -- but not a lot of evangelicals come out of Cuba, in all fairness. It's true. Not a lot come out. But I like him nevertheless. But I think we're going to do great, and we are doing great with evangelicals.
  • I'm with you. I'm with everybody. I'm with everybody, look, I'm self-funding. I have no oil company. I have no special interest. I have no lobbyists.
  • Well look he's from Texas -- to the best of my knowledge, there's a lot of oil in Texas, right? So, he gets a lot of money from the oil companies, and he's against ethanol and everything you're else talking about. And I'm not I'm totally in favor. And you know it's a big industry here, it's a big industry. You know if that industry is upset Iowa's got problems.
  • I really do, I like Ted Cruz a lot, I would say that we would certainly have things in mind for Ted, to be honest with you. I mean, he's somebody that I could certainly say that [about] because I like him.
    • During a rally in Iowa. [5][6][7] (December 11, 2015)
Presidential Bid Announcement (June 16, 2015)
At Trump Tower, 2015-06-16, speech announcing his candidacy for U.S. president — "Full text: Donald Trump announces a presidential bid", The Washington Post, 16 June 2015 
  • Our country is in serious trouble. We don’t have victories anymore. We used to have victories, but we don’t have them. When was the last time anybody saw us beating, let’s say, China in a trade deal? They kill us. I beat China all the time. All the time. When did we beat Japan at anything? They send their cars over by the millions, and what do we do? When was the last time you saw a Chevrolet in Tokyo? It doesn’t exist, folks. They beat us all the time. When do we beat Mexico at the border? They’re laughing at us, at our stupidity. And now they are beating us economically. They are not our friend, believe me. But they’re killing us economically. The U.S. has become a dumping ground for everybody else’s problems.
  • When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. They're not sending you. They're not sending you. They're sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems with us. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people. But I speak to border guards and they tell us what we're getting. And it only makes common sense. It only makes common sense. They're sending us not the right people. It's coming from more than Mexico. It's coming from all over South and Latin America, and it's coming probably – probably – from the Middle East. But we don't know. Because we have no protection and we have no competence, we don't know what's happening. And it's got to stop and it's got to stop fast.
  • Islamic terrorism is eating up large portions of the Middle East. They’ve become rich. I’m in competition with them. They just built a hotel in Syria. Can you believe this? They built a hotel. When I have to build a hotel, I pay interest. They don’t have to pay interest, because they took the oil that, when we left Iraq, I said we should’ve taken.
  • I love the military, and I want to have the strongest military that we’ve ever had, and we need it more now than ever. But I said, “Don’t hit Iraq,” because you’re going to totally destabilize the Middle East. Iran is going to take over the Middle East, Iran and somebody else will get the oil, and it turned out that Iran is now taking over Iraq. Think of it. Iran is taking over Iraq, and they’re taking it over big league.
  • We lost thousands of lives, thousands in Iraq. We have wounded soldiers, who I love, I love — they’re great — all over the place, thousands and thousands of wounded soldiers. And we have nothing. We can’t even go there. We have nothing. And every time we give Iraq equipment, the first time a bullet goes off in the air, they leave it.
  • Last quarter, it was just announced our gross domestic product — a sign of strength, right? But not for us. It was below zero. Whoever heard of this? It’s never below zero.
  • A lot of people up there can’t get jobs. They can’t get jobs, because there are no jobs, because China has our jobs and Mexico has our jobs. They all have jobs.
  • Our enemies are getting stronger and stronger by the way, and we as a country are getting weaker. Even our nuclear arsenal doesn’t work. It came out recently they have equipment that is 30 years old. They don’t know if it worked. And I thought it was horrible when it was broadcast on television, because boy, does that send signals to Putin and all of the other people that look at us and they say, “That is a group of people, and that is a nation that truly has no clue. They don’t know what they’re doing. They don’t know what they’re doing.”
  • We have a disaster called the big lie: Obamacare. ... We have to repeal Obamacare, and it can be — and — and it can be replaced with something much better for everybody. Let it be for everybody. But much better and much less expensive for people and for the government. And we can do it.
  • Remember the $5 billion Web site? $5 billion we spent on a Web site, and to this day it doesn’t work. A $5 billion Web site. I have so many Web sites, I have them all over the place. I hire people, they do a Web site. It costs me $3.
  • I hear my fellow Republicans. And they’re wonderful people. I like them.
  • I watch the speeches of these people, and they say the sun will rise, the moon will set, all sorts of wonderful things will happen. And people are saying, “What’s going on? I just want a job. Just get me a job. I don’t need the rhetoric. I want a job.”
  • Obama is going to be out playing golf. He might be on one of my courses. I would invite him, I actually would say. I have the best courses in the world, so I’d say, you what, if he wants to — I have one right next to the White House, right on the Potomac. If he’d like to play, that’s fine. In fact, I’d love him to leave early and play, that would be a very good thing.
  • I’ve watched the politicians. I’ve dealt with them all my life. If you can’t make a good deal with a politician, then there’s something wrong with you. You’re certainly not very good. And that’s what we have representing us. They will never make America great again. They don’t even have a chance. They’re controlled fully — they’re controlled fully by the lobbyists, by the donors, and by the special interests, fully.
  • I have lobbyists. I have to tell you. I have lobbyists that can produce anything for me. They’re great. But you know what? it won’t happen. It won’t happen. Because we have to stop doing things for some people, but for this country, it’s destroying our country. We have to stop, and it has to stop now.
  • Our country needs a truly great leader, and we need a truly great leader now. We need a leader that wrote “The Art of the Deal.” We need a leader that can bring back our jobs, can bring back our manufacturing, can bring back our military, can take care of our vets. Our vets have been abandoned. And we also need a cheerleader. ... We need somebody that can take the brand of the United States and make it great again. It’s not great again.
  • He (Barack Obama) was vibrant. He was young. I really thought that he would be a great cheerleader. ... But he wasn’t a cheerleader. He’s actually a negative force. He’s been a negative force. He wasn’t a cheerleader; he was the opposite.
  • You know, all of my life, I’ve heard that a truly successful person, a really, really successful person and even modestly successful cannot run for public office. Just can’t happen. And yet that’s the kind of mindset that you need to make this country great again.
  • I am officially running for president of the United States and we are going to make our country great again!
  • We have people that aren’t working. We have people that have no incentive to work. But they’re going to have incentive to work, because the greatest social program is a job. And they’ll be proud, and they’ll love it, and they’ll make much more than they would’ve ever made, and they’ll be — they’ll be doing so well, and we’re going to be thriving as a country, thriving. It can happen. I will be the greatest jobs president that God ever created. I tell you that.
  • We owe China $1.3 trillion. We owe Japan more than that. So they come in, they take our jobs, they take our money, and then they loan us back the money, and we pay them in interest, and then the dollar goes up so their deal’s even better. How stupid are our leaders? How stupid are these politicians to allow this to happen? How stupid are they?
  • I’m totally against the trade bill for a number of reasons. Number one, the people negotiating don’t have a clue. Our president doesn’t have a clue. He’s a bad negotiator. He’s the one that did Bergdahl. We get Bergdahl, they get five killer terrorists that everybody wanted over there. We get Bergdahl. We get a traitor. We get a no-good traitor, and they get the five people that they wanted for years, and those people are now back on the battlefield trying to kill us. That’s the negotiator we have.
  • Israel maybe won’t exist very long. It’s a disaster, and we have to protect Israel.
  • I’m a free trader. But the problem with free trade is you need really talented people to negotiate for you. If you don’t have talented people, if you don’t have great leadership, if you don’t have people that know business, not just a political hack that got the job because he made a contribution to a campaign, which is the way all jobs, just about, are gotten, free trade terrible. Free trade can be wonderful if you have smart people, but we have people that are stupid. We have people that aren’t smart. And we have people that are controlled by special interests. And it’s just not going to work.
  • I love China. The biggest bank in the world is from China. You know where their United States headquarters is located? In this building, in Trump Tower. I love China. People say, “Oh, you don’t like China?” No, I love them. But their leaders are much smarter than our leaders, and we can’t sustain ourself with that.
  • We have all the cards, but we don’t know how to use them. We don’t even know that we have the cards, because our leaders don’t understand the game. We could turn off that spigot by charging them tax until they behave properly.
  • You have a problem with ISIS. You have a bigger problem with China. And, in my opinion, the new China, believe it or not, in terms of trade, is Mexico.
  • I know the smartest negotiators in the world. I know the good ones. I know the bad ones. I know the overrated ones.
  • It sounds crass. Somebody said, “Oh, that’s crass.” It’s not crass.
  • We got nothing but problems.
  • I love the Saudis. Many are in this building. They make a billion dollars a day. Whenever they have problems, we send over the ships. We say “we’re gonna protect.” What are we doing? They’ve got nothing but money.
  • Saudi Arabia without us is gone. They're gone.
  • It’s so nice to say I’m running as opposed to if I run, if I run. I’m running.
  • All of these politicians that I’m running against now, they’re trying to disassociate. I mean, you looked at Bush, it took him five days to answer the question on Iraq. He couldn’t answer the question. He didn’t know. I said, “Is he intelligent?” Then I looked at Rubio. He was unable to answer the question, is Iraq a good thing or bad thing? He didn’t know. He couldn’t answer the question. How are these people gonna lead us? How are we gonna — how are we gonna go back and make it great again? We can’t. They don’t have a clue. They can’t lead us. They can’t. They can’t even answer simple questions. It was terrible.
  • Saudi Arabia is in big, big trouble. Now, thanks to fracking and other things, the oil is all over the place. And I used to say it, there are ships at sea, and this was during the worst crisis, that were loaded up with oil, and the cartel kept the price up, because, again, they were smarter than our leaders. They were smarter than our leaders.
  • I think I am a nice person. People that know me, like me. Does my family like me? I think so, right. Look at my family. I’m proud of my family.
  • This is going to be an election that’s based on competence, because people are tired of these nice people. And they’re tired of being ripped off by everybody in the world. And they’re tired of spending more money on education than any nation in the world per capita, than any nation in the world, and we are 26th in the world, 25 countries are better than us in education. And some of them are like third world countries. But we’re becoming a third word country, because of our infrastructure, our airports, our roads, everything. So one of the things I did, and I said, you know what I’ll do. I’ll do it. Because a lot of people said, “He’ll never run. Number one, he won’t want to give up his lifestyle.” They’re right about that, but I’m doing it.
  • I said to myself, you know, nobody’s ever going to know unless I run, because I’m really proud of my success. I really am.
  • We have losers. We have people that don’t have it. We have people that are morally corrupt. We have people that are selling this country down the drain.
  • I would build a great wall, and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me, and I’ll build them very inexpensively, I will build a great, great wall on our southern border. And I will have Mexico pay for that wall.
  • I will stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons. And we won’t be using a man like Secretary Kerry that has absolutely no concept of negotiation, who’s making a horrible and laughable deal, who’s just being tapped along as they make weapons right now, and then goes into a bicycle race at 72 years old, and falls and breaks his leg. I won’t be doing that. And I promise I will never be in a bicycle race. That I can tell you.
  • Fully support and back up the Second Amendment.
  • Bush is totally in favor of Common Core. I don’t see how he can possibly get the nomination. He’s weak on immigration. He’s in favor of Common Core. How the hell can you vote for this guy? You just can’t do it. We have to end — education has to be local.
  • Rebuild the country’s infrastructure. Nobody can do that like me. Believe me. It will be done on time, on budget, way below cost, way below what anyone ever thought. I look at the roads being built all over the country, and I say I can build those things for one-third. What they do is unbelievable, how bad.
  • Save Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security without cuts. Have to do it. Get rid of the fraud. Get rid of the waste and abuse, but save it. People have been paying it for years. And now many of these candidates want to cut it. You save it by making the United States, by making us rich again, by taking back all of the money that’s being lost.
  • We’re in a bubble. We have artificially low interest rates. We have a stock market that, frankly, has been good to me, but I still hate to see what’s happening. We have a stock market that is so bloated. Be careful of a bubble because what you’ve seen in the past might be small potatoes compared to what happens. So be very, very careful.

