Fox News "On the Record with Greta Van Susteren"- Transcript: Trump: If I was a Democrat, I'd Have Secret Service Protection

Interview

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: Tonight, ON THE RECORD, Donald Trump is here. And he is threatening to boycott the next Republican presidential debate. Why?

Well, right now, Donald Trump goes ON THE RECORD from the Trump Tower.

Nice to talk to you, Donald.

DONALD TRUMP, GOP PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Hello, Greta.

VAN SUSTEREN: I understand that you don't like the rules that CNBC has set for its next G.O.P. debate. Are you seriously thinking that you would boycott it?

TRUMP: Well, the same thing is happening has happened with CNN. They sold the commercial so much and for so much money. It was going to be $4,000 for a 30 second commercial that ended up being 200,000 and 250,000. 250,000 for a 30 second commercial.

And same thing is happening now with CNBC. And what they are trying to do, they have sold out all their commercials and they want to increase it by an hour.

Now if you look at the debate even though it was pretty boring from last night or the other night with Hillary, and the group, that debate, it was a two hour deal. Now they want to make this an extra hour. And I think it's unfair to the viewers because it's too much, it's too much to watch and they are doing it because they want to make more money.

VAN SUSTEREN: So, does that mean if they are going to do three hours that you would say I'm out of here after two hours?

TRUMP: Well, I spoke to Ryans and I spoke to the RNC and so have other people, actually, and you know, they don't like the idea because it's unfair. It's unfair to the viewers. I don't care. I can stand for five hours. I can stand for 10 hours. But, it's unfair to the viewers. It's too long.

You know, the Democratic debate, if you look at it, that was two hours and it was too long. Everybody was bored at the end. They want to make this much longer than that.

VAN SUSTEREN: Right.

TRUMP: So I think it's really important that they make it a reasonable period of time.

VAN SUSTEREN: All right. Well, I think you are still in if it's three hours, but you want two hours is what I get out of that.

All right, now, do you think you should have secret service protection?

TRUMP: Well, that's what we agreed to. By the way, Greta, that's what we agreed to. You know, it was agreed to two hours and now all of a sudden, yesterday, they came up with this additional long period of time whatever it may be. But it was originally agreed that it was going to be two hour.

I mean, the networks are making a fortune off of this stuff. They never made money. They always lost money with it. Now they are making a fortune. I wonder why? But now they are making a fortune with it. So, you know, a little bit tough.

VAN SUSTEREN: But we'll see what happens. All right, should you have secret service protection now?

TRUMP: Well, we are getting the biggest crowds. You know, last night, we had 8,000 people in Virginia. We had 20,000 people in Dallas, Texas. We had 35,000 people in Mobile, Alabama, and 20,000 in Oklahoma. And I know this.

If I was a Democrat, they would have it, but it's really up to them. They know what they are doing and I assume they are doing the right thing.

(CROSSTALK)

VAN SUSTEREN: Are you asking for it?

TRUMP: I would hope they are doing the right thing.

VAN SUSTEREN: Have you ask for secret service?

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Well, I think it would be appropriate because, you know -- we have. We have been speaking with them about it. My people have been speaking to them about it and we will see what happens. But, again, when you have 20,000 people, that's a lot of people. And even if you have some really fantastic guys doing it and this case we have 10 people that are very strong people, when you have 20,000, it's pretty hard to protect, I would imagine.

VAN SUSTEREN: All right. Let me ask you a question now about foreign policy. I know that you know about the Doctors Without Borders hospital was bombed in Afghanistan and the Doctors Without Borders wants an international humanitarian fact-finding commission to investigate it.

If you were president, would you want this to happen, this organization to investigate it?

TRUMP: Well, look, it was a horrible mistake. And we made it. And it was just a horrible thing that took place. I have been watching that. And I think that's maybe the least of the problems. How does a thing like this happen? This is constantly happening with our country.

We don't have victories anymore. We bomb hospitals, instead of bombing targets. We're like the gang that can't shoot straight. I mean, nobody has ever seen anything like this. This is constantly happening with our country. So many bad things.

