mark: i'm mark halperin. john: i'm john heilemann. with all due respect to donald trump, you are not the only one who knows how to escalate a situation. ♪ mark: hello -- hello from trump tower in new york city. today we are the first reporters to get a two or from the campaign headquarters in this building. first, our guest joins us right now. the man of the hour, and the man of the tower, donald trump. thank you for joining us. mr. trump: great to be with you both.

john: there has been a tragic shooting today in virginia. two people killed, three people shot on live tv. what do you think about that? mr. trump: i have not seen it yet because i have been at the office, but i have been hearing about it and it is horrible. it was literally on live television. what a shame. mark: i want to ask you about your presidential campaign and show you some vintage footage of donald trump from about two months ago. in this building, we talked to you the day after you announced. i want to show you one of the questions we asked you. mark: what are the odds that donald trump will be the next president of the united states? mr. trump: i am running against political people who have done this all their lives. i don't do this. i would say anywhere from 10%-20%. mark: you said 10% to 20%. what are the odds today? mr. trump: maybe 21%. i don't know. if i have a deal that is ready to be done, literally, and it is

ready to be signed, i say 50-50. mark: just give us a number. straight talk. what are your odds? mr. trump: let's say 25% or 30%. mark: still pretty low. mr. trump: if you're conservative. mark: i want to ask you about something president obama is facing this year. every president, reagan and others, have had to face raising the debt ceiling. should republicans agreed to raise the debt ceiling, or is there too much of a danger to the economy if they don't agree? mr. trump: i would like to see them not have to do it. there is so much waste and scandalous waste in washington that they should not have to do it. if they had people who knew how to make deals -- if they look at what is going on with trade deficits, we are rebuilding the world. we are rebuilding china. look at what's happening there. short-term, maybe it's going to

happen -- i will not be a very easy one to do it, however. mark: so do you think it is worth playing a game of chicken with obama and not raising the deaths -- debt ceiling? mr. trump: i would say it is worth the fight, because honestly there is so much fat in washington that if you had the right people in there, you would cut it and not miss a thing. mark: to clarify, you agree with those republicans who say not to raise the debt ceiling. take the risk and make president obama make a compromise. mr. trump: i do. it will take a lot of cutting. -- you can do a lot of cutting. john: you have made comments about the hedge fund industry, saying that they are getting away with murder because they pay lower taxes on carried interests. hillary clinton has proposed that you should get rid of the carried interest loophole and tax them at the same rate as ordinary incomes. do you agree? mr. trump: yes, the current interest is really a tremendous burden on the country. i have friends and enemies,

mostly enemies, and none of them are going to support me and i don't want their support. speaking of that, hillary clinton has many hedge fund people supporting her. in the end, i would say that the hedge fund people make a lot of money and pay very little taxes. i am about the middle class. i want the middle class to be thriving again. we are losing our middle-class. john: would you change the tax code? mr. trump: i would change it, simplify it -- i would take carried interest out and make people who make hundreds of thousands of dollars a year pay some tax. i want to lower taxes for the middle class. i want to lower taxes for people who are making a lot of money that need incentives. john: so that would also affect not just hedge funds, but people in limited real estate partnerships, of which you are in a fair number of. you are saying you would like to raise taxes on yourself. mr. trump: that's right. i'm ok with it. you see my statements, i don't

mind paying some taxes. the middle class is getting clobbered in this country. the middle class built this country, not the hedge fund guys. i know people in hedge funds -- they pay almost nothing. it's ridiculous. john: there has also been a discussion this week, a long story in the new yorker magazine that talks about your appeal and the extent of which your support comes from white supremacist groups. we have heard this week that david duke, a former grand dragon wizard of the ku klux klan, came out and said he supported your candidacy. my question is, why do people like that like donald trump? second, how do you feel about the david duke quasi-endorsement? mr. trump: i don't know the answer to the first, who knows why, but i don't need his endorsement or anybody's endorsement. john: would you repudiate david duke? mr. trump: sure, i could do that if it made you feel better. i don't know anything about him.