2016

I'm very angry. Because our country is being run horribly. I will gladly accept the mantle of anger. Our military is a disaster. Our healthcare is a horror show. Obamacare, we're going to repeal it and replace it.
We have no borders. Our vets are being treated horribly. Illegal immigration is beyond belief! Our country is being run by incompetent people and yes, I am angry. I'm angry because our country is a mess!
  • The entire world has been upset. The entire world, it's a different place. During Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton's term, she's done a horrible job.
    She has caused death. She has caused tremendous death with incompetent decisions. I was against the war in Iraq. I wasn't a politician, but I was against the war in Iraq. She voted for the war in Iraq.
    Look at Libya. That was her baby. Look. I mean, I'm not even talking about the ambassador and the people with the ambassador. Young, wonderful people. With messages coming in by the hundreds, and she's not even responding. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about all of the death that's been caused and not only our side.
    There was nothing saved. If we would have never done anything in the Middle East, we would have a much safer world right now. ... All of this has led to the migration. All of this has led to tremendous death and destruction. And she for the most part was in charge of it along with Obama.
    She's constantly playing the woman card. It's the only way she may get elected. I mean frankly... Personally, I'm not sure that anybody else other than me is going to beat her. And I think she's a flawed candidate. And you see what's happened recently. And it hasn't been a very pretty picture for her or for Bill. Because I'm the only one that's willing to talk about his problems. I mean, what he did and what he has gone through I think is frankly terrible, especially if she wants to play the woman card.
    I have more respect for women by far than Hillary Clinton has. And I will do more for women than Hillary Clinton will. I will do far more including the protection of our country. She caused a lot of the problems that we have right now.
  • They've created ISIS. Hillary Clinton created ISIS with Obama; created with Obama. But I love predicting because you know, ultimately, you need somebody with vision.
  • She [Clinton] has a terrible record as secretary of state. I mean, she's literally created ISIS. If you look at her, between her and Obama, they're the ones — we have this big ISIS problem they created with their bad policies and their bad thinking.
  • Mexico is going to be the new China because what they're doing to us is unbelievable, although they did catch El Chapo. Good? Good? They did catch El Chapo, that's good. I mean I don't know, he better not escape a third time, you know? Those tunnels, bing, boom, right under the toilet, bing boom, right up. It's pretty amazing when you think about it, right? But anyway. I have an idea: Put him on the fourth floor this time, right? No more, no more first floors.
  • Iran humiliated the United States with the capture of our 10 sailors. Horrible pictures & images. We are weak. I will NOT forget!
  • I'm very angry because our country is being run horribly and I will gladly accept the mantle of anger. Our military is a disaster. Our healthcare is a horror show. Obamacare, we're going to repeal it and replace it. We have no borders. Our vets are being treated horribly. Illegal immigration is beyond belief. Our country is being run by incompetent people. And yes, I am angry. I'm angry because our country is a mess.
  • And just so — if I could, because he insulted a lot of people. I’ve had more calls on that statement that Ted made — New York is a great place. It’s got great people, it’s got loving people, wonderful people. When the World Trade Center came down, I saw something that no place on Earth could have handled more beautifully, more humanely than New York. You had two one hundred, you had two 110-story buildings come crashing down. I saw them come down. Thousands of people killed, and the cleanup started the next day, and it was the most horrific cleanup, probably in the history of doing this, and in construction. I was down there, and I’ve never seen anything like it. And the people in New York fought and fought and fought, and we saw more death, and even the smell of death — nobody understood it. And it was with us for months, the smell, the air. And we rebuilt downtown Manhattan, and everybody in the world watched and everybody in the world loved New York and loved New Yorkers. And I have to tell you, that was a very insulting statement that Ted made.
  • The truth is, he's a nasty guy. He was so nice to me. I mean, I knew it. I was watching. I kept saying, 'Come on Ted. Let's go, okay.' But he's a nasty guy. Nobody likes him. Nobody in Congress likes him. Nobody likes him anywhere once they get to know him. He's a very –- he's got an edge that's not good. You can't make deals with people like that and it's not a good thing. It's not a good thing for the country. Very nasty guy.
  • Tony Perkins wrote that out for me -- he actually wrote out 2, he wrote out the number 2 Corinthians, I took exactly what Tony said, and I said, 'Well Tony has to know better than anybody.
  • It's a very small deal, but a lot of people in different sections of the world say two, and I've had many, many people say that to me. My mother, as you know, was from Scotland, and they say two.
    • In an interview with CNN's Don Lemon, about saying "two Corinthians" instead of "Second Corinthians" during a speech at Liberty University. [9] (January 22, 2016)
  • They say I have the most loyal people — did you ever see that? Where I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters. It's like incredible.
  • Torture works, okay folks? [...] Believe me, it works. [...] Waterboarding is your minor form. Some people say it's not actually torture. Let's assume it is. But they asked me the question. What do you think of waterboarding? Absolutely fine. But we should go much stronger than waterboarding. That's the way I feel.
  • Anderson Cooper: Is Islam at war with the West?
    Donald Trump: I think Islam hates us. There is something there, there is a tremendous hatred there, and we have to get to the bottom of it. There is an unbelievable hatred of us.
    Cooper: In Islam itself?
    Trump: You're going to have to figure that out, but there is a tremendous hatred and we have to be very vigilant, we have to be very careful and we can't allow people coming into this country who have this hatred of the United States and of people that are not Muslim.
    Cooper: The question is is there a war between the West and radical Islam or is it between the West and Islam itself?
    Trump: Well it's radical but it's very hard to define, it's very hard to separate because you don't know who's who.
  • How can Crooked Hillary say she cares about women when she is silent on radical Islam, which horribly oppresses women?
  • It's going to be like this. I'm not changing.
  • I'm truly honored by your support. Together, we accomplished what nobody thought was absolutely possible and you know what that is and we're only getting started and it's going to be beautiful, remember that. Tonight we close one chapter in history and we begin another. Our campaign received more primary votes than any GOP campaign in history, no matter who it is, no matter who they are, we received more votes. This is a great feeling. That's a great feeling. This is not a testament to me but a testament to all of the people who believed real change, not Obama change, but real change is possible. You've given me the honor to lead the Republican Party to victory this fall.
    • Victory speech after winning New Jersey and other states Tuesday night (7 June 2016) – TIME transcript
  • To those who voted for someone else in either party, I will work hard to earn your support and I will work very hard to earn that support. To all of those Bernie Sanders voters who have been left out in the cold by a rigged system of super delegates, we welcome you with open arms. And by the way, the terrible trade deals that Bernie was so vehemently against and he's right on that will be taken care of far better than anyone ever thought possible and that's what I do. We are going to have fantastic trade deals. We're going to start making money and bringing in jobs.
    • Victory speech after winning New Jersey and other states Tuesday night (7 June 2016) – TIME transcript
  • My goal is always again to bring people together. But if I'm forced to fight for something I really care about, I will never, ever back down and our country will never, ever back down. Thank you. I've fought for my family. I've fought for my business. I've fought for my employees. And now, I'm going to fight for you, the American people like nobody has ever fought before.
    • Victory speech after winning New Jersey and other states Tuesday night (7 June 2016) – TIME transcript
  • Corporate inversion, they’re leaving the United States, we have almost $5 trillion sitting out there, where they can’t get the money back, they can’t bring it in because there’s no mechanism to bring it back in and the tax is so high. I’m going to bring tremendous amounts of money, tremendous amounts of jobs, tremendous numbers of companies, and yes the tax is going to be cut from the highest tax nation anywhere in the world to a fairly low tax. Not the lowest in the world, but to a fairly low tax.
  • I called myself the king of debt. I’m the king of debt. I’m great with debt, nobody knows debt better than me. I made a fortune by using debt. And if things don’t work out I renegotiate the debt, I mean that’s a smart thing not a stupid thing. And I made a fortune.
  • You go back and you say, hey, guess what, the economy just crashed, I’m going to give you back half. I like debt for me, I don’t like debt for the country. I like debt for my company, but I don’t like debt for the country. For the country we have $19 trillion in debt, it’s going to be very soon $21 trillion, not billion, $21 trillion in debt. And I will tell you we are sitting on a time bomb and Hillary Clinton doesn’t have a clue. And President Obama has pretty much doubled the debt since he’s been in office and somebody’s going to pay a big price. We have to start chopping that debt down. ... I wouldn’t renegotiate the debt.
  • Though Bernie is exhausted and has given up on his revolution, many of his voters still want to keep up the fight. I expect that millions of Bernie voters will refuse to vote for Hillary because of her support for the War in Iraq, the invasion of Libya, NAFTA and TPP, and of course because she is totally bought and sold by special interests. She and her husband have been paid millions and millions by global corporations and powerful interests who will control her every decision. She is their puppet, and they pull the strings. We welcome with open arms all voters who want an honest government and to fix our rigged system so it works for the people. This includes fixing one of Bernie's biggest issues, our terrible trade deals that strip our country of its jobs and wealth.
  • A guy who didn’t have the guts to run for president. Little Michael. He doesn’t know anything about me. But he never had the guts to run. He probably wished he did but he didn’t. He spent millions of dollars on polling but he was missing one thing: guts. Little Michael.
  • Obama gave a good speech but not nearly as good as the press would have you believe. Whether it’s good or bad, the press will say it’s fantastic. In many ways, I like Obama. It’s hard to define. There’s something about him I do like. I’m embarrassed to admit it. I give him a lot of credit. It’s very unique and very hard to do and I give him tremendous credit. He became a two-term president of the United States. He’s got some quality going.
  • Emails in general are terrible. There’s no security. It happens so often. I’m old-fashioned. I put a letter in an envelope and have it hand delivered. My son is 10 years old, and he has grown up computer literate. They start using computers before they can walk. His computer was locked and he unlocked it. And I said, ‘Barron, how did you do that?’ And he said, ‘I won’t tell you, Dad.
  • Putin said I was a genius. I do say this: Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we actually could get along with Russia and China and some other countries that we don’t get along with, and then we go out and knock the hell out of ISIS? Wouldn’t it be nice if we cleaned that mess up? Wouldn’t it be smart?
  • Captain Humayun Khan was a hero to our country and we should honor all who have made the ultimate sacrifice to keep our country safe. The real problem here are the radical Islamic terrorists who killed him, and the efforts of these radicals to enter our country to do us further harm. Given the state of the world today, we have to know everything about those looking to enter our country, and given the state of chaos in some of these countries, that is impossible. While I feel deeply for the loss of his son, Mr. Khan who has never met me, has no right to stand in front of millions of people and claim I have never read the Constitution, (which is false) and say many other inaccurate things. If I become President, I will make America safe again.
  • Hillary Clinton should be held accountable for her central role in destabilizing the Middle East. She voted to send the United States to war against Iraq, helped lead the disastrous withdrawal of American troops years later that created the vacuum allowing the rise of ISIS, and has never met a regime change she didn’t like (which have all been disasters) – not to mention her invasion of Libya and her abandonment of American personnel in Benghazi. The loss of these lives in Libya is directly traceable to Clinton, but their families' testimonials were rejected by the media.
  • Clinton’s actions have been reckless and have directly led to the loss of American lives. And her extreme immigration policies, as also laid out by American victims in Cleveland, will cause the preventable deaths of countless more -- while putting all residents, from all places, at greater risk of terrorism. As Bernie Sanders said on numerous occasions, Hillary Clinton suffers from "bad judgement." She is not qualified to serve as Commander in Chief.
  • Mr. Khan, who does not know me, viciously attacked me from the stage of the DNC and is now all over T.V. doing the same - Nice!
  • He's a terrible president, he'll probably go down as the worst president in the history of our country, he's been a total disaster.
    • On Barack Obama during an interview with WJLA. [17] (August 2, 2016)
Speech at Liberty University (18 January 2016)
Presidential Candidate Donald Trump at Liberty University, C-SPAN (18 January 2016)
  • I have read a lot about it and I watched it and Liberty University, like a rocket ship, a really great rocket ship.
  • I'm in first place. I said when you're in first place, you discuss polls.
  • I love Iowa, and I'm going there right after this, going up to New Hampshire, I'm going to Iowa because I want to win Iowa. Everyone says don't say that. Just say you're going to do well. That's the closest, but I can't do that. The safe way is, I think I'll do well. I want to win Iowa.
  • We've done great with the evangelicals. The evangelicals have been amazing. The Tea Party has been amazing and we're doing really well.
  • We're going to protect Christianity, and I can say that. I don't have to be politically correct. We're going to protect it. I hear this is a major theme right here, but two Corinthians, 3:17, that's the whole ball game. Where the spirit of the lord, right, where the spirit of the lord is, there is liberty, and here there is Liberty College, but Liberty University, but it is so true. You know, when you think -- and that's really -- is that the one? Is that the one you like? I think that's the one you like because I loved it, and it's so representative of what's taken place. But we are going to protect Christianity. And if you look what's going on throughout the world, you look at Syria where if you're Christian, they're chopping off heads. You look at the different places, and Christianity, it's under siege.
  • I'm a protestant. I'm very proud of it, Presbyterian to be exact, but I'm proud of it, very, very proud. And we've got to protect because bad things are happening, very bad things are happening, and we don't -- I don't know what it is. We don't band together, maybe. Other religions, frankly, they're banding together.
  • This is a movement. It is a movement going on. We want to take our country back. Our country is disappearing. You look at the kind of deals we make. You look at what's happening, our country is going in the wrong direction, and so wrong, and it's got to be stopped and it's got to be stopped fast.
  • And my generals, by the way, they're not going on television, OK? So the enemy can learn all about it. Oh, well, then we attack.
  • They have totally destabilized the Middle East. It's a disaster.
  • When our sailors were captured last week, I said that's one of the saddest things that I have seen when those young people were on their hands and knees in a begging position with their hands up and thugs behind them with guns, and then we talk like it's OK. It's not OK. It's lack of respect. We can't let that happen to this country. It's lack of respect.
  • The Persians, very good negotiators. Great negotiators, legendary negotiators. They're known for it. They're sitting across the table.
  • I hate to tell this to the woman, they're behind the fact, they're a little behind the fact. They haven't figured out that women may be in certain ways much better than men. But I don't want to say that because I will get myself in trouble with men. But they haven't figured this out yet but that's OK.
  • We're a debtor nation. We owe $19 trillion. We're not going to give you any money, and you want to be nice. You don't want to put it in their face. Just say, look, we're a poor nation. We've been mismanaged, we've been misrun. We don't know what the hell we're doing, right?
  • If I'm president, you're going to see 'Merry Christmas' in department stores, believe me.
  • We spent 5 trillion dollars in the Middle East and our country is going to hell. We gotta bring it back. We gotta knock the hell out of ISIS.
  • I want to see a woman president soon, but not [Hillary Clinton]. She's a disaster. She's a disaster. She's a disaster. I mean, just think of the corruption and the scandal... We don't want to go through it. We want to see winning. We want to see win, win, win – constant winning. And you'll say – if I'm president... 'Please, Mr. President, we're winning too much. We can't stand it anymore. Can't we have a loss?' And I'll say no, we're going to keep winning, winning, winning... because we're going to make America great again. And you'll say, 'Okay, Mr. President. Okay.'
Foreign Policy Speech (27 April 2016)
No country has ever prospered that failed to put its own interests first.
Transcript: Donald Trump's Foreign Policy Speech, The New York Times (27 April 2016)
  • It's time to shake the rust off America's foreign policy.
  • My foreign policy will always put the interests of the American people and American security above all else... That will be the foundation of every single decision that I will make. America First will be the major and overriding theme of my administration.
  • Our foreign policy is a complete and total disaster. No vision. No purpose. No direction. No strategy.
  • President Obama has weakened our military by weakening our economy. He's crippled us with wasteful spending, massive debt, low growth, a huge trade deficit and open borders.
  • Our allies are not paying their fair share... The countries we are defending must pay for the cost of this defense, and if not, the U.S. must be prepared to let these countries defend themselves. We have no choice.
  • Israel, our great friend and the one true democracy in the Middle East has been snubbed and criticized by an administration that lacks moral clarity... President Obama has not been a friend to Israel. He has treated Iran with tender love and care and made it a great power.
  • We've let our rivals and challengers think they can get away with anything, and they do... If President Obama's goal had been to weaken America, he could not have done a better job.
  • We've made the Middle East more unstable and chaotic than ever before. We left Christians subject to intense persecution and even genocide. We have done nothing to help the Christians, nothing, and we should always be ashamed for that lack of action.
  • Hillary Clinton refuses to say the words radical Islam, even as she pushes for a massive increase in refugees coming into our country. After Secretary Clinton's failed intervention in Libya, Islamic terrorists in Benghazi took down our consulate and killed our ambassador and three brave Americans. Then, instead of taking charge that night, Hillary Clinton decided to go home and sleep. Incredible. Clinton blames it all on a video, an excuse that was a total lie, proven to be absolutely a total lie. Our ambassador was murdered and our secretary of state misled the nation.
  • We're also going to have to change our trade, immigration and economic policies to make our economy strong again. And to put Americans first again. This will ensure that our own workers, right here in America, get the jobs and higher pay that will grow our tax revenues, increase our economic might as a nation.
  • I believe an easing of tensions, and improved relations with Russia from a position of strength only is possible.
  • Americans must know that we're putting the American people first again on trade, on immigration, on foreign policy. The jobs, incomes and security of the American worker will always be my first priority. No country has ever prospered that failed to put its own interests first. Both our friends and our enemies put their countries above ours and we, while being fair to them, must start doing the same. We will no longer surrender this country or its people to the false song of globalism. The nation-state remains the true foundation for happiness and harmony. I am skeptical of international unions that tie us up and bring America down, and will never enter America into any agreement that reduces our ability to control our own affairs.
2016 Republican National Convention (21 July 2016)
Donald Trump 2016 RNC draft speech transcript, Politico (21 July 2016)
  • The attacks on our police, and the terrorism in our cities, threaten our very way of life. Any politician who does not grasp this danger is not fit to lead our country.
  • The most basic duty of government is to defend the lives of its own citizens. Any government that fails to do so is a government unworthy to lead.
  • We cannot afford to be so politically correct anymore.
  • There will be no lies. We will honor the American people with the truth, and nothing else.
  • Decades of progress made in bringing down crime are now being reversed by this Administration’s rollback of criminal enforcement.
  • America is far less safe – and the world is far less stable – than when Obama made the decision to put Hillary Clinton in charge of America’s foreign policy. I am certain it is a decision he truly regrets. Her bad instincts and her bad judgment – something pointed out by Bernie Sanders – are what caused the disasters unfolding today.
  • This is the legacy of Hillary Clinton: death, destruction and weakness.
  • The problems we face now – poverty and violence at home, war and destruction abroad – will last only as long as we continue relying on the same politicians who created them. A change in leadership is required to change these outcomes.
  • There can be no prosperity without law and order
  • Our plan will put America First. Americanism, not globalism, will be our credo. As long as we are led by politicians who will not put America First, then we can be assured that other nations will not treat America with respect.
  • Big business, elite media and major donors are lining up behind the campaign of my opponent because they know she will keep our rigged system in place. They are throwing money at her because they have total control over everything she does. She is their puppet, and they pull the strings. That is why Hillary Clinton’s message is that things will never change. My message is that things have to change – and they have to change right now.
  • Every day I wake up determined to deliver for the people I have met all across this nation that have been neglected, ignored, and abandoned.
  • The laid-off factory workers, and the communities crushed by our horrible and unfair trade deals. These are the forgotten men and women of our country. People who work hard but no longer have a voice. I AM YOUR VOICE.
  • I have no patience for injustice, no tolerance for government incompetence, no sympathy for leaders who fail their citizens.
  • When innocent people suffer, because our political system lacks the will, or the courage, or the basic decency to enforce our laws – or worse still, has sold out to some corporate lobbyist for cash – I am not able to look the other way.
  • When a Secretary of State illegally stores her emails on a private server, deletes 33,000 of them so the authorities can’t see her crime, puts our country at risk, lies about it in every different form and faces no consequence – I know that corruption has reached a level like never before.
  • I have joined the political arena so that the powerful can no longer beat up on people that cannot defend themselves. Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it. I have seen firsthand how the system is rigged against our citizens, just like it was rigged against Bernie Sanders – he never had a chance.
  • He (Mike Pence) is a man of character and accomplishment. He is the right man for the job.
  • An attack on law enforcement is an attack on all Americans. I have a message to every last person threatening the peace on our streets and the safety of our police: when I take the oath of office next year, I will restore law and order our country.
  • In this race for the White House, I am the Law And Order candidate. ... I will work to ensure that all of our kids are treated equally, and protected equally.
  • Once again, France is the victim of brutal Islamic terrorism. Men, women and children viciously mowed down. Lives ruined. Families ripped apart. A nation in mourning.
  • I will do everything in my power to protect our LGBT citizens from the violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideology.
  • We must work with all of our allies who share our goal of destroying ISIS and stamping out Islamic terror. This includes working with our greatest ally in the region, the State of Israel.
  • We must immediately suspend immigration from any nation that has been compromised by terrorism until such time as proven vetting mechanisms have been put in place.
  • I only want to admit individuals into our country who will support our values and love our people. Anyone who endorses violence, hatred or oppression is not welcome in our country and never will be.
  • Decades of record immigration have produced lower wages and higher unemployment for our citizens, especially for African-American and Latino workers. We are going to have an immigration system that works, but one that works for the American people.
  • Of all my travels in this country, nothing has affected me more deeply than the time I have spent with the mothers and fathers who have lost their children to violence spilling across our border.
  • We are going to build a great border wall to stop illegal immigration, to stop the gangs and the violence, and to stop the drugs from pouring into our communities.
  • Peace will be restored.
  • We are going to be considerate and compassionate to everyone. But my greatest compassion will be for our own struggling citizens.
  • Americans want relief from uncontrolled immigration. Communities want relief.
  • I’m going to make our country rich again. I am going to turn our bad trade agreements into great ones.
  • I pledge to never sign any trade agreement that hurts our workers, or that diminishes our freedom and independence. Instead, I will make individual deals with individual countries.
  • No longer will we enter into these massive deals, with many countries, that are thousands of pages long – and which no one from our country even reads or understands. We are going to enforce all trade violations, including through the use of taxes and tariffs, against any country that cheats.
  • We’ll walk away if we don’t get the deal that we want.
  • Reducing taxes will cause new companies and new jobs to come roaring back into our country.
  • My Dad, Fred Trump, was the smartest and hardest working man I ever knew.
  • I have loved my life in business.
  • We must break free from the petty politics of the past.
  • America is a nation of believers, dreamers, and strivers that is being led by a group of censors, critics, and cynics.
  • All of the people telling you that you can’t have the country you want, are the same people telling you that I wouldn’t be standing here tonight. No longer can we rely on those elites in media, and politics, who will say anything to keep a rigged system in place.
  • We must choose to Believe In America. History is watching us now.
  • I’m with you – the American people. I am your voice. ... I’m With You, and I will fight for you, and I will win for you.
This Week Interview (July 30, 2016)
Interview on ABC News' This Week with George Stephanopoulos. Transcript (31 July 2016)
  • She's (Hillary Clinton) a very dishonest person. I have one of the great temperaments. I have a winning temperament. She has a bad temperament. She's weak. We need a strong temperament and that's all it is, I have a strong temperament. ... I think I have a great temperament. I beat 16 very talented people in -- and I've never done this before. You don't do that with a bad temperament. ... I'm leading her in the polls, as you probably have noticed. And I think I have a great temperament. I have a temperament where I know how to win. She doesn't know how to win. She's not a winner. She doesn't know how to win. Honestly, she lies a lot and she really -- she should tell the truth. I honestly believe if she told the truth -- because she made some reference to my campaigning, I've had a beautiful -- I've had a -- had a flawless campaign. You'll be writing books about this campaign. And yet she's criticizing my campaign.
  • If you look at what's going on in terms of unity, the Bernie people are angry. They're angry. He was angry. What was amazing to me is when she was talking about Bernie last night, the camera was on him and he was angry. It almost looks like he has buyer's remorse, like he shouldn't have made the deal.
  • I have no relationship with Putin. I don't think I've ever met him. I never met him. I don't think I've ever met him. ... I have never spoken to him on the phone, no. I've speak -- I've spoken -- when we had the Miss Universe contest a number of years ago, we had Miss Universe in Moscow, in the Moscow area, he was invited. He wanted to come. He wasn't able to come. That would have been a time when I would have met him. ... I don't know what it means by having a relationship. I mean he was saying very good things about me, but I don't have a relationship with him. I didn't meet him. I haven't spent time with him. I didn't have dinner with him. I didn't go hiking with him. I don't know -- and I wouldn't know him from Adam except I see his picture and I would know what he looks like.
  • If our country got along with Russia, that would be a great thing. When Putin goes out and tells everybody -- and you talk about a relationship, but he says Donald Trump is going to win and Donald Trump is a genius, and then I have people saying you should disavow. I said, I'm going to disavow that? ... If we can have a good relationship with Russia and if Russia would help us get rid of ISIS, frankly, as far as I'm concerned, you're talking about tremendous amounts of money and lives and everything else, that would be a positive thing, not a negative thing.
  • NATO is going to be just fine. But NATO countries -- we have 28 countries -- many of them are taking advantage of us because they're not paying. So we're protecting these countries and they're not paying. ... I'm all in favor of NATO. I said NATO is obsolete. I was asked a question by one of your competitors and I said NATO is obsolete, because it's not taking care of terror.
  • The people of Crimea, from what I've heard, would rather be with Russia than where they were. And you have to look at that, also. Now, that was under -- just so you understand, that was done under Obama's administration. And as far as the Ukraine is concerned, it's a mess. And that's under the Obama's administration, with his strong ties to NATO. So with all of these strong ties to NATO, Ukraine is a mess. Crimea has been taken. Don't blame Donald Trump for that.
  • No debts. I have very little debt to anybody. I don't need debt. You know, it's very interesting, I'm so liquid, I don't need debt. And if I need debt, if I want debt, I can get it from banks in New York City very easily.
  • If you want to get a television today -- I buy thousands of television sets. If I want a television, I would love the buy American-made televisions like they used to have where they had GE and Sylvania and all of the different. Today, it's Samsung, it's LG, it's {{w|Sony]]. We don't make televisions anymore.
  • When I do ties, I bid them out. And I go all over the place. You have companies over in different countries where they devalue their currency and they make it impossible for American companies to compete. The hat, Make America Great Again. I fought like crazy to find a company in this country that could make the hats. And I found one. And they're American-made, but it's -- because I knew the first thing people would do is, where is the hat made. OK, Make America Great.
  • He (Khizr M. Khan) was, you know, very emotional and probably looked like a nice guy to me. His wife, if you look at his wife, she was standing there. She had nothing to say. She probably, maybe she wasn't allowed to have anything to say. You tell me. But plenty of people have written that. She was extremely quiet. And it looked like she had nothing to say. A lot of people have said that. And personally, I watched him. I wish him the best of luck.
  • I'd say we've had a lot of problems with radical Islamic terrorism. That's what I'd say. We have a lot of problems. ... I'd say you’ve got to take a look at that, because something is going on. And it's not good.
  • Well, that sounds - who wrote that? Did Hillary's scriptwriters write it? Because everybody that went out there, we also had John Allen who failed with ISIS. I mean, he was a general, Allen, General Allen. He went out. And he was ranting and raving. And then I read a report. He was in there for a number of months. And he failed with ISIS.
  • The generals aren't doing so well right now. Now, I have a feeling it may be Obama's fault. But if you look at ISIS… General MacArthur and General Patton, they're spinning in their graves. The generals certainly aren't doing very well right now.
  • I think I've made a lot of sacrifices. I work very, very hard. I've created thousands and thousands of jobs, tens of thousands of jobs, built great structures. I've done, I've had tremendous success. I think I've done a lot. ... I think they're sacrifices. I think when I can employ thousands and thousands of people, take care of their education, take care of so many things, even in military. I mean, I was very responsible, along with a group of people, for getting the Vietnam Memorial built in downtown Manhattan, which to this day people thank me for.
  • I raised, and I have raised, millions of dollars for the vets. I'm helping the vets a lot. I think my popularity with the vets is through the roof, far greater than hers. She's done nothing. All she's done is tell everybody that the vets are in good shape. They're fine. And they're not fine. People are waiting on line for seven days to see a doctor. She thinks it's fine.
  • Our country's a mess. And that's why when she makes the speech, she doesn't talk about radical Islam. She doesn't talk about the problems that we have in this country and throughout the world. Many of the problems, she caused. I mean, she created ISIS with her stupidity and her lack of knowledge with her bad judgment.


