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>>> have not been broadcast before and it's good. michael sat down with trump and questioned
? him about his business dealings. we'll talk to him in a moment. it forced trump to address
the truth about his record in business. the questions went to the heart of the thing trump
claims that made him a candidate, his business success.
>> you had big successes in the business world but also big failures.
>> i don't think i have had big failures. donald trump has always been very successful.
i don't think i have had failures, but go ahead and ask me about a couple.
>> trump hotels and casinos filed for bankruptcy protection three times in six years.
>> let me explain that.
>> isn't that a failure?
>> not really. it worked out well for me, it was successful. i took it public. i had
a relatively small piece of the company. what happened --
>> wait a second. you were chairman of the board.
>> i was chairman, but didn't run the company.
>> you were paid $2 million.
>> excuse me, i didn't run the company. excuse me, because of my genius, okay.
>> excuse me, excuse me. genius. he had three bankruptcy filings in six years for trump
hotel and casinos. genius? that's just the beginning. his habit of slapping his name
on other people's product has him in court.
>> there are ongoing lawsuits in which investors in trump projects are suing you. claiming
they were deceived. they thought they were buying into a trump project and discovered
it was a licensing deal. trump tower, tampa. you were there for the ground breaking. you
said it was going to redefine tampa's skyline. in fact, you weren't in an investor in the
project at all and it's never been built.
>> it was a licensing bill. i was not the developer. i ? licensed the name trump to
those buildings. in case you haven't heard, there was a market collapse. these people
did better than most because they got their money back. it's working out very nicely.
i think it's working out.
>> i'm not sure the investors would agree. it's why they are in court. it looks like
it works out for one guy, donald trump. he has a theory as to why that is.
>> do you think it's fair to say sometimes you xang exaggerate?
>> not anymore than anyone else. i have a great grasp of numbers. i have a great grasp
of values. i'm worth many, many billions of dollars. you may be impressed, even you with
your negative questions about small things.
>> one of your friends said your real genius is for self-promotion. you are a modern day
p.t. bar numb.
>> i think my real genius is not actually in promotion. i think i build a great product,
great locations and everybody says what a great salesman he is. it's this.
>> it's what?
>> it's this. do you know what that is? brain power.
>> what do you think is stronger trump's brain power or charlie sheen's tiger blood? let's
bring in michael. michael, you asked him plenty of other things. it seemed contentious.
>> i didn't think of that one. i will next time.
>> right. now he said at the end, you with your negative questions about small things,
how contentious was this?
>> he got prickly as you can see. i don't think he liked being challenged on his spin
of what's been business failures. bizarrely, the thing that he got most exercised about
is what his net worth is. i cited forbes magazine estimate of $2.4 billion to him and he corrected
me. he said no, no forbes hhas more recently in the international edition upped it to $2.7
billion. he claims $7 billion. we won't know for sure unless he runs for president and
fills out the financial disclosure.
>> michael. michael, we have that piece of the video. i love it. i want everybody to
see it. let's run that.
>> how much are you worth?
>> a lot of money and you may very well see that number in about 70 days or 80 days. forbes
said $2.7 billion. $2.7 billion is very low. it's much lower than the actual number i am
showing to people and the rest of the world in a couple months. if i run shortly there
after, i will send a statement of financial, cash and how much debt and all that. i think
people are going to be impressed. it's bigger than any numbers i have seen.
>> other than been unbearable, bragging about his wealth, it's hard to believe him. i think
he's not going to run for that reason. i don't think he wants the world to know what he is
>> that is one theory out there. there was a new york times reporter, tim o'brien who
wrote a book a couple years ago who talked to sources who suggested trump was worth a
couple hundred million dollars. trump sued tim o'brien, the reporter for defamation claiming
to be called a multimillionaire rather than a multibillionaire and defamed his reputation.
the lawsuit got tossed out of court and trump appealed. the argument was heard a couple
weeks ago in a jersey city courtroom. trump showed up. he clearly is exercised about this
issue. will we see that document that lays out his wealth? we're going to know very shortly.
it's something he's going to have to do if he goes through with the presidential run.
>> i don't believe he's going to do it at all. i would be shocked. we'll see if donald
can shock us. we had ? another great part of the interview about trump university. it's
great. i want to run that and come back.
>> why did you call it a university?
>> we don't know there were rules and regulations about calling it a university.
>> you didn't check that out?
