CNN "Erin Burnett OutFront"- Transcript: Interview with Donald Trump

Interview

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ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: And OUTFRONT now, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

And, Mr. Trump, thanks so much for being with me.

When you break that poll down, you are polling number two among Republicans in New Hampshire. Does that surprise you?

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (via telephone): Well, people like my message. They want to see the United States do well again. We are being ripped off by every -- I mean, we are just being ripped off by every country we do business with. And, Erin, it's very sad to see what's happening.

BURNETT: On the economy and on trade, in that poll, you do come out on top, by far. Easily, you come out on top, Donald. But only 8 percent of voters say you have the personal characteristics and qualities a president should have, and 7 percent say you have the best chance to win versus the Democratic nominee. Those numbers are pretty grim.

TRUMP: Well, I think really a lot of people haven't heard the message. They haven't seen me. The fact is I do get along very well with people. I've built things and done things all over the world. I've made tremendous amounts of money.

You know, I've had an interesting life and I wouldn't mind keeping it going the way it's going. But I'm looking at what's going on, whether it's our southern border that's being so horribly -- I mean, just horribly violated or whether it's our trade deals with other countries. It's very sad what's going on.

BURNETT: So the only person running ahead of you in that poll, the overall number is Jeb Bush, OK? He's ahead of you by a few percentage points. He's been asked a lot about you, Donald. And here is what he has recently said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS: Donald Trump.

JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Rich guy.

(LAUGHTER)

REPORTER: Hey, Governor, Donald Trump yesterday said a lot of things. One of the things he said was he'd build this really big wall along the Mexican border.

BUSH: Yes.

REPORTER: Is that something that sounds rational or feasible to you?

BUSH: No.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: I don't know if you've seen that laugh, a little clip from Jeb Bush, but it's a dismissive look on his face. I mean, frankly, he's pretty dismissive of you, Donald.

TRUMP: I don't think he's dismissive at all. I think he's doing a good act. And, frankly, he's weak on immigration, which is a terrible thing. You remember his statement, they come to the country for love, and that was derided by everybody. He's very weak on immigration. And you have to be strong or we're not going to have a country left. You have to be very strong at the border. And he's also in favor of Common Core, which is education for Washington, D.C. In other words, let the bureaucrats educate your children.

I don't think he's dismissive at all. I think he wants to put on the act like he's dismissive. But if you look at the poll numbers, he better be careful.

BURNETT: Now, on immigration in the poll, that was an area of weakness for you. You've been widely criticized, Donald, as you know, for offending immigrants in your announcement speech. I want to just play again exactly what you said in that speech. Here you are.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. They aren't sending you. They aren't sending you. They are sending people that have lots of problems. And they are bringing those problems with us.

They are bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Now, you've tried to clarify this statement in recent days, Donald. But I guess the question comes down to this: do you regret saying that specifically about rapists or do you stand by it?

TRUMP: No, not at all. Of course, it's not only Mexico. If you let that run a little bit longer, it talks about people coming from all over. They are coming from all over. They'll soon be coming and probably have already been coming from all over the world.

You're probably going to have people -- you're probably going to have terrorists coming from the Middle East. Somebody said, oh, we don't have terrorists. They don't even know, because they don't know who is coming.

So, we have this open border. It's a sieve, like water pouring through, people coming in by the hundreds of thousands. We have no idea who is coming in.

And it's not just Mexicans, and I have a great relationship with Mexico and Mexicans. I have an absolutely great relationship. But we're not just talking about Mexico.

Now, Mexico is very smart. You know, Mexico makes it impossible -- it's one of the hardest nations in the world to become a citizen of, OK? But people run through Mexico, they go through our border like nothing. They end up -- we don't know who these people are.

But all you have to do is you should do a show from the border. Talk to the border security. You'll see the kind of people coming. You'll see the kind of crime that's being committed, and we're taking these people.

And, by the way, just to finish on that -- it's common sense. They don't want these people so they send them to the United States because the United States is run by stupid people. We have stupid leadership, we have incompetent leadership that doesn't know what it's doing. So, we take them. And, certainly, we have killers and other problems coming over.

[19:35:03] We take them because other countries don't want them to. We're like a dumping ground. The United States, Erin, is like a dumping ground for the world's problems.

So, absolutely, I wouldn't change that.

BURNETT: So, you absolutely wouldn't change it and specifically when you said they are rapists and some, I assume, are good people. But you don't have any regrets about that word "rapists".

TRUMP: Well, some are. Some are good, some are rapists and some are killers. And we don't know what we're getting.

They aren't just coming from Mexico. They are coming from all over. So, certainly, you know that's true. And from a common sense standpoint, you know that's true.

BURNETT: Donald, today, as you know, Univision cut ties with Miss Universe, which you partly own. They cited your insulting remarks. And "The Washington Free Beacon", I don't know if you saw this. They actually took something from Instagram that a Univision executive and it's a picture.

Let me describe it to you. Your face is on the left. The Charleston shooter's picture is on the right. So, it's the two of you in a split screen and the caption is, quote/unquote, "no comments".

What do you say to that?

TRUMP: I think it's disgraceful. And, by the way, they have a huge legal liability. You know, we're going to be suing them anyway. When he put that up, he then took it down. He's got tremendous liability.

Univision is very upset and probably not so upset to me because when they called me today, they were so apologetic. They call me up this morning, they were so apologetic.

They don't have the right to cancel this contract. They are in default. They've already -- they signed it in January. It's a five- year deal. They have no termination rights.

So, they're going to get a tremendous lawsuit for tremendous amounts of dollars and they understand that. When they called me this morning, they were apologizing because they know they don't have the right to do this. But they want to make sure that Mexico is happy. Mexico is not happy with me because I talk about the trade deals all the time.

BURNETT: So, the length of the board about 2,000 miles, right, 1,954. The General Accounting Office did an analysis about it five years ago, and they said their estimate of what a fence would cost is $3.9 million a mile. You know math, Donald, as well as anyone. That's $7.6 billion. You said Mexico would pay for that. Are you going to get them to pay $7.6 billion?

TRUMP: The answer is yes, I will get Mexico to pay because, frankly, they are taking so much money out of the United States hide. They are taking so much money from us. That's peanuts compare to the kind of money that you're talking about.

Plus, you don't need a wall for the entire piece because we have wonderful people, border patrol people, that can do the job. But you do need walls in certain sections, without question.

BURNETT: Donald, I want to get to the issue of your wealth. You said you're going to fund this campaign yourself. "Forbes" estimates your wealth at $4.1 billion. I have your disclosure sheet, the one that you released last week when you announced. That obviously puts the number at more than double, about $8.7 billion.

Are you going to release all the backup data to prove that number, your number, $8.7 billion in net worth?

TRUMP: Yes. I have to release tremendous amounts of information. I don't even know what it is, but it doesn't matter, because frankly I'm worth a tremendous amount. I've built a great company. I'm not doing that in a braggadocios way. I have to release numbers.

And I'm just saying that this is a kind of person you need to run this country. I built a great company. "Forbes" doesn't know, and I think they're very nice people. But they don't know what I have. I think it's fine.

And by the way, whether it's 4.1 or 10 or more than 10, it doesn't matter. You need that kind of a mindset to straighten out our country.

BURNETT: All right. Donald Trump, I appreciate your time tonight.

TRUMP: Thank you very much, Erin.

BURNETT: All right. Our thanks to Donald Trump.

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