Disputed

  • I have black guys counting my money! I hate it. The only kind of people I want counting my money are short guys that wear yarmulkes every day. Those are the kind of people I want counting my money. Nobody else. Besides that, I've got to tell you something else. I think that the guy is lazy. And it's probably not his fault because laziness is a trait in blacks. It really is, I believe that. It's not anything they can control... Don't you agree?
    • "Wrongly attributed" to Trump, who said the book with the alleged quote was "written by a fired and totally disgruntled employee who was terrible at the job he did and who I hardly knew." (Washington Examiner, 8 July 2015)
    • "Recalled" by John "Jack" O'Donnell, former president of Trump Plaza Hotel & Casino. O'Donnell, John R.; Rutherford, James (1 January 1991), Trumped!: The Inside Story of the Real Donald Trump -His Cunning Rise and Spectacular Fall, New York: Simon & Schuster, ISBN 9780671737351, OCLC 23355814 , cited in "Ignoring Trump's Record of Racism". Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting. 2011-05-06. Retrieved on 2011-05-07.  "But did Trump actually utter those words? Who knows?" — Howard Kurtz (May 10, 1991). "Duck, Donald! Trump-Size Tackiness". The Washington Post. 
    • Donald Trump: "I never said it. I hardly know this guy. He was running one of my casinos for a short period of time. He was fired—we fired him because he wasn't doing a very good job. He wrote this nasty book. He made up stuff... This guy, I hardly know him. He made up this quote. I've heard the quote before, and it's nonsense... I've never said anything like it, ever." – Meet the Press (24 October, 1999)


