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Yeah! Ladies and gentlemen our first guest is America's most beloved cut-throat real
estate mogul. Beginning Sunday, you can see the latest installment of his popular television
series entitled The Celebrity Apprentice. Please welcome, Donald Trump.
Donald Trump ladies and gentlemen. Nice to see you Donald. How are you?
DONALD TRUMP: Nice to see you Dave.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Thank you very much for being here. I know you're are a very, very busy
man. Let's run it down, you have your ahh, construction business, you have your real
estate development.
DONALD TRUMP: Right.
DAVID LETTERMAN: You have your resort development, your golf courses, your hotels.
DONALD TRUMP: Right.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Ahh, you have the television show of course. What am I leaving out here?
DONALD TRUMP: Miss Universe.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Oh, oh. That's right, pageants.
DONALD TRUMP: And some other things.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Yeah.
DONALD TRUMP: But we're building a lot of buildings. Actually we're doing quite a bit
of buildings and quite a bit of buying. It's a good time to buy real estate.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Good time to buy but our, our...
DONALD TRUMP: Good time to buy real estate.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Yes, is construction coming back now with the recession?
DONALD TRUMP: Probably not because you can buy really for a lot less than it cost to
build but at some point it'll change. It was never that way but right now it is. Sadly
to say.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Yeah. And, and for guys, Americans, the blue collar, the rank and file,
people out of work.
What is it look like from where you sit?
DONALD TRUMP: Well, the way I look at it. If OPEC is going to keep ripping us off with
their oil prices. And if China is gonna keep underselling and selling without taxes or
anything else.
Ahh, this country has a lot of problems. I don't see recovery. Really, I don't see greatness
unless we do something about China and some others and OPEC.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Well, how about this? Ahh, it's the greatest country in the world. Unquestionably,
the greatest country in the world, the United States.
DONALD TRUMP: And yet in 10 years, if it keeps going this phase, in 10 years China will surpass
us. And that's pretty prophetic.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Well, that's, that's what I'm about to say. But so, don't you think
that we oughtta straighten out the world's finances being the greatest country. We had
to straighten out the environment.
We oughtta lead the way in fixing the environment. And we had to lead the way in the world in
healthcare. Then we truly would be the greatest country in the world.
DONALD TRUMP: Well, I think we're trying to do some of those things but we're really,
we have some pretty big obstacles Dave.
We have some pretty big obstacles and you know, part of the obstacles when fuel goes
to $80 a barrel and $90 a barrel and $100 a barrel and nobody's using fuel, the oil.
You say what's going on? You know it's interesting if you and I have two stores and we separate
prices so that we, excuse me, screw the customer.
We go to jail, you know, we go to jail for that stuff. We create milk and we sell milk
and we set at a certain price. It's illegal. With oil, you have this countries setting
the price of oil.
Destroying a certain part of the world and nobody does anything about it. They walk away
and they have their big yachts and their very nice planes and everything else.
And it's really a shame what's happening to the country, I mean, we should use our great
business people to negotiate, not some Diplomat that knows nothing about business.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Wow, how about that?
DONALD TRUMP: What do you?
DAVID LETTERMAN: And I know you've told me in the past that you've your great negotiating
skills to get a great deal with your barber.
DONALD TRUMP: My barber.
DAVID LETTERMAN: But that's a different story.
DONALD TRUMP: And I failed. Everytime I failed.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Ahh, but now what about, what about this? Are you investing anything
in green energy, in solar, in wind, geothermal, any of that?
DONALD TRUMP: Well I am, and you know, in this country, interestingly if we went nuclear,
if we in terms of energy, if we used our coal resources, we have enough coal to take care
of our energy needs to 300 years. And we can clean it, we can scrub it, we can do a lots
of different things, but we have tremendous energy in this country.
We just don't use it. And it sort of a shame but wind power is good, I don't like you know,
when you have a beautiful area of this country and then you see this windmills all over the
place. Not only visually unattractive, but they make a lot of noise.
You know, they make the noise and people say, oh my God, a lot of people that thought wind
was great and now saying, we have to live with this things for the rest of our lives.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Now I'd rather see the windmills than the choking clouds of coal smoke.