somebody told me yesterday he endorsed me -- actually, i don't think it was an endorsement. he said i was absolutely the best of all the candidates. john: but if you read this story and heard white supremacist groups talking about you and why they like you so much, would that trouble you at all? does that make you wonder about your message echo -- mrs. -- message? mr. trump: honestly, john, i would have to read the story. the polls that just came out in new hampshire, where i am at 35%, people like me across the board. evangelicals like me, liberals like me, conservatives like me, everybody likes me. john: this is only a small subset, but hearing that does not make you worry that there is something in your message striking a chord with the wrong kind of people? mr. trump: i hope there is not, but i have not read the story. mark: the next debate is coming up, and one of the things you said about the first debate was that you got the hardest questions.

governor kasich was asked if you have a son or daughter who is gay or lesbian, how would you explain to them your opposition to same-sex marriage? don't tell me why you support your position -- how would you speak to a child or grandchild who is gay? mr. trump: it is the way it is. i would not speak to them about it, other than they are who they are. i want them to be happy. i will love them and cherish them. mark: but your personal opposition to same-sex marriage day -- day --a gay son or granddaughter who said they want to get married, but you want it to be illegal -- mr. trump: i actually thought governor kasich's answer was a good one. i have been to gay weddings. i have been against them from the standpoint of the bible and my teachings growing up and going to sunday school. i have been opposed to it. we will see how it all comes out. if i was ever in that position, i would just have to explain it.

mark: you have mentioned how the bible is your favorite book. last night in iowa, some people were surprised that you said that. i am wondering what some of your most favorite bible verses are. mr. trump: i wouldn't want to get into it, because to me it is very personal. talking about the bible is very personal. mark: there is no verse that means a lot to you? mr. trump: the bible means a lot to me, but i don't want to get into specifics. mark: even test site a verse? te a verse? mr. trump: no, i don't want to do that. john: old testament or new testament? mr. trump: the whole bible is incredible. i say it is my favorite book of all time. i just think the bible is something very special. mark: have you ever read the koran? mr. trump: i have not. mark: what is your view on it as a piece of world history? mr. trump: i have not read it. it is not something i have a lot of interest in. i would like to find out why

there is such hatred. you look at what is going on in the world, and it is wonderful to say, hey, let's not look at sweden and let's look at norway, but you look at what's happening with iran and it is a pretty scary thing. john: scott walker made a comment about there being a number of moderate muslims who are not attracted to jihadist ideology. do you agree with that? mr. trump: i'm not sure he knew exactly what he meant. define it. john: i'm not sure either. mr. trump: that's the problem, nobody knew what he meant. john: there are only a handful of moderate muslims. do agree with that or not? mr. trump: there are more than a handful of moderate muslims, but you certainly have a problem with muslims. i think he might've misspoke. always goes out and says he misspoke. i think scott probably misspoke. did he correct his statement? john: he later tried to. mr. trump: you do have much more than a handful, but at the same time you have problems. do we all agree?

there are certain problems. john: let's ask historical questions. do you believe lee harvey oswald acted alone? mr. trump: i believe he acted alone, yes. john: my second historical question, between clarence thomas and anita hill, who do you believe in their accounts of that controversy? mr. trump: i like clarence thomas a lot. i will go with clarence thomas. his decisions are -- in terms of conservative positions, he is probably about the best there is on the supreme court. certainly one of them. john: so you think that she lied when she said he engaged in inappropriate activity. mr. trump: no, i just respect clarence thomas. i don't know anita hill. i've met clarence thomas on a number of occasions. i thought he was terrific. i think he is a terrific person. what do i know? asking me a question like that, it is sort of a crazy question. john: but it is a question that

divided the country. mr. trump: i am happy that he was appointed to the supreme court, and i think his decisions have been terrific from my way of thinking. mark: a couple of other historical things. first you were a democrat, now you are a republican. do you recall who you supported in 1992? george bush, bill clinton, ross perot? mr. trump: i actually liked ross perot a lot. i thought he was great, but he went off the deep end. i will say this -- had he not existed, you are not talking about bill clinton. mark: did you vote for him? mr. trump: i don't know, i figure probably would've voted for bush. but i respect perot. i think he really hit something. had he not come out and gone back in, i think he would've had a number that was substantially better. john: you said probably, though. so you don't remember who you voted for? mr. trump: i do remember. i don't like to talk about who i voted for. in this case, i voted for bush.