Misattributed

  • I have a really high IQ, Phil. I mean, c'mon. It's impossible for me to not be atheist.
    • Attributed by photo meme to an appearance on The Phil Donahue Show in 1989. According to Snopes.com, there is no evidence he ever said this, nor that he even appeared on The Phil Donahue Show in 1989.
  • If I were to run, I'd run as a Republican. They're the dumbest group of voters in the country. They believe anything on Fox News. I could lie and they'd still eat it up. I bet my numbers would be terrific.
    • Never said by Trump; sometimes "People magazine, 1998" is incorrectly given as the "source" of this quotation — snopes.com; truthorfiction.com
  • The harder I work, the luckier I get.
    • Originated with Samuel Goldwyn as a paraphrase of a proverb from a collection by Coleman Cox, but similar proverbs have existed since the 16th century. [18]

Quotes about Trump

Alphabetized by surname.

A · B · C · D · E · F · G · H · I · J · K · L · M · N · O · P · Q · R · S · T · U · V · W · X · Y · Z · See also · External links

Donald Trump, I really truly believe is a very dangerous man. If you listen to the things he said... He has joked about killing reporters. ~ Glenn Beck
File:DavidBrooks.jpg
Donald Trump just has more courage. Whatever you might think of him, and I don’t think much of him, but he has more courage than his opponents. ~ David Brooks
He does have, over the course of his life, a consistent misogynistic view of women as arm candy, as pieces of meat. It’s a consistent attitude toward women which is the stuff of a diseased adolescent. And so we have seen a bit of that show up again. But if you go back over his past, calling into radio shows bragging about his affairs, talking about his sex life in public, he is childish in his immaturity. And his — even his misogyny is a childish misogyny. ~ David Brooks
You need to be an outsider to be a change agent. There's only one person who can do that. And that is Donald Trump. ~ Scott Brown
Trump is sui generis, unlike any candidate of recent times. And his success is attributable not only to his stance on issues, but to his persona, his defiance of political correctness, his relish of political combat with all comers, his "damn the torpedos" charging in frontally where others refuse to tread... ~ Pat Buchanan
Hillary is stealing America, whereas Donald Trump is trying to save our society. ~ Herman Cain
If this guy pretends that closing the borders to anywhere either for trade (or) for people is going to provide prosperity to the United States, he is completely crazy... He is not very well informed. ~ Felipe Calderón
If he came to visit our country, I think he would unite us all against him. ~ David Cameron
I've come to know Donald Trump, he is actually a very intelligent man who cares deeply about America. ~ Ben Carson
The myriad vulgarities of Donald Trump—examples of which are retailed daily on Web sites and front pages these days—are not news to those of us who have been living downwind of him for any period of time. ~ Graydon Carter
He's a master brander, and he's the most interesting character out there... ~ Bill Clinton
People are asking themselves, 'How would we feel if our children came in repeating the words of the president of the United States if that president was Donald Trump?' And if it would embarrass you to have your children repeat the words of the president, that's not a good thing. ~ Ted Cruz
The best thing to happen to politics in a long long time. I don't care what his actual positions are. I don't care if he says the wrong thing. He says what's on his mind. He gives honest answers rather than prepared answers. This is more important than anything any candidate has done in years. ~ Mark Cuban
Donald Trump is the last hope for America. ~ Robert Davi
People are looking for somebody who is outspoken and who isn't afraid. And [Trump] seems to have kind of a fearless attitude. ~ Clint Eastwood
Trump is Hillary Clinton's Christmas gift wrapped up under a tree. ~ Carly Fiorina
He reminds me of Hitler. ~ Vicente Fox
I think he could be a great leader, because he's inspiring a lot of people, and especially people, including me, who are tired of Republicans being weak. I'm so sick of it. ~ Sean Hannity
File:Düsseldorf, Rosenmontag 2016, politische Karnevalswagen (05).jpg
The stuff [Trump] is saying on immigration, the stuff he saying on torture, the stuff he is saying on war, is absolutely unforgivable ... He is coming out directly against the Statue of Liberty. … If it comes down to Trump and Hillary, I will put a Hillary Clinton sticker on my fucking car. ~ Penn Jillette
Trump is a potential disaster as commander-in-chief—uninformed, volatile, poor judgment. Hard to believe this is the candidate of a major political party. ~ Barry McCaffrey
Trump is unexpectedly increasing my enthusiasm for Hillary. What he is saying is not based on facts: it's based on immaturity, bad judgment and ignorance, and I think it's going to be hard for people in uniform who are thoughtful about this, to vote for him. ~ Merrill McPeak
I love Donald, and he would make a great president. Number one, he tells the truth. Number two, he's been where most of these guys want to be, in terms of riding on his own plane... I could give you so many reasons. But most of all, most important I think for Mr. Trump, is he tells it like it is. ~ Wayne Newton
Trump has made a living out of preying on and bullying society's most vulnerable, with the help of government. He isn't an outsider, but rather an unelected politician of the worst kind. He admits that he’s bought off elected officials in order get his way and to openly abuse the system. The rabid defense he gets from some quarters is astonishing. ~ Katie Pavlich
He's a really brilliant and talented person, without any doubt. It's not our job to judge his qualities, that's a job for American voters, but he's the absolute leader in the presidential race. ~ Vladimir Putin
You may not agree with his authenticity but he's authentic. People like that. He speaks his mind, which reminds me of me once in a while. I think that's something that's refreshing. ~ Harry Reid
Winston Churchill of our time. ~ Michael Savage
Trump is the only hope to defeat the Kingmakers. Because everybody else will fall in line. The Kingmakers have so much money behind them. ~ Phyllis Schlafly
In terms of our liberal democracy and constitutional order, Trump is an extinction-level event. It’s long past time we started treating him as such. ~ Andrew Sullivan
I think he would be a great president... He is one of the most dynamic people in the world. He looks presidential, and he talks presidential, and he would make the changes he promises. ~ Ivana Trump
My father is an unbelievable listener, and I don't think people realize that until they actually know him. And he ultimately makes his own decisions and that's what any leader needs to do. ~ Ivanka Trump
He's smart, he's tough, he knows what he's doing. He's speaking from his heart. He's the best. ~ Melania Trump
I loved listening to you talk to those other talking heads about "Donald Trump could be the destruction of the whole Republican party." I throw my hands up in the air and cheer. I hope it happens! ~ Jesse Ventura
When [Trump] decided to run for president, I know he did it with a true conviction to bring this country back to prosperity. He is the only one who can do it. No frills, no fuss, only candid truths. ~ Jon Voight
The neutrality of this article is disputed.
Please see the relevant discussion on the talk page.

A

  • Attached hereto is a copy of Mr. Trump’s birth certificate, demonstrating that he is the son of Fred Trump, not an orangutan.
    • Scott Balber, Donald Trump's lawyer, to comedian Bill Maher (2013), in response to Maher's facetious assertion that he'd pay Trump $5 million dollars upon release of Trump's birth certificate to prove he was not sired by an orangutan. [19] [20]
  • There is no greater sacrifice than to lay down one's life for their country, and that's the sacrifice that Captain Humayum Khan made fighting to defend our freedom and our constitutional rights. He was a true American hero. The Khan family deserves nothing less than our deepest support, respect, and gratitude, and they have every right to express themselves in any way they choose. I am appalled that Donald Trump would disparage them and that he had the gall to compare his own sacrifices to those of a Gold Star family.
    • Kelly Ayotte, statement regarding Donald Trump's comments about Khizr and Ghazala Khan [21] (July 31, 2016)

B

  • When conservatives desperately needed allies in the fight against big government, Donald Trump didn't stand on the sidelines. He consistently advocated that your money be spent, that your government grow, and that your Constitution be ignored... Trump’s potential primary victory would provide Hillary Clinton with the easiest imaginable path to the White House. But it’s far worse than that. If Donald Trump wins the Republican nomination, there will once again be no opposition to an ever-expanding government. This is a crisis for conservatism. And, once again, this crisis will not go to waste.
  • Donald Trump, I really truly believe is a very dangerous man. If you listen to the things he said this weekend... 'I could go onto Fifth Avenue and shoot people and I wouldn't lose a vote'. He has joked about killing reporters — and 'not' killing reporters like Putin does... We don't change with the mood of the country. That is the problem with our country right now. The Constitution is to anchor us in principles that help temper the mood of the country... The mood of the country is very angry, but you never make a good decision when you are angry... The worst thing we can do is to now start looking at, who is going to get revenge? One of the things that Donald Trump does, when you have a guy who is angry and then has an enemies list and starts to just take people down over and over and over again — if you disagree with him, he destroys you. If that is the mood of the country, we are in more trouble than I thought.
  • ...it is merely Marxist drivel to think that employers have more power than employees (tell that to Michael Jordan and Jerry Reinsdorf) or landlords than tenants (tell that to the landlord of Bill Gates or Donald Trump).
    • Walter E. Block, The Case for Discrimination (2010, Ludwig von Mises Institute) p. 404
  • Americans think it would be better to have a businessman than a politician as president, and I sympathize with them. Alas, the only businessmen crazy enough to run for president seem to be, well, crazy. At least Ross Perot kept his craziness confined mostly to private matters, such as the looming disruption of his daughter’s wedding. Donald Trump puts it front and center. From a libertarian point of view, and I think serious conservatives and liberals would share this view, Trump's greatest offenses against American tradition and our founding principles are his nativism and his promise of one-man rule. Not since George Wallace has there been a presidential candidate who made racial and religious scapegoating so central to his campaign. Trump launched his campaign talking about Mexican rapists and has gone on to rant about mass deportation, bans on Muslim immigration, shutting down mosques, and building a wall around America. America is an exceptional nation in large part because we’ve aspired to rise above such prejudices and guarantee life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to everyone.
  • Trump is a fascist. And that’s not a term I use loosely or often. But he’s earned it.
  • The GOP base is clearly disgusted and looking for new leadership. Enter Donald Trump, not just with policy prescriptions that challenge the cynical GOP leadership but with an attitude of disdain for that leadership—precisely in line with the sentiment of the base. Many conservatives are relishing this, but ah, the rub. Trump might be the greatest charlatan of them all.
  • Donald Trump betrays. It can start with Trump University, where Trump betrayed schoolteachers and others who dreamed of building a better life for themselves.
  • Donald Trump just has more courage. Whatever you might think of him, and I don’t think much of him, but he has more courage than his opponents... He's a marketing genius who offers no substance. And people either got pushed into subprime loans by Trump Mortgage, or they got suckered into racking up huge credit card debt to buy courses on Trump University, and they were left high and dry when those things went belly up. And so that’s a story that I think can be told. In a country which is feeling betrayed, he is a mass and serial betrayer... Given the numbers now, it’s very hard to see he could win, given the huge numbers of Americans, the vast majority of Americans who say they could not support the guy. And I still find it hard to believe that somebody as policy-thin and as knowledge-thin would very well — he might be able to wear well with the electorate that we have.
  • Are we really here? Is this really happening? Is this America? Are we a great country talking about trying to straddle the world and create opportunity in this country? It's just mind-boggling. And we have sort of become acculturated, because this campaign has been so ugly. We have become acculturated to sleaze and unhappiness that you just want to shower from every 15 minutes. The Trump comparison of the looks of the wives, he does have, over the course of his life, a consistent misogynistic view of women as arm candy, as pieces of meat. It’s a consistent attitude toward women which is the stuff of a diseased adolescent. And so we have seen a bit of that show up again. But if you go back over his past, calling into radio shows bragging about his affairs, talking about his sex life in public, he is childish in his immaturity. And his — even his misogyny is a childish misogyny. And that’s why I do not think Republicans, standard Republicans, can say, yes, I’m going to vote for this guy because he’s our nominee. He’s of a different order than your normal candidate. And this whole week is just another reminder of that... The odd thing about his whole career and his whole language, his whole world view is there is no room for love in it. You get a sense of a man who received no love, can give no love, so his relationship with women, it has no love in it. It’s trophy. And his relationship toward the world is one of competition and beating, and as if he’s going to win by competition what other people get by love. And so you really are seeing someone who just has an odd psychology unleavened by kindness and charity, but where it’s all winners and losers, beating and being beat. And that’s part of the authoritarian personality, but it comes out in his attitude towards women.
  • Trump is sui generis, unlike any candidate of recent times. And his success is attributable not only to his stance on issues, but to his persona, his defiance of political correctness, his relish of political combat with all comers, his "damn the torpedos" charging in frontally where others refuse to tread...