DONALD TRUMP: Well that's possibly true. But they can actually, they, they... Well they
do have actually, they do have new clean coal.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Yeah, I've been told by people that know that clean coal doesn't exist.
DONALD TRUMP: Oh yeah, well.
DAVID LETTERMAN: That your buddy's a GE, you're shoving that down everybody's throat.
DONALD TRUMP: I could be.
DAVID LETTERMAN: And, and, and you're right. We have a coal to last ahh, forever. Out there
in Wyoming, it's ahh, it's being strip mined. Gilette, Wyoming it's ahh, I think it's softer
coal but it's just is never, there's no such thing as clean coal.
They don't matter what they're gonna do to it, how they sell it to you, we we'd be better
off with nuclear power, I think.
DONALD TRUMP: Well I love...
DAVID LETTERMAN: Except, we don't know what to do with that either.
DONALD TRUMP: Well, it's got a bad name. We've got to change the name from nuclear to something
else. We have to come up with a different name. Coal's interesting because China is
fueling itself with coal.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Oh yeah.
DONALD TRUMP: Not that that makes it right.
DAVID LETTERMAN: No.
DONALD TRUMP: But China is fueling...
DAVID LETTERMAN: They're building them in multiple.
DONALD TRUMP: Yeah.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Weekly.
DONALD TRUMP: Like I mean, beyond anything that we would see.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Yeah. It's just, I don't know. Where do you begin? For God's sakes.
DONALD TRUMP: We got a long way to go.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Yeah, we do have a long way to go.
DONALD TRUMP: We have a long way to go.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Let's talk about the beauty pageants.
Now, now, is it me...
DONALD TRUMP: A much more pleasant subject.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Yeah. Is it, where are they selling neon ties? Seriously, now. Do you
have them custom made?
DONALD TRUMP: No. Not really.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Ahh, now, so you own the Miss Universe and the Miss...
DONALD TRUMP: USA.
DAVID LETTERMAN: USA pageants. Miss America, as well?
DONALD TRUMP: Well I might get them. You know, we're on network television.
NBC, your favorite network, just renewed it for three more years.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Oh.
DONALD TRUMP: And Miss America doesn't have right now a network.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Yeah.
DONALD TRUMP: So I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. But maybe it's
available.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Now you've revitalized the beauty pageants.
DONALD TRUMP: Yeah, I think I've done a good job with what we have.
DAVID LETTERMAN: You, you've made them more interesting to home viewers. And what was
the key to that? What was the one thing that you needed to fix?
DONALD TRUMP: Well, Miss America made the bathing suits one-piece very large and you
weren't allowed to wear shoes.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Uh-huh.
DONALD TRUMP: What I did is I made the heels higher and the bathing suits smaller. And
it was amazing.
It was amazing what happened to the ratings. The ratings became very, very good.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Yeah, I'm telling you ladies and gentlemen. With this kind of genius, we
have nothing to worry about. Everything is going to be fine. Ahh, and then, but what
about Miss California. Was it two years ago or last year, what was her name?
DONALD TRUMP: Last year.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Last year.
DONALD TRUMP: Carrie Prejean.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Now, what happened there? Something went nuts, right?
DONALD TRUMP: Well, she had a problem with lots of different things and ultimately ahh,
a question was asked by a friend of yours, Perez Hilton.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Uh-huh.
DONALD TRUMP: And he talked about uhmm, gay marriage.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Oh, that's right, yes.
DONALD TRUMP: Gay marriage and it was, should, you know, two people that happened to be of
the same sex marriage, and she said no. And it was an international scandal. Now the President
said no, and nobody cared. When she said no, it became an international scandal.
Now the reason why, she's very beautiful. If she weren't very beautiful, I think probably
a lot of people wouldn't have cared. But it did, it really became a big scandal but ultimately,
it all worked out.
DAVID LETTERMAN: And who is the current ahh, Miss USA now?
DONALD TRUMP: Well we have a Miss USA from who the hell knows where she is from. And,
and we... You know, that could be, I've done the show so much, that could be the toughest
question he's ever asked me actually.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Yeah.