They bombed a hospital. We had a lot of people. You had patients being operated on, innocent patients being operated on. And it just never ends with our country now. We have to start winning. We have to start doing things properly.

VAN SUSTEREN: What do you think about President Obama's announcement today that he is going to keep troops in Afghanistan longer?

TRUMP: Well, I agree with that announcement because, frankly, if you look at what happened with Iraq, we should have never been in Iraq in the first place, but when we took the troops out, that was the end of that.

And now Iran is taking over Iraq as sure as you are sitting there. So I think that probably they have to do that. He is cutting it down to 5,000. Maybe he will leave 10,000. Not that I recommend this at all, but I think you have no choice at this moment because you already see the insurgents. They are already going in there because they all think we are leaving.

Probably you have to leave it. It's a shame to have to leave it. You know, at what point do we leave? At what point do we get out? But you probably have to leave. Otherwise, the same thing is going to happen as happened in Iraq.

VAN SUSTEREN: All right, Prime Minister Netanyahu is not happy with the United States at the suggestion that they are using excessive force in the latest round of problems in Israel.

What are you thinking about the United States' suggestion that it's excessive force by Israel?

TRUMP: Well, Israel is being hit from all sides. And, you know, if you look at this new deal, this horrible, one of the worst contracts ever negotiated, the Iran nuclear deal, I mean, how can Israel be happy with the United States?

And in the meantime, they are getting hit on in so many different ways. So I don't blame him for being unhappy with our president or the United States. We're not taking care of them. We are not doing what we are supposed to be doing. And, you know, excessive force. What's the excessive force? They are being hit from all sides and they are being hit very unfairly. And they have to do what they have to do.

VAN SUSTEREN: Last night, we had a guest here ON THE RECORD. His name is Eric Trump.

TRUMP: Yes.

VAN SUSTEREN: And I asked him growing up the son of Donald Trump. And here's what Eric said. Listen to what Eric said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERIC TRUMP, DONALD TRUMP'S SON: I think my best memories probably are we're walking construction sites with him. We go over these big buildings, his building. We followed him around. So I think he kind of taught us the art of the deal, you know, just by being with him. But, you know, we remember -- I remember building Lego sets in his office while he was negotiating great casino deals and other things. And, you know, it was a lot of fun.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAN SUSTEREN: Well, it wasn't teaching him to ride a bicycle, but apparently it was teaching him real estate. What do you think about that?

TRUMP: And how to drive tractors. At a young age, he could drive tractors.

Well, I have wonderful children. Eric has done such a great job. He helped us rebuild Doral along with Don and Ivanka and did a fantastic job in Miami. And he is actually now in charge of the great Turnberry in Scotland. I bought that a number of years ago and we are renovating Turnberry in Scotland, one of the great resorts in the world, where they have the British Open golf championship. And he has been absolutely amazing.

And I watched him last night. And I said I don't want to go in tonight because I cannot compete with that performance that he did last night. He was great. He looked great and he sounded great. He is very, very smart. And he has done a fantastic job.

VAN SUSTEREN: Donald, thank you, and I hope that we are looking forward to introducing your wife to the ON THE RECORD audience, as well as Ivanka to come here and your son, Don. So I hope you put a little pressure on them, will you?

TRUMP: Absolutely, Greta, I will.

VAN SUSTEREN: All right, thank you, Donald. Nice to see you.

TRUMP: Thank you very much.

VAN SUSTEREN: And this is an interesting surprise. CNBC, which is the host of the next G.O.P. debate, which Donald Trump said that he was not happy with the rules about. That they want to change the rules. They have now issued a statement and it says this.

"Our goal is to host the most substantive debate possible. Our practice in the past has been to forego opening statements to allow more time to address the critical issues that matter most to the American people. We started a dialogue yesterday with all the campaigns involved. We will certainly take the candidates' views on the format into consideration as we finalize the debate structure."

And my thought to this is stay tuned, we will see if Trump wins or CNBC on this one.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source