C

  • If this guy pretends that closing the borders to anywhere either for trade (or) for people is going to provide prosperity to the United States, he is completely crazy... He is not very well informed.
  • The myriad vulgarities of Donald Trump—examples of which are retailed daily on Web sites and front pages these days—are not news to those of us who have been living downwind of him for any period of time. I first encountered Trump more than 30 years ago. Back then he was a flashy go-getter from an outer borough eager to make his name in Manhattan real estate. Which he succeeded in doing in the only way he knew how: by putting his name in oversize type on anything he was associated with—buildings, yes, but also vodka, golf courses, starchy ties, and even a sham of a real-estate school... Just to drive him a little bit crazy, I took to referring to him as a "short-fingered vulgarian" in the pages of Spy magazine. That was more than a quarter of a century ago. To this day, I receive the occasional envelope from Trump. There is always a photo of him—generally a tear sheet from a magazine. On all of them he has circled his hand in gold Sharpie in a valiant effort to highlight the length of his fingers.
  • We're all tying ourselves in knots about what Donald Trump said about Mexicans... Just as Dylann Roof doesn't represent white people, Mexican rapists don't represent anyone other than themselves either... While I like a good brawl as much as the next person, it seems that Trump is the answer only if the question is: Why can’t we get more oafish egomaniacs into politics? Just when the Republican Party needs finesse and sensitivity when discussing immigration; just when it needs to focus on issues that unite all sectors of the electorate, including Hispanic and Asian voters; it gets a blowhard with all the nuance of a grenade... Trump’s smear about Mexican immigrants was about as far away as you can get from Ronald Reagan... He tarred most Mexican immigrants as drug dealers, criminals, and rapists, allowing only as an afterthought that some may be good people. He claimed to have discussed the matter with border guards. Would those officers please step forward? In any case, crude and vulgar people always preen that they are brave truth tellers.
  • Put aside for a moment Trump’s countless past departures from conservative principle on defense, racial quotas, abortion, taxes, single-payer health care, and immigration. That's right. In 2012, he derided Mitt Romney for being too aggressive on the question, and he’s made extensive use of illegal-immigrant labor in his serially bankrupt businesses. The man has demonstrated an emotional immaturity bordering on personality disorder, and it ought to disqualify him from being a mayor, to say nothing of a commander-in-chief. Trump has made a career out of egotism, while conservatism implies a certain modesty about government. The two cannot mix... When a con man swindles you, you can sue—as many embittered former Trump associates who thought themselves ill used have done. When you elect a con man, there’s no recourse.
  • Donald is a leader. He is a successful person that, like me, isn't afraid to tell it like it is. Our system is broken and it won't be fixed from the inside. I am proud to offer my endorsement of his candidacy for President.
    • Chris Christie, endorsing Donald Trump for President, at a campaign rally in Fort Worth, TX [22]
  • Despite what you hear, we don't need to make America great again. America has never stopped being great. But we do need to make America whole again. Instead of building walls, we need to be tearing down barriers.
  • We cannot let him roll the dice with America.
  • A warning label should be affixed to Trump’s forehead.
  • There's a populism to Trump that I found very appealing. The party elders would like him to go away, but the people have decided that he is not going to... [T]here is something really hopeful about the fact that, well, 36 percent of the likely voters want him to win, so the people in the machine don't get to say otherwise.
  • When the voters examine Donald, they'll discover he actually embodies Washington corruption, the Washington deal-making that they're so angry about.
  • People are asking themselves, 'How would we feel if our children came in repeating the words of the president of the United States if that president was Donald Trump?' And if it would embarrass you to have your children repeat the words of the president, that's not a good thing... A president should unify us, should appeal to our better angels, should appeal to our shared values that make America who we are.

D

  • The case for constitutional limited government is the case against Donald Trump. To the degree we take him at his word — understanding that Trump is a negotiator whose positions are often purposefully deceptive — what he advocates is a rejection of our Madisonian inheritance and an embrace of Barack Obama's authoritarianism. Trump assures voters that he will use authoritarian power for good, to help those who feel — with good reason — ignored by both parties. But the American experiment in self-government was the work of a generation that risked all to defeat a tyrannical monarch and establish a government of laws, not men. A government of the people, by the people, and for the people is precisely what the Constitution offers, and what is most threatened by “great men” impatient to impose their will on the nation. Conservatives should reject Trump’s hollow, Euro-style identity politics.

E

  • I'd have to go for Trump ... you know, [because] she's declared that she's gonna follow in [President] Obama's footsteps. I mean, it's a tough voice to listen to for four years. It could be a tough one. If she's just gonna follow what we’ve been doing, then I wouldn't be for her. She's made a lot of dough out of a being a politician. I gave up dough to be a politician. I'm sure that [former President] Ronald Reagan gave up dough to be a politician. ... [Trump]'s onto something, because secretly everybody's getting tired of political correctness, kissing up. That's the kiss-ass generation we're in right now. We're really in a p-ssy generation.
  • I will not be voting for Donald Trump in the primary. I take my conservatism seriously, and I also take Saint Paul seriously. In setting out the qualifications for overseers, or bishops, Saint Paul admonished Timothy... We should not put a new conservative in charge of conservatism or the country, so that he does not become puffed up with conceit and fall into condemnation. Republicans have wandered in the wilderness already by letting leaders define conservatism in their own image. Donald Trump needs more time and more testing of his new conservative convictions.
  • Hitler is not Hillary Clinton either. The neo-nazis and white supremacists backing Donald Trump fetishize Hitler too. Trump dog whistles to them.

F

  • Trump is Hillary Clinton's Christmas gift wrapped up under a tree.
  • A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not of building bridges, is not Christian. This is not the gospel... I say only that this man is not Christian if he has said things like that. We must see if he said things in that way and I will give him the benefit of the doubt.
  • I was wrong. Weeks ago I said on a number of radio interviews that while I opposed Trump in the primary, I'd back him if he won the GOP nomination. I hadn't yet seen, or had been unwilling to believe, the full extent of his contempt for the truth, his fondness for far-left conspiracy theories, and his sheer malice. When I saw Trump in full, my decision was easy. Never Trump... I cannot abide the notion of voting for a man whose 'war strategy' is a child-killing war crime.
  • There is an Ivy League grad who has spent most of his life in Manhattan, where he is chauffeured around in limousines. He frequently brags to strangers about his massive personal wealth. In public statements, he has advocated government healthcare, a woman’s right to an abortion, an assault weapons ban, and paying off the national debt by forcing rich people to forfeit 14.25 percent of their total wealth. When the man married his third wife, he invited Bill and Hillary Clinton to the wedding, and he has given many thousands to their political campaigns and their foundation. He’s donated many thousands more that helped elect Democrats to the Senate and the House. And George W. Bush was “maybe the worst president in the history of this country,” the man said in 2008. “He was so incompetent, so bad, so evil.” On paper, this is not someone you’d expect to excel in the 2016 Republican Party primary. But Donald Trump is excelling. Thanks to his celebrity, a few epic flip-flops, and his willingness to pander to the most xenophobic element of the GOP’s base, the real-estate developer and reality-TV star is polling near the top of the field.

G

  • I remain a skeptic about Donald Trump. Trump fans look at us skeptics with incredulity that we could possibly object to their man... Yet I see people comparing Trump to Reagan. Donald Trump has been a conservative for about ten minutes.
  • As a party, we are better to risk losing without Donald Trump than trying to win with him. Enough already with Mister Trump.
  • Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke told radio show listeners that ‍'‍Jewish tribal nature‍'‍ is to blame for the media's harsh treatment of Trump and compared Jews to ‍'‍a pack of wild dogs.‍'‍ The white supremacist is a vocal supporter of Trump.

H

  • The conservative president we desperately need requires a paradoxical combination of boldness and restraint. The president will need to be bold in challenging the runaway power and reach of his own branch, against the fury of the bureaucracy itself, its client groups, and the media. This boldness is necessary to restore the restraint that a republican executive should have in our constitutional order. Trump exhibits no awareness of this supreme constitutional task.
  • He doesn't know the Constitution, history, law, political philosophy, nuclear strategy, diplomacy, defense, economics beyond real estate, or even, despite his low-level-mafioso comportment, how ordinary people live. But trumping all this is a greater flaw presented as his chief strength. Governing a great nation in parlous times is far more than making “deals.” Compared with the weight of the office he seeks, his deals are microscopic in scale, and as he faced far deeper complexities he would lead the country into continual Russian roulette. If despite his poor judgment he could engage talented advisers, as they presented him with contending and fateful options the buck would stop with a man who simply grasps anything that floats by. Following Obama's, a Trump presidency would be yet more adventure tourism for a formerly serious republic.

J

  • The problem is, I know Trump, so my optimism has been squashed like a baby bird ... Everything bad I had to say about him, I said to his face. ... I think he's very good, very compelling on that show [Celebrity Apprentice] ... I really like him because of his absence of filters. I really like the glimpse we get into the human heart we get when someone loses their filters ... "A genius is the one most like himself." In a really weird way, Donald Trump has achieved that. If he weren't running for president, you'd be seeing essays from me about how much I learned from Donald Trump and how much I loved being on the show ... I'm feeling so, so, so guilty, because I feel like, along with millions of other people, I played right into this. The cynicism of the Clintons, the careful, tightrope walk of all politicians, forced me, as an atheist, to get down on my knees and pray that someone would come along with some kind of authenticity. Well, someone called my bluff, goddamn it. ... The stuff [Trump] is saying on immigration, the stuff he saying on torture, the stuff he is saying on war, is absolutely unforgivable ... He is coming out directly against the Statue of Liberty. I'm a pure and utter peacenik. I want a president who sings the praises of people, sings the praises of peace and sings the praises of working together for a great country ... Abraham Lincoln wouldn't have laughed about waterboarding ... I want a president that is kinder, smarter and more measured than me. ... I disagree with Hillary Clinton on just about everything there is to disagree with a person about. If it comes down to Trump and Hillary, I will put a Hillary Clinton sticker on my fucking car. ... Someone who is paying attention can do the same thing that Trump is doing with hate, and do it with love, and become president ... That's kind of beautiful. There's nothing more optimistic than that. ... Donald Trump does, when it comes right down to it, fuck up everything ... He fucks up his casinos. He fucks up his buildings.... Maybe he'll fuck up his campaign before he fucks up the country.
  • The only reason I wouldn't go to some parts of New York is the real risk of meeting Donald Trump.