DONALD TRUMP: And the other, ahh Miss, we have Miss Venezuela who is absolutely beautiful
as the Miss Universe who's really grand.
DAVID LETTERMAN: And is there still a Miss World beauty pageant?
DONALD TRUMP: There is, but they just don't do well and I'm very happy about that.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Yeah.
DONALD TRUMP: There is, there is a Miss World but I don't know, I think it's fading fast.
DAVID LETTERMAN: But, I mean, shouldn't the people compete for Miss USA and compete for
Miss ahh, ahh, what is it? Universe.
DONALD TRUMP: Universe.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Oh no. It should be they compete and they move on to Miss World. Then
they move on to Miss Universe.
DONALD TRUMP: You know actually I like to move to Miss Universe and from there, you
know the universe is better than the world. Right?
DAVID LETTERMAN: Well, it's bigger.
DONALD TRUMP: A universe, you know, a lot bigger.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Yeah, yeah.
DONALD TRUMP: So, I think I like the name. If I had a choice of world or universe, I'd
take the universe.
DAVID LETTERMAN: But I'm, I'm talking about a series of competitions.
DONALD TRUMP: Yeah.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Like a bracket.
DONALD TRUMP: Well there is a Miss, and there's a Miss America Pageant too. But you know,
actually they're doing fine but they don't have a television network right now. Maybe
we should buy it, let's buy it together.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Well you know, I just don't have that kind of dough.
We'll be right back with Donald Trump everybody.
[COMMERCIAL BREAK]
Nobody seems to know. Donald Trump. Miss USA is ahh, Kristen Dalton.
DONALD TRUMP: That's correct.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Kristen Dalton and we'll find out her, her state. I remember when they
had the big general assembly, the kick-off and Muammar Gaddafi shows up. And he, he wants
to live, from Libya, and he wants to live in somebody's house in New Jersey.
And they said no, you're not ahh, camp, oh you want to live in their backyard.
DONALD TRUMP: That's true.
DAVID LETTERMAN: And then the next thing we heard, he was in a tent in your backyard.
Now, did that happen or not? This is September.
DONALD TRUMP: Well it actually did happen, I wasn't exactly sure what was going on? I
saw this huge tent being built and I was told that there's this, and this was a seriously
big tent. In fact, it looks a lot smaller on the picture than in fact. So where's she
from? Let's...
DAVID LETTERMAN: North Carolina.
DONALD TRUMP: North Carolina. Right? Good place. So he ahh, he did, he did spend a little
there.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Yeah, but then, now what, how, ahh, that's weird that he would just
rent your property and put a tent at it.
DONALD TRUMP: Well actually, nobody knew what was going on, we rented the property to a
middle eastern group. and then all of a sudden a tent started to rise on the property. And
we sort of got, you know, what's he doing, and we figured out what happened and we were
able to stop it.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Yeah. Did, did you have any direct contact with the delegation from Libya?
DONALD TRUMP: Very direct.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Really?
DONALD TRUMP: Very direct.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Did they pay you a lot of money?
DONALD TRUMP: After the fact we had direct. And it worked out fine, he never went there.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Yeah. And can I ask what the ahh, downpayment was?
DONALD TRUMP: It was actually quite a bit.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Like what?
DONALD TRUMP: I don't wanna say but a lot.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Yeah. Uhmm, like...
DONALD TRUMP: Like a lot, like a lot of years for one night.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Oh.
DONALD TRUMP: And he never got to use the tent.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Like a million, like a million bucks?
DONALD TRUMP: Ahh, whatever.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Wow. Uhmm, and, and what else are you working on now? In terms of forward
thinking business, what about those ahh, ahh, poor Scottish farmers that you wanted to evict?
What happened there?
DONALD TRUMP: Well, what we actually, we...
We actually started construction last week on what I'm building as the greatest golf
course anywhere in the world that I think it will be. They're the largest dunes in the
world.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Oh this is Scotland.
DONALD TRUMP: They're called The Great Dunes of Scotland.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Yeah.
DONALD TRUMP: They're the highest and largest dunes in the world and I think when it's completed,
it's gonna be something very special, so it'll all work out.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Now what, what is the future of golf with Tiger Woods being in the position
he is in now? And what do you foresee in terms of his future?