>> we probably would have qualified. if we didn't, that's fine. we dhanged the name.
>> people pay money to hear you?
>> yeah, they pay money. am i supposed to do it for free?
>> people pay up to $35,000 for the gold seminars.
>> they did. there's very little problem with trump universities. we had one or two little
lawsuits out of thousands of people who went through it. one in california. little lawsuits.
>> just a little lawsuit. he was involved in little lawsuits.
>> it's not a real university in the sense you and i would understand it. it was a series
of seminars. the first thing they ask you to do according to the students is up the
limit on your credit card to $35,000 dwlars so you can afford the gold seminars to learn
how to become a millionaire. state regulators got complaints about it. there's a class action
lawsuit with former students. as we reported, the texas attorney general's office opened
up an investigation into possible deceptive trade practices against trump university and
dropped it after they told the state attorney general's office they would stop doing business
in texas. they dropped out of texas entirely.
>> all right. michael stay with us. i want to bring in richard wolffe to talk about this,
too. richard, great having you here.
>> thanks.
>> two of the guys i talk to the longest in my career. richard, talk to us about the political
implications here. the main selling point of trump is i'm a great businessman. if there's
problems with that, ? is there problems with his credibility as a politician?
>> to any reasonable person, my interview with savannah's, he doesn't have a business
record. it's not his main platform. the main platform is to be outrageous and speak to
that part of the republican party that wants something more extreme. they want more change
and not less change. the more outrageous he is, the more he's attacked by reporters, the
better it is for him. this isn't about credibility. it's about who can say the most impressive
things that speak to this sense of hurt and race that they have. republicans have to ask
themselves, do they want to be as the democrats were in 2004? do they want to date someone
like dean and marry kerry or stick with someone like dean? if they stick with dean, donald
trump is a front-runner a year out from the nomination or months out from the nomination.
>> the republican voters aren't always deeply attached to facts. here the facts are something
they would be bothered by. if you look at his record, he had incredibly liberal opinions.
enormous tax on the wealthy. on the bail outs, he thought t.a.r.p. was worth a shot, henri
paulson should get an a and ben per nan key should get a c plus and the auto bail outs
were swell. the tea party can't be happy about that.
>> well, they are not. of course we found in the last few weeks that trump is willing
to say anything. actually, the original position he has, a reasonable one was president bush's
position. paulson was bush's treasury secretary and the policy worked. not what gets you the
nomination or attention. really, he has been propelled apart from the media interest ? by
going after the birth certificate, questioning the dreams. it doesn't matter what the policy
position is, whether he's consistent, does he speak to the rage out there? the 15%, 20%
of the republican party. not a majority of the republican party, in a multicandidate
field. it puts you as a front-runner. we have had a lot of polls on this. the latest one,
he's third at 13%. it's not bad. he's been at the top of some of the polls. the question
everybody is asking, is this guy for real? is this a show to get more attention for the
trump name or there's a real chance he's going to run here?
>> it's funny. after this, as you can see often contentious interview, he invited me
up to his office, upstairs, one floor up and wanted to talk politics and asked about ralph
reid who he's interviewing to become a campaign manager. i pointed out he worked in the christian
coalition. he said that would be good in iowa. tony, a pollster who he's been talking to.
i have to say, even though i know there's a lot of skepticism out there and for good
reason, i think he's taking this pretty far. i think it's one reason you are seeing increasing
nervousness on the part of republican professionals like karl rove. it's why he came out with
the comment a trump candidacy would be a joke. they don't want trump soaking up all the oxygen.
>> that's a good insight. after the interview, he wants to talk to you. he's an amazing guy.
he's serious. getting with tony means he's getting serious. richard, the final question
for you, real quick, how thrilled is the white house about this development?
>> this is second only to sarah palin. by the way, make sure he doesn't ask you to raise
your credit card limit when ? you go up to his office. the white house would love to
see this happen. this is not how to win the middle ground in america. it polarizes the
republican party as a whole, as a brand. karl rove knows if he's going to raise millions,
he needs more respectable candidates, more realistic prospects to win. he tried to do
the same with christine o'donnell. that didn't work, either. karl rove is not going chase
it out of the party. they are going to go for the more extreme, less electable candidate.
it speaks to how they are feeling, again, the 15% to 20% which could be enough in this
race.
>> mike, a great interview there and richard wolffe, thank you both.
>> thank you.