K

  • Donald Trump has asked why I did not speak at the Democratic convention. He said he would like to hear from me. Here is my answer to Donald Trump: Because without saying a thing, all the world, all America, felt my pain. I am a Gold Star mother. Whoever saw me felt me in their heart.
  • Donald Trump said I had nothing to say. I do. My son Humayun Khan, an Army captain, died 12 years ago in Iraq. He loved America, where we moved when he was 2 years old. He had volunteered to help his country, signing up for the ROTC at the University of Virginia. This was before the attack of Sept. 11, 2001. He didn’t have to do this, but he wanted to.
  • I cannot walk into a room with pictures of Humayun. For all these years, I haven’t been able to clean the closet where his things are — I had to ask my daughter-in-law to do it. Walking onto the convention stage, with a huge picture of my son behind me, I could hardly control myself. What mother could? Donald Trump has children whom he loves. Does he really need to wonder why I did not speak?
  • Donald Trump said that maybe I wasn’t allowed to say anything. That is not true. My husband asked me if I wanted to speak, but I told him I could not. My religion teaches me that all human beings are equal in God’s eyes. Husband and wife are part of each other; you should love and respect each other so you can take care of the family. When Donald Trump is talking about Islam, he is ignorant. If he studied the real Islam and Koran, all the ideas he gets from terrorists would change, because terrorism is a different religion. Donald Trump said he has made a lot of sacrifices. He doesn’t know what the word sacrifice means.
  • Ghazala Khan, mother of fallen U.S. Army Captain Humayun S. M. Khan. Ghazala Khan: Trump criticized my silence. He knows nothing about true sacrifice., The Washington Post (July 31, 2016)
  • Muslims are American, Muslims are citizens, Muslims participate in the well-being of this country as American citizens. We are proud American citizens. It’s the values of this country that brought us here, not our religion. Trump’s position on these issues do not represent those values.
    • Khizr M. Khan in an interview with Vocativ. [24] (December 08, 2015)
  • If it was up to Donald Trump, he never would have been in America. Donald Trump consistently smears the character of Muslims. He disrespects other minorities, women, judges, even his own party leadership. He vows to build walls and ban us from this country. Donald Trump, you are asking Americans to trust you with our future. Let me ask you: Have you even read the U.S. Constitution? I will gladly lend you my copy. In this document, look for the words "liberty" and "equal protection of law." Have you ever been to Arlington Cemetery? Go look at the graves of the brave patriots who died defending America — you will see all faiths, genders, and ethnicities. You have sacrificed nothing and no one. We can't solve our problems by building walls and sowing division. We are Stronger Together.
  • His policies, his practices, do not reflect that he has any understanding of the basic, fundamental constitutional principles of this country, what makes this country exceptional, what makes this country exceptional in the history of the mankind. There are principles of equal dignity, principle of liberty. He talks about excluding people, disrespecting judges, the entire judicial system, immigrants, Muslim immigrants. These are divisive rhetoric that is totally against the basic constitutional principle. If you read the Constitution, you will either deliberately would be violating those principles or you have not read. That is why I have watched whole ear and rest of the world has watched, and the love and affection and support that we have received after my statement, at every corner of the street, at every place. The affection, the support, the love that I have received, that we continue to receive is a testament that he is talking about ignorance. He is not fully aware of these principles.
  • Two things are absolutely necessary in any leader or any person that aspires, wishes, to be a leader. That is moral compass and second is empathy. This candidate is void of both traits that are necessary for the stewardship of this country.
  • I do not believe his whole year-long rhetoric, division, excluding people, talking about them derogatorily, has prepared him. He promised to the Republican leadership that he will change his manner, he will not be as ignorant as he had been. But he had continued. Those two traits of moral compass and empathy are absolutely necessary for the leader of a free world leader of nation like United States.
  • This candidate for presidency to not be aware of the respect of a gold star mother standing there, and he had to take that shot at her, this is height of ignorance. This is why I showed him that Constitution. Had he read that, he would know what status a gold star mother holds in that nation. This country holds such a person in the highest regard. And he has no knowledge, no awareness. That is height of his ignorance. She is ill. She had high blood pressure. People that know her, looked at her face, and she said, "I may fall off the stage." And I told her that, you have to assemble yourself and stand for the beauty of this tribute that is being paid. This person is total incapable of empathy. I want his family to counsel him, teach him some empathy. He will be a better person if he could become -- but he is a black soul. And this is totally unfit for the leadership of this beautiful country, the love and affection that we have received affirms that our beliefs, our experience in this country had been correct and positive. The world is receiving us like we have never seen. They have seen the blackness of his character, of his soul, that he is void of recognizing, empathizing with people.
    • Khizr M. Khan, on an interview with CNN about Donald Trump saying that Khan’s wife didn’t speak because she was forbidden. [26] (July 31, 2016)
  • I have exactly the same rights as he does. He had been abusing, disrespecting women, judges, all decent Americans. He had been so abusive of them. I exercise exactly the same rights. That, again, proves his ignorance. He wants to have one set of rights for himself, and he wants to have another set of rights for others. No, somebody should tell him that there is equal dignity, equal protection of law in this country. That is why that Constitution came to play. I keep that in my pocket, because I cherish this document. I wish somebody would read it to him. Certain fundamental values that enshrine in this document.
  • Donald Trump needs to sit with his advisers and portray to this world that he is empathetic. You solve the problems with empathy, putting people together. There are bad people among us, but there are good people among us, as well. You gather good people to get rid of bad people, but you do not malign the whole religion -- the whole culture.
  • We are the solution to the dealing with the terrorism in the United States. Join hands with good Muslims. Only war is not the solution. It is one of the solutions. Communities coming together is the solution. We are as concerned as Donald Trump is about the safety of this country. We are testament to the goodness of this country. We need to stop fighting with one another, but we need a leader that will unite us, not disrespect, not by derogatory remarks. I feel bad about the discourse that this campaign -- this election campaign has taken. We need to join hands. We have a very serious problem of this for the safety of the citizens of this country. We are solution. Look, the treatment of Muslims in France and other places, there is much worse security issues than United States does.
  • A man comes to him, a veteran, so kindly, what a gracious man, hands him his Purple Heart. What he does, he deceives, thanks, puts in his pocket. Later on, pulls it out. I got this Purple Heart, so easy, I always wanted one. Donald Trump, you had the time, you did not serve. You know what he should have done? And listen to me and I want his surrogates to listen to me. You should have pinned that back to that veteran's chest. He wants to be the leader, commander in chief of this United States of America? That is the thoughtfulness? He should have put that Purple Heart back if he would have been sensible, he would have known what it takes to earn that Purple Heart.
  • What is important to me now is that end this back and forth, back and forth that had been lack of caliber on the other side. Just imagine and I want to indulge all of his surrogates, after we made the speech, if Donald Trump would have not taken that cheap shot at the gold star mother, we'd not be having these conversations, these discussions. Sometime for a candidate for a higher office has to have the capacity to bear with the criticism. If I had exercised my First Amendment rights as Mr. Trump does, as Donald Trump does, again and again and again, as he had been maligning Hillary Clinton, calling her names and other leaders, if he can exercise the freedom of his speech rights, so can I. But he is the candidate for the highest office, a much larger caliber is needed, tolerance, patience. When a person becomes Commander-in- Chief, president, you are president and Commander-in-Chief of everybody that has supported you and that has not supported you.
  • Lack of understanding, lack of factual correctness, it's just nothing but political vote pandering. They are trying to create this fear in people's mind. They have come up with this terms and these terminology that they continue to talk about without really knowing the facts about what they are talking. I want to put a footnote in front, I received information from where my website was, it is down now. This is the maliciousness and Donald Trump should say to his surrogates that no more, no more harm, no more ugliness. I received the call from the host of the website saying that we are receiving tremendous amount of hits and especially on certain pages of your website. I have a three-page small website and there is a risk that somebody will damage it, somebody may hack it. I asked them what do you suggest. They said under such circumstances, we normally keep it offline when this madness will go away, we will bring it back. I asked them to do that. To which I began to then receive e-mails and calls why your website is down, why your website is down. This is the ugliness of this discourse. There could be some civility in this discourse. It is a political discourse, of course. There could be some discussion of policy and all that instead of personal ugliness.
  • The Trump phenomenon is better understood as an amalgam of three different, largely pathological strains in American history and culture... The first and perhaps most obvious strain is hostility toward immigrants... In the 1850s, the American Party, labeled the 'Know-Nothings' by its opponents, accused Irish and German Catholics of being agents of the pope and a threat... Later in the century, white workers on the Pacific coast led a mass campaign against Chinese newcomers, whom they blamed for undercutting wages... Federal lawmakers affirmed their bigotry by excluding any Chinese laborers... In the 1920s, fears of Slavs, Jews, Italians, and others suspected of being hostile to America's white 'Nordic' heritage persuaded Congress to impose quotas that all but banned immigrants... Trump’s attacks on 'rapists and murderers' crossing the southern border and on potential Muslim terrorists jetting across the Atlantic belong to this long and ignominious tradition.
  • His vow to 'Make America Great Again' lacks any explanation of what or who made it so wonderful before. Searching his website for clues turns up no proposals that might credibly bring about a national revival, unless one believes that a simplified tax code and a stern crackdown on illegal immigration amount to a sufficient blueprint for major change.
  • The allure of Trump’s candidacy and the dread it provokes at home and abroad stem from the same impulses, which run deep in U.S. political culture. A rich man whose name is familiar to everyone bashes people whom many citizens either fear or mistrust and makes vague promises to fix whatever ails the nation. And he does all this with a smirk, a threat, and yet also with a yearning for respect, even from those he routinely assaults in speeches. Trump probably will not be elected president, and it would be a disaster if he was. But his act is hardly as novel as he, and many of his fans and his critics, believe. After he leaves the stage, another wealthy performer with a talent for bombast and no political record to defend may well take his place.
  • Trump is no true conservative. He's not even a reactionary in the best sense of the word. He's a self-aggrandizing opportunist. His policies go no further than his catchphrase, 'you're fired'. Listening to his first television ad is like a preview for a bad movie; an empty supercut of the highlights, or lowlights, without the plot being revealed because it's so thin. Trump is no everyman. He built his empire with $100 million from his wealthy father. Far from born into working or middle class, Trump never struggled a day in his life except by his own failings in business and the resulting repeated bankruptcies. His privileged background enabled him to make money off money; not exactly high on the hierarchy of middle-class values. As for being incorruptible, Trump gave big to politicians. He admitted that was meant to buy favors. His policy positions are similarly ephemeral; he supported the Big Government policies of Democrats and slippery values of the Clintons when it suited him. Steadfast, he is not.
  • Donald Trump is convincingly playing the role of a pandering demagogue. He seeks to stir up a passionate reaction that serves the purposes of his ambition. America’s founders repeatedly warned against such demagoguery, because it sets people up for tyranny. Given his background, it's advisable to assume Donald Trump is being used by the enemies of rightful liberty to lead otherwise sincerely conservative people down a blind canyon into the withering fire of their elitist foes... Given this track record, before following Trump’s lead, shouldn’t people sincerely anxious to restore America’s constitutional liberty carefully examine the nature of his purported advocacy? With much fanfare, Trump is being attacked by his erstwhile elitist faction buddies. But has he attacked them for treacherous betrayal of the security and sovereignty of the American people?
  • If instead of having ten fingers, I had ten combs for fingers, I'd love to meet Donald Trump, just so I could run my fingers through his hair.
    • Jarod Kintz (18 May 2011), This Book is Not For Sale 
  • Isn’t Donald Trump the very epitome of vulgarity? In sum... Isn't Trumpism a two-bit Caesarism of a kind that American conservatives have always disdained? Isn’t the task of conservatives today to stand athwart Trumpism, yelling Stop?

L

  • Sadism has even found a prominent position in popular culture.Many prime-time television series now owe their staying power to the sadistic impulses they exploit on the tube. Audience members find tremendous enjoyment in viewing horrified contestants who devour worms and insects on NBC’s Fear Factor; Donald Trump who exclaims without nuance, “You’re fired” on his wildly popular series, The Apprentice...
    • Jack Levin and James Alan Fox, "Normalcy in Behavioral Characteristics of the Sadistic Serial Killer", Chapter 1 in Serial Murder and the Psychology of Violent Crimes, edited by Richard N. Kocsis, 2008 Humana Press; p. 12-13
  • Donald Trump is no conservative. That’s not a crime, it’s just a reason to vote against him. Many fine people are not conservatives. But the reason Trump’s candidacy should worry the Right runs much deeper than that. He poses a direct challenge to conservatism, because he embodies the empty promise of managerial leadership outside of politics.
  • Let Trump be Trump
    • Slogan introduced by Corey Lewandowski, who was Trump's campaign manager until June 2016.
  • We have now arrived at a point where what is being spouted by Donald Trump, and others, amounts to a shallow, vulgar, uncompassionate conservatism. Sadly, to many Republicans, Bush is now a punchline, and Trump is the fad of the moment.
  • I know Donald Trump. He’s been a frequent guest on my radio and television programs, and I introduced him at the Conservative Political Action Conference in 2015. He has always been amiable and complimentary. I genuinely like him. But not as my presidential pick.
  • While Trump’s appeal to various groups may be understandable, he makes a terrible champion for Republicans, and especially for conservatives. By the standards we typically use to evaluate candidates — their records, their views, their popularity with the general public, their experience, their temperament, their character — Trump should be dismissed out of hand. No candidate is perfect, but large numbers of conservatives have never before supported any candidate so obviously deficient in all of these respects. That Trump has a long history of liberal positions that extends even into the fairly recent past should not by itself be disqualifying. Conservatism has always welcomed converts. But conservatives have also expected some demonstrated commitment to their principles, some action that advanced their causes, before seeking to elevate a convert to high office. When Mitt Romney ran for the Senate in 1994, for example, he tried to distance himself from Reagan-era conservatism. He later moved right. But even on his least conservative day, Romney was arguing for a smaller government and lower taxes (and for an end to Ted Kennedy’s career). Trump, by contrast, has done essentially nothing for any conservative cause prior to deciding to run for the Republican presidential nomination.