DONALD TRUMP: Well, I think his future is great. He's a friend of mine. He's a really
good guy, he's had a very tough few months. And by the way, you have too and you've done
a great job. I love what you did to the blackmailer, the blackmailer.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Yes.
DONALD TRUMP: I wish more people would have your attitude David. You know, it's true.
Some other people they settle, they take, this guy is tough.
PAUL SHAFFER: Yeah.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Why don't you come home with me tonight Don? Uhmm, tell us about Celebrity
Apprentice. You know I had that, that Rod Blagojevich.
DONALD TRUMP: Right. I saw it last night. It's up in...
DAVID LETTERMAN: Yeah. Now, what's, what's, now here's a guy, first of all, he's going
to trial...
DONALD TRUMP: Right.
DAVID LETTERMAN: For selling among other things unethical activities when he was the Governor.
What is the guy like as far as you're concerned?
DONALD TRUMP: Well, he denies that but he really seems like a pretty good guy. You know,
I've gotten to know him quite well over the last period of time. Ahh, everybody wants
to know about him. You had him on last night, the Top Ten. I watched that, it was great.
Ahh, he has got a lot of courage whether you like him or not.
Look, I've known people that got in trouble, got indicted, lots of bad things happened,
and they go into a corner, they put their thumb in their mouth and they say mommy take
me home. You know that, right?
DAVID LETTERMAN: That's right.
DONALD TRUMP: This guy's all over the place. I mean, he really is very committed to proving
his innocence. Now I don't know if he's innocent or not.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Yes.
DONALD TRUMP: But it takes a lot of courage to be out there like he is out there.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Now you've, you've never been in, in serious trouble.
DONALD TRUMP: Not that kind of trouble.
DAVID LETTERMAN: No, and, and I think that says ahh, volumes about you and the kind of
person you are.
DONALD TRUMP: Well I hope so. But I just hope I'm not gonna be in that kind of trouble.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Ahh, and the ahh, Apprentice, Celebrity Apprentice. Who are the rest of
the celebrities?
DONALD TRUMP: We're a lot of good people. We have Darryl Strawberry, who was very interesting.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Right.
DONALD TRUMP: Cindy Lauper.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Now there's a guy.
DONALD TRUMP: Sharon Osbourne.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Yeah, Cindy Lauper, they're just wonderful.
DONALD TRUMP: Yeah, we have, we have Brent. You know, we have, we have just a lot of great
people on the show.
And I think it's gonna do very well, there's been a great buzz. But really, people are
very interested in the Governor and why he did it.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Sure.
DONALD TRUMP: And you know, he's trial is going to be going on pretty much during the
run of the Celebrity Apprentice.
DAVID LETTERMAN: So it's a win-win right there.
DONALD TRUMP: It's pretty good.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Win... Win-win.
DONALD TRUMP: I'm not complaining.
DAVID LETTERMAN: No, you shouldn't complain.
The two-hour ahh, well, here. I think we have a clip.
BARBARA GAINES: No.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Huh?
PAUL SHAFFER: No.
DAVID LETTERMAN: No, we don't, I'm sorry. The Celebrity Apprentice, two-hour premieres
Sunday on NBC. Donald Trump, always a pleasure my friend.
DONALD TRUMP: Thank you David.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Thank you very much.
DONALD TRUMP: Good going.
DAVID LETTERMAN: We'll be right back with John Hiatt.
[COMMERCIAL BREAK]
ALAN KALTER: Don't miss tomorrow's Late Show with guest Liew Schreiber, comedian Jim Gaffigan,
and Drive-by Truckers. Can anyone in tonight's audience give me a ride home? We'll be back
in a moment.
[COMMERCIAL BREAK]
Oh men. Bruce Keplar ladies and gentlemen. Nice job buddy. That's fantastic. You know,
I like that Donald Trump. You know what I mean? The guy comes out here and he just,
he's got things on his mind. He's not afraid to say them.
PAUL SHAFFER: Yeah.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Yeah. It's good.
PAUL SHAFFER: Straightforward guy.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Lovely guest, yes. Lots of, and, and... What? Alan?