M

  • Donald Trump, for all of his bluster, is at least authentically stupid... All these other guys are clown posers. Trump is the genuine article. And, God help me, I think I’d rather have him sitting in the Oval Office, getting stupidly out-maneuvered by the politicians under him, than bringing in a guy like Carson who is willing to shred every last bit of his intellectual credibility in order to lord over a citizenry he doesn’t seem to have much respect for.
  • New Rule: Whenever you think the Tea Party can't get any dumber, they get dumber. Now they're in love with Donald Trump. Because nothing says "We're serious about fiscal responsibility" quite like a billionaire whose corporations have filed for bankruptcy three times.
    • Bill Maher (2011), The New New Rules: A Funny Look At How Everybody But Me Has Their Head Up Their Ass, New York: Blue Rider Press, ISBN 978-0399158414 
  • Here's the thing about Donald Trump: He never apologizes. He's never wrong, no matter what crazy thing he says. He's totally— he's the white Kanye. And they are gonna love him. For a party whose base adores belligerence, this is the guy.
  • In recent days, Donald Trump disparaged a fallen soldier's parents. He has suggested that the likes of their son should not be allowed in the United States — to say nothing of entering its service. I cannot emphasize enough how deeply I disagree with Mr. Trump's statement. I hope Americans understand that the remarks do not represent the views of our Republican Party, its officers, or candidates.
  • I claim no moral superiority over Donald Trump. I have a long and well-known public and private record for which I will have to answer at the Final Judgment, and I repose my hope in the promise of mercy and the moderation of age. I challenge the nominee to set the example for what our country can and should represent.
  • Arizona is watching. It is time for Donald Trump to set the example for our country and the future of the Republican Party. While our Party has bestowed upon him the nomination, it is not accompanied by unfettered license to defame those who are the best among us.
  • The presidency’s most crucial duty is the protection of American national security. Yet, interviewed by Hugh Hewitt months into his campaign, Donald Trump did not know the key leaders of the global jihad. The man who would be commander-in-chief was unfamiliar with Hassan Nasrallah, the Hezbollah leader who has been murdering Americans for over 30 years; Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden’s longtime deputy who has quite notoriously commanded al-Qaeda since the network’s leader was killed by U.S. forces in 2011; and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, self-proclaimed caliph of the Islamic State (ISIS) and a jihadist so globally notorious that many teenagers are aware of him. Of course a man who wants to be president should make it his business to know such things.
  • Donald Trump is no conservative. He’s a populist whose theme is: Our government is broken, and I’ll fix it. He’s right on point one: Both parties have failed to lead. Obama and congressional Democrats manipulate the levers of power to push America farther toward European socialism; Republicans promise free-market alternatives but end up caving in to pressure or carrying water for the GOP’s own big-government special interests. The American people have signaled in recent elections that they’ve had enough of business as usual, and now they want to clean house. Yet Trump is no better than what we already have. He’ll say anything to get a vote but give us more of the same if he gets into office. Trump beguiles us, defies the politically correct media, and bullies anyone who points out that the emperor has no clothes. None of that makes him a conservative who cherishes liberty... For decades, Trump has argued for big government.
  • Trump is unexpectedly increasing my enthusiasm for Hillary. What he is saying is not based on facts: it’s based on immaturity, bad judgment and ignorance, and I think it's going to be hard for people in uniform who are thoughtful about this, to vote for him.
  • Trump's brawling, blustery, mean-spirited public persona serves to associate conservatives with all the negative stereotypes that liberals have for decades attached to their opponents on the right. According to conventional caricature, conservatives are selfish, greedy, materialistic, bullying, misogynistic, angry, and intolerant. They are, we’re told, privileged and pampered elitists who revel in the advantages of inherited wealth while displaying only cruel contempt for the less fortunate and the less powerful. The Left tried to smear Ronald Reagan in such terms but failed miserably because he displayed none of the stereotypical traits... Trump is the living, breathing, bellowing personification of all the nasty characteristics Democrats routinely ascribe to Republicans.
  • There are two tactical approaches for candidates seeking their party’s nomination in election campaigns. One is to strongly debate the issues and firmly advocate your positions, but to avoid personal attacks on your opponents or needless divisiveness. The other is to vigorously attack your fellow candidates, disparaging them personally and seeking to raise yourself up by dragging them down. Ronald Reagan was famous for epitomizing the former path. Donald Trump, unfortunately, has chosen to follow the latter course... At a time when the nation is suffering under one of the most divisive and incompetent presidents in history, our people need positive, unifying leadership, not negative, destructive political rhetoric.
  • Trump owes less to Willkie’s tradition than to Benito Mussolini’s, and not only because of the superficial: Trump’s chin-out toughness, sweeping right-hand gestures and talk of his “huge” successes and his “stupid” opponents all evoke the Italian dictator’s style. Monday’s breathtaking announcement that he would block all Muslims from entering the United States has many pointing out the obvious fascist overtones... Trump uses many of the fascist’s tools: a contempt for facts, spreading a pervasive sense of fear and overwhelming crisis, portraying his backers as victims, assigning blame to foreign or alien actors and suggesting only his powerful personality can transcend the crisis. He endorsed the violence done to a dissenter at one of his rallies, and he now floats the idea of making entry to the United States contingent on religion.
  • Trump's anti-Jeb retweets now include one from a Nazi's account and another calling Jeb a Nazi.
    • Tim Miller, Twitter (January 2016).
  • The three primary goals of religious conservatives: to protect all human life, including that of the unborn; to reinforce the sanctity of marriage and the family; and to conserve the religious freedom of all persons. All three goals would be in jeopardy under a Trump presidency. Yes, Trump says that he is pro-life now, despite having supported partial-birth abortion in the past. The problem is not whether he can check a box. Pro-life voters expect leaders to have a coherent vision of human dignity and to be able to defend against assaults on human life in the future—some of which may be unimaginable today and will present themselves only as new technologies develop.
  • Trump’s proposal would assure the enmity of all Muslims, including those whose support we need if we are to prevail. Even assuming an infallible way to identify who is Muslim, the proposal is both under- and over-inclusive. It is under-inclusive because it does not address potential terrorists who have U.S. passports or residence permits, or are already here, or may threaten us abroad; it is over-inclusive because it bars the huge majority of Muslims who are not potential terrorists. Trump says he would order the military to kill the families of terrorists. That would be a direct violation of the most basic laws of armed conflict, which require that deadly force be used only when required by military necessity, under circumstances that allow distinction between military and civilian targets, and when incidental damage to non-military targets is proportional to the military advantage gained. A military that adhered to the laws of armed conflict would necessarily disobey such an order; if it followed the order, both the person who gave it and those who followed it would be subject to prosecution for war crimes.

N

  • I love Donald, and he would make a great president. Number one, he tells the truth. Number two, he's been where most of these guys want to be, in terms of riding on his own plane. He doesn't have to worry about what hotels he stays in, he doesn't have to worry about how his family gets to Hawaii, so on and so forth. I could give you so many reasons. But most of all, most important I think for Mr. Trump, is he tells it like it is. Look, we can talk about these radicals all we want, but it's my opinion, and I heard [Trump] say this too: They're only going to be as radical as we let them be.
  • When Trump came for the Mexicans, I did not speak out, as I was not a Mexican. When he came for the Muslims, I did not speak out, as I was not a Muslim. Then he came for me.

O

  • We’ve got a debate inside the other party that is fantasy and schoolyard taunts and selling stuff like it’s the Home Shopping Network. And then you’ve got the Republican establishment -- they’re very exercised: We’re shocked that somebody would be saying these things. We’re shocked that somebody is fanning anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-Muslim sentiment. We’re shocked! We’re shocked that somebody could be loose with the facts. Or distort someone’s record -- shocked... This is the guy, remember, who was sure that I was born in Kenya. Who just wouldn’t let it go. And all this same Republican establishment, they weren’t saying nothing. As long as it was directed at me, they were fine with it. They thought it was a hoot. Wanted to get his endorsement... What is happening in this primary is just a distillation of what’s been happening inside their party for more than a decade. I mean, the reason that many of their voters are responding is because this is what’s been fed through the messages they’ve been sending for a long time -- that you just make flat assertions that don’t comport with the facts. That you just deny the evidence of science. That compromise is a betrayal. That the other side isn’t simply wrong, or we just disagree, we want to take a different approach, but the other side is destroying the country, or treasonous. I mean, that’s - look it up. That’s what they’ve been saying. So they can’t be surprised when somebody suddenly looks and says, you know what, I can do that even better. I can make stuff up better than that. I can be more outrageous than that. I can insult people even better than that. I can be even more uncivil.
  • Let's take a page from Donald Trump's book and ignore political correctness for a moment. If you support Trump, you support his sexist, bigoted and racist views. There are no ifs, ands or buts about it, and this is especially true for GOP party leaders, elected officials and even community leaders. Some have said things such as, 'I don't like Trump's history of demeaning women, but I think he will be good for the economy'. Sorry, you don't get a pass because you like one of his policy proposals. It's akin to saying, 'I supported Hitler for his tax plan'. And no, I'm absolutely not comparing Trump to Hitler. But Anne Frank's 86-year-old stepsister, Eva Schloss, who survived Auschwitz, did just that a few weeks ago, telling Newsweek that Trump 'is acting like another Hitler by inciting racism'.
  • This man just can't be president. They've got this button — this briefcase. He's going to find it.

P

  • We continue to give voice to the belief of so many Republicans that Trump is not a conservative, does not represent the values of the Republican Party, cannot beat Hillary Clinton, and is simply unfit to be president of the United States... We will continue to educate voters about Trump until he, or another candidate, wins the support of a majority of delegates to the Convention.
  • With Donald Trump as the presumptive presidential nominee, we are witnessing a populist hijacking of one of the United States' great political parties... [R]ooted in ignorance, prejudice, fear and isolationism... This troubles me deeply as a Republican, but it troubles me even more as an American... Enough is enough... It's time to put country before party and say it together: Never Trump.
  • Trump has made a living out of preying on and bullying society’s most vulnerable, with the help of government. He isn’t an outsider, but rather an unelected politician of the worst kind. He admits that he’s bought off elected officials in order get his way and to openly abuse the system. The rabid defense he gets from some quarters is astonishing. Trump’s liberal positions aren’t in the distant past—he has openly promoted them on the campaign trail. Trump isn’t fighting for anyone but himself, which has been his pattern for decades. Conservatives have a serious decision. Do we truly believe in our long-held principles and insist that politicians have records demonstrating fealty to them? Or are we willing to throw these principles away because an entertainer who has been a liberal Democrat for decades simply says some of the right things?
  • Donald Trump and I believe that Captain Humayun Khan is an American hero and his family, like all Gold Star families, should be cherished by every American. Captain Khan gave his life to defend our country in the global war on terror. Due to the disastrous decisions of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, a once stable Middle East has now been overrun by ISIS. This must not stand. By suspending immigration from countries that have been compromised by terrorism, rebuilding our military, defeating ISIS at its source and projecting strength on the global stage, we will reduce the likelihood that other American families will face the enduring heartbreak of the Khan family.
  • I wrote the scripture reference, which is 2 Corinthians 3:17, which is how it's written, I'm guilty as charged. That's exactly what I did. I sent him a couple of suggestions of some things he could talk about as a connection point.
    It shows that he's not familiar with Bible, Donald Trump's a very interesting guy. There are some things about him that I find fascinating, that I like about him, as well as other evangelicals.
    • Tony Perkins, in an interview with CNN's Erin Burnett on OutFront, about Trump saying "two Corinthians" instead of "Second Corinthians" during a speech at Liberty University. [28] (January 22, 2016)
  • He offers a barking carnival act that can be best described as Trumpism: a toxic mix of demagoguery, mean-spiritedness and nonsense that will lead the Republican Party to perdition if pursued... Let no one be mistaken: Donald Trump's candidacy is a cancer on conservatism, and it must be clearly diagnosed, excised and discarded. ... Donald Trump is the modern-day incarnation of the Know Nothing movement.
  • Trump is an unbalanced force. He is the politicized American id. Should his election results match his polls, he would be, unquestionably, the worst thing to happen to the American common culture in my lifetime.
  • Donald Trump was so awful, so horrible, so disgusting... His lies, his distortions, his deceits, and his libels thicker and fouler than they've yet been... Since he began running he has demonstrated he knows things we don’t know about the emotions roiling in the American underbelly. Maybe he knows this too... He interrupts, he yells over them, he insults them, he goes over his allotted time, and the whirlwind he creates turns into a vacuum that sucks all the air out of the place and right into his attention-whore lungs.

R

  • You may not agree with his authenticity but he's authentic. People like that. He speaks his mind, which reminds me of me once in a while. I think that's something that's refreshing.
  • He presents himself as a Strong Man who promises to knock heads and make things right again. In this, he has a lot more in common with South American populist demagogues than with our tradition of political leaders... The middle-class consensus in America has collapsed. This is the most important political and social earthquake since World War II. The conservative movement’s leadership isn’t up to the challenge, and a good number of voters are willing to gamble on Trump’s bluster. Bad bet. Our nation’s solidarity is being tested. It will only make things worse if we go Trumpster diving.
  • He is a successful man for a reason. He's actually created a dialogue [and] forced conversations. He has gotten more people engaged in the political process and current events and what's going on in the world than anyone else has for a long time. More people are engaged than ever before. I think whether you agree with Donald or you don't agree with Donald, he starts conversations. That's what democracy is — you've got to get people engaged to make this country run.
  • We know Hillary will be a terrible, hard-core ideological leftist; there is probably a 75 percent chance that Trump would govern less badly than Hillary. There is also a 25 percent chance that Trump would do something so catastrophically awful that he seriously harmed the country in ways Hillary wouldn’t dream of. His trade policy alone could cast America back into recession; his foreign policy is a shambles. Any talk of him listening to advisers must be based on conjecture — so far, Trump hasn’t just been a bull in a china shop, he’s been a tank in a glass factory.
  • I think it's time for a war president. Republicans, conservatives and Christians, and capitalist, any who love capitalism, any who loves America, patriots, I think we need a war president and I think God sent us someone named Donald Trump, I think he's perfect for this election. We needed someone who is a bit coarse and foul-mouthed and vicious and fights with a gun in a gunfight, not with a knife in a gun fight.
  • If Donald Trump's plans were ever implemented, the country would sink into a prolonged recession. ... As Donald Trump has offered very few specific economic plans, what little he has said is enough to know that he would be very bad for American workers and for American families.
  • Isn't he a huge business success that knows what he's talking about? No he isn't. His bankruptcies have crushed small businesses and the men and women who worked for them. He inherited his business, he didn't create it. And what ever happened to Trump Airlines? How about Trump University? And then there's Trump Magazine and Trump Vodka and Trump Steaks, and Trump Mortgage? A business genius he is not.
  • Trump's bombast is already alarming our allies and fueling the enmity of our enemies.
  • Donald Trump tells us that he is very, very smart. I'm afraid that when it comes to foreign policy he is very, very not smart.
  • Donald Trump lacks the temperament of be president. After all, this is an individual who mocked a disabled reporter, who attributed a reporter's questions to her menstrual cycle, who mocked a brilliant rival who happened to be a woman due to her appearance, who bragged about his marital affairs, and who laces his public speeches with vulgarity.
  • Donald Trump says he admires Vladimir Putin, while has called George W. Bush a liar. That is a twisted example of evil trumping good.
  • Dishonesty is Trump's hallmark: He claimed that he had spoken clearly and boldly against going into Iraq. Wrong, he spoke in favor of invading Iraq. He said he saw thousands of Muslims in New Jersey celebrating 9/11. Wrong, he saw no such thing. He imagined it. His is not the temperament of a stable, thoughtful leader. His imagination must not be married to real power.
  • We have long referred to him as "The Donald." He is the only person in America to whom we have added an article before his name. It wasn't because he had attributes we admired.
  • Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud. His promises are as worthless as a degree from Trump University. He's playing the American public for suckers: He gets a free ride to the White House and all we get is a lousy hat. His domestic policies would lead to recession. His foreign policies would make America and the world less safe. He has neither the temperament nor the judgment to be president. And his personal qualities would mean that America would cease to be a shining city on a hill.

S

  • I think that the American people are never going to elect a president who insults Mexicans, who insults Muslims, who insults women, who insults African-Americans. And let us not forget that several years ago, Trump was in the middle of the so- called birther movement, trying to delegitimize the president of the United States of America. You know, I find it very interesting, Karen, my dad was born in Poland. I know a little bit about the immigrant experience. Nobody has ever asked me for my birth certificate. Maybe it has something to do with the color of my skin.
  • In this country, immigration reform is a very hot debate. It’s divided the country. But I would hope very much, that as we have that debate, we do not, as Donald Trump and others have done, resort to racism and xenophobia and bigotry. This idea of suddenly, one day or maybe a night, rounding up 11 million people and taking them outside of this country is a vulgar, absurd idea that I would hope very few people in America support.
  • When you have Republican candidates for president and in Congress telling you that climate change is a hoax, which is Donald Trump and other candidates’ position, what they are really saying is, we don’t have the guts to take on the fossil fuel industry. ... You know what happens to that Republican who listens to the scientists? On that day, that Republican loses his campaign funding from the Koch brothers and the fossil fuel industry.
  • It's impossible to ignore the conspicuous regularity with which Donald Trump issues intentionally provocative, news-cycle-dominating comments. It’s equally difficult to look past their timing, which tends to often coincide with scandalous revelations that reflect poorly on Democratic politicians... This is far from an isolated event; it’s a pattern. First, a Democrat becomes embroiled in a controversy or an external event reflects negatively on the party. Donald Trump then makes an outrageous comment calculated for maximum political impact. Like clockwork, the press abandons their critical examination of Democratic policies, and Republicans are back at each other’s throats. This is a measurable phenomenon. In just the last six months, there are almost too many examples to count.
  • He does look like he's the last hope [for America]. We don't hear anybody saying what he's saying. In fact, most of the people who ought to be lining up with him are attacking him. They're probably jealous of the amount of press coverage he gets. But the reason he gets so much press coverage is the grassroots are fed up with people who are running things, and they do want a change. They do want people to stand up for America. It really resonates when he says he wants to 'Make America Great Again.'
  • If Donald Trump becomes the next president of the U.S. it would be a complete disaster... I think he is acting like another Hitler by inciting racism... I remember how upset the world was when the Berlin Wall was erected in 1961 and now everybody is building walls again to keep people out. It's absurd.
  • I put lipstick on a pig. I feel a deep sense of remorse that I contributed to presenting Trump in a way that brought him wider attention and made him more appealing than he is. I genuinely believe that if Trump wins and gets the nuclear codes, there is an excellent possibility it will lead to the end of civilization.
  • Trump wants to institute a ban that will keep all Muslims out of America... Of course such a ban will not come to pass. The Constitution forbids it. Republicans and Democrats oppose it. Even Israeli politicians, who have a far longer history of confronting terrorism, have chided him for equating Islam with terrorism... Republicans support Trump because he appears to be authentic, isn’t afraid to tell it like it is and is not worried about being politically correct. I see the opposite. He isn’t authentic, he is cynically opportunistic.
  • We have predicted nine of his last eight stumbles, and they have yet to all materialize... I think it’s more than childish and juvenile and adolescent. There is something creepy about this, his attitude toward women. Take Megyn Kelly of FOX News, who he just has an absolute obsession about, and he’s constantly writing about, you know, how awful she is and no talent and this and that. It’s an obsession. And I don’t know if he’s just never had women — strong, independent women in his life who have spoken to him. It doesn’t seem that way. His daughter... But there is something really creepy about this that’s beyond locker room. It’s almost like a stalker, and I just — I thought this was — it actually did the impossible. It made Ted Cruz look like an honorable, tough guy on the right side of an issue.
  • Let me put this in language Donald Trump understands... You're a loser. You’re a third-rate politician, who clearly doesn't understand issues, and is so scared of Megyn Kelly exposing it, that you're looking to use veterans to protect you from facing her questions.
  • His stance on Muslim immigration, which he would cease until the terror threat is brought under control, is racist. Trump does not care about the things that regular conservatives have dedicated their lives to fighting for: controls on abortion, protection of marriage, reform of the healthcare market. His inclination towards expanding the government and putting it on the side of his people isn't terribly constitutional. And his claim in a debate that the purpose of conservatism is to conserve wealth is spiritually impoverished. The Republican Party needs to stop him; and sooner rather than later.
  • In the past few months, a Republican front-runner has emerged who has praised Planned Parenthood, pushed elements of a big spending agenda and questioned the neoconservative agenda. There's a case for saying that some or all of these were in need of analysis and revision. But Trump has taken a wrecking ball to the American conservative movement that threatens to leave it in pieces. It's a revolutionary moment and, unless I'm very much mistaken, conservatives are not supposed to be the revolutionaries. They exist to bring order to chaos, rationality over passion. Trump seems to exist to "mix things up." He is "nasty" and "fun" - although more the former than the latter. His enthusiasm for torture is unpleasant to say the least.
  • In a country with more than 300 million people, it is remarkable how obsessed the media have become with just one—Donald Trump. What is even more remarkable is that, after seven years of repeated disasters, both domestically and internationally, under a glib egomaniac in the White House, so many potential voters are turning to another glib egomaniac to be his successor.
  • I had some friends over for dinner and we were of course talking about Trump. People are saying, we don't think Trump's going to be the nominee. I said, I'll tell you what: I think he is. I'll tell you why I think he's going to be the nominee: he's proven that no matter what he says, people dig him. ... I think more or less, people are super tired of politicians, meaning that they like the idea of a successful businessman running the country who might actually be able to get shit done.
  • But at some point—if you understand, and this is not just ideological, it's not just the fact that he's abandoned one position after another or that he has the penchant for internet hoaxes or conspiracy theories. I mean a week ago tonight, remember, he was peddling the notion that Ted Cruz's dad had something do with the JFK assassination. So there are people who say that just because of party loyalty we're supposed to forget all of that. I just don't buy that. Because I've cautioned my fellow conservatives, you embrace Donald Trump, you embrace it all. You embrace every slur, every insult, every outrage, every falsehood. You're going to spend the next six months defending, rationalizing, evading all that. And afterwards, you come back to women, to minorities, to young people and say, that wasn't us. That's not what we're about. The reality is, if you support him to be president of the United States, that is who you are, and you own it.

T

  • All of Trump's constant bragging about his money and his poll numbers and his virility speak directly to this surprisingly vibrant middle American fantasy about a castrated white America struggling to re-grow its mojo... They're eating up Trump's Make America Great Again theme, which one supporter hilariously explained must be his true goal, because 'it's on his hat', because it's a fantasy tale of a once-great culture ruined by an invasion of mongrel criminals.
  • Trump has given more than $100,000 to the Democratic House and Senate campaign committees. In 2006, the year Democrats took back Congress, he gave $25,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee... Trump wanted Nancy Pelosi to be speaker of the House and Harry Reid the Senate majority leader. Which is not surprising. At the time he made those contributions, from August 2001 to September 2009, Trump was a registered Democrat... Trump continued to support Reid as majority leader in the election immediately after the passage of Obamacare... With all his past support for Democrats, Trump ought to be asked: Will he commit to supporting whoever is the eventual Republican nominee? After all, why should he be welcomed into the Republican fold if he is going to end up throwing his support to Clinton? The fact is, Trump isn’t a Democrat or a Republican; he is an opportunist... He’s less a candidate than a brand. And running for president is great for the Trump brand, an opportunity for Donald Trump to take the national stage and tell us all how great he is. He pretty much admitted as much during his announcement speech, when he pointed out that some questioned whether he was really as successful as he claimed.
  • I wanted to like Donald Trump, much as I wanted to like Richard Nixon’s vice president, Spiro Agnew. Both men have said many things with which I agree. Agnew attacked media bias, and Trump attacks the establishment’s failure to “make America great,” as he nonspecifically puts it. But a proper diagnosis does not equal competence in administering a cure. If I developed a brain tumor, I would want Ben Carson to operate on me, but do I want Donald Trump “operating” on America? Everyone has a temperament. The dictionary defines it as “the combination of mental, physical, and emotional traits of a person.” Would Trump’s “combination” make him a good president? I think not.
  • Trump has changed his position on Syria twice and even reversed himself once, but he still can't find the right answer... He said he thinks the Middle East would be better off if Saddam Hussein and Moammar Qaddafi were still in charge of Iraq and Libya, and that Syria will be better off if Bashar al-Assad remains in power for the same reason... He sounds like a random guy in a bar who’s thinking out loud after reading a couple of newspaper articles that are fuzzy on the details. We all run into people like that once a while, people who don’t really know anything about the Middle East but think they’ve got it all figured out anyway. He realizes it’s hard, though, and figures, hey, let the Russians deal with it instead.
  • I think he would be a great president... He is one of the most dynamic people in the world. He looks presidential, and he talks presidential, and he would make the changes he promises.
  • Trump's entire personal and professional history is Obama-esque. When it serves his interests, Trump lies. He has lied to business associates, employees, friends, spouses, and now to millions of prospective voters. Anyone who thinks that Trump will not lie to them, or that he will at least tell the truth about 'important things', immigration or ISIS or whatever, is deluding himself. When it becomes expedient for Trump to lie, he will.
  • Yeah! Hell, yeah... That shit is the real deal. Listen. I'm a black motherfucker from the poorest town in the country. I’ve been through a lot in life. And I know him. When I see him, he shakes my hand and respects my family. None of them—Barack, whoever—nobody else does that. They're gonna be who they are and disregard me, my family. So I'm voting for him. If I can get 20,000 people or more to vote for him, I'm gonna do it.

V

  • People no longer trust the career politicians, no longer trust the status-quo because they screwed it up so bad. I loved listening to you talk to those other talking heads about 'Donald Trump could be the destruction of the whole Republican party.' I throw my hands up in the air and cheer. I hope it happens! And I hope Bernie Sanders is the destruction of the Democratic Party. It's time to break up the two party dictatorship.
  • When [Trump] decided to run for president, I know he did it with a true conviction to bring this country back to prosperity. He is the only one who can do it. No frills, no fuss, only candid truths. ... I pray all Americans who have seen and felt the meltdown of America with the Obama years, to please fight for Donald Trump.
  • We are all Gold Star Families, who have lost those we love the most in war. Ours is a sacrifice you will never know. Ours is a sacrifice we would never want you to know.
  • Your recent comments regarding the Khan family were repugnant, and personally offensive to us. When you question a mother's pain, by implying that her religion, not her grief, kept her from addressing an arena of people, you are attacking us. When you say your job building buildings is akin to our sacrifice, you are attacking our sacrifice. You are not just attacking us, you are cheapening the sacrifice made by those we lost. You are minimizing the risk our service members make for all of us. This goes beyond politics. It is about a sense of decency. That kind decency you mock as "political correctness."
    • VoteVets' Gold Star Family Members, open letter to Trump [31] (August 1, 2016)

W

  • Trump actually faces unique obstacles as he courts black voters. The mogul has a long history of using racially charged rhetoric and his real estate company was sued for allegedly discriminating against black renters in the 1970s. His stance on Muslims, which has drawn praise from white supremacists, could also prove problematic, since over 25 percent of American Muslims are black.
  • The cost of appearing with a bloviating ignoramus is obvious, it seems to me. Donald Trump is redundant evidence that if your net worth is high enough, your IQ can be very low and you can still intrude into American politics.
  • It has come to this. The GOP, formerly the party of Lincoln and ostensibly the party of liberty and limited government, is being defined by clamors for a mass roundup and deportation of millions of human beings. To will an end is to will the means for the end, so the Republican clamors are also for the requisite expansion of government’s size and coercive powers... Trump evidently plans to deport almost 10 percent of California’s workers, and 13 percent of that state’s K–12 students. He is, however, at his most Republican when he honors family values: He proposes to deport intact families, including children who are citizens... Trump proposes seizing money that illegal immigrants from Mexico try to send home. This might involve sacrificing mail privacy, but desperate times require desperate measures. He would vastly enlarge the federal government’s enforcement apparatus, but he who praises single-payer health care systems and favors vast eminent domain powers has never made a fetish of small government.
  • If Donald Trump were a Democratic mole placed in the Republican Party to disrupt things, how would his behavior be any different? I don't think it would be.

Z

  • Donald Trump would be an awesome GOP nominee if he was remotely conservative, suited to beat Hillary, or had the temperament of a good POTUS.
  • Could Donald Trump be a secret double-agent, sent by Democrats to destroy their party from within? Former Florida governor Jeb Bush, who has borne the brunt of more than a few Trump barbs, seems to think there's a possibility... He's belittling his Republican colleagues. He's pulling the party to the nativist right in direct conflict with the goal set by strategists in 2013 to appeal to a more ethnically diverse nation. And he's generally sucking up all the political oxygen, making it harder for other candidates to get their message out. All in all, many experts say he's making it much more difficult for a Republican to win the general election next fall. Maybe he's doing it on purpose... But as the saying goes, even paranoids have enemies. And, at least for the moment, there are some Republicans who see Donald Trump much more of an enemy than a friend.

See also

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  • Official website
  • Quotes from Trump Debates Over 150 quotations from 3 debates arranged by keywords: from Afghanistan to Obamacare to Wall. Covered debates: Aug 6, 2015 in Cleveland, OH; Feb 6, 2016 in Goffstown, NH and March 3, 2016 in Detroit, MI. Links in every quote take you to the exact point in the transcript in a popup window.
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