mark: what about 2004 versus the other bush? do you remember who you supported in that election? mr. trump: bush. mark: why? mr. trump: i was hoping he would do a good job. mark: what didn't you like about gore? mr. trump: i became more and more conservative. he was certainly more conservative, who wasn't, then gore. but bush was somebody i was very disappointed in. as you know, in 2003 and 2004 i said iraq was a mistake. i am a person who believes strongly in the military. i would have a very powerful, strong military. no one is going to mess with us, believe me, but to do iraq was a terrible mistake in my opinion. the way we got out was a mistake also, because i say we should have kept the oil. but these are things that i say, some people agree, some strongly, and some don't agree at all, but i was very disappointed with him, but i voted for him. john: you are going to stay right here.

you're not going anywhere? mr. trump: no. john: we have two more questions. we are back with donald j trump after this word from our sponsors. ♪ ♪

mark: we are back with donald trump from trump tower. thanks for hosting us. earlier today, jeb bush, someone you have been talking about, and he has been talking about you, talked about you and immigration. we want to have you look at that. mr. bush: do it as a conservative, for crying out loud. i don't think we should spend hundreds of billions of dollars with an impractical solution. this guy is now the front runner. he should be held to account, just like me.

he should be asked as he was yesterday -- how will you pay for it? explain how you will stop all the remittances without violating people's civil liberties. go through these questions and what you will find is this guy doesn't have a plan. mark: so, one thing you have been saying is that he is low-energy -- did he seem low-energy barry accor -- low energy there? mr. trump: no, he seemed a little more dynamic, but you can't force that, and it was a little bit forced. how will you pay for it? we are spending $130 billion right now on illegal immigration. we are spending a fortune on not only the crime and the problems, but a minimum of $130 billion. you are going to pay for it because we are not going to spend that kind of money. that's one way we are going to pay for it. mark: one thing that happens in campaigns is candidates try to get under each other's skin. you seem to have gotten under the skin of some people. does something like that get under your skin? mr. trump: no, not at all. it is one of the things. i an not a politician, haven't been a politician. he is a person -- and i guess he

is trying very hard. i used the term "low-energy" -- he is a low-energy person by nature, and it's ok, there's nothing wrong with that. i know some wonderful low-energy people, in fact they are some of the nicest people i know, but that doesn't mean they will be good at negotiating with china, bringing back jobs and money, etc. japan, everybody else. you look at the iran deal -- will he make a better deal than barack obama? i doubt it. mark: is he the most likely republican nominee besides you? mr. trump: i don't know -- he is way down in the polls and i am a little bit surprised. i have been hitting him because he seems like an establishment guy. the last thing we need is another bush. i feel strongly about that. i was not happy with the last one. read my lips, i wasn't happy with that. it was a big problem. read my lips. that was his father, a lovely man, but the last thing we need is another bush. i would say that maybe, if you would have asked me that two or

three weeks ago, i would have said maybe he would be the most likely one. mark: who is more likely than bush? mr. trump: there is a group of them, a group that seems to be forming. but so far they are way behind. john: jeb bush recommended you read his book on immigration. are you going to do that anytime soon? mr. trump: i don't think so. john: why not? mr. trump: i have other things to do that are much more important. john: he got tangled up in this question about anchor babies -- what do you think he got wrong? mr. trump: i read "the new york times" editorial today. he took hispanics and suddenly changed hispanics and mexicans with asians, and now the asian community is furious and they are really angry. i have seen protests about what he said. he thought he would get out of that by talking about asians and that was terrible. john: that is not a phrase you have any hesitance using. mr. trump: no. i'm using it. nobody has complained about it when i use it. they complain about him because they don't expect he would be using it. he actually signed a memo saying, "do not use anchor babies." you know that, right?

he signed a memo saying don't use anchor baby, don't use the phrase. that's not appropriate. then he uses it. he uses it because i'm using it, and i think he has to want to keep up with it. i'm not sure why. john: would you consider him as a running mate? mr. trump: i do want to talk -- don't want to talk about running mates right now. i am looking good and i want to keep looking good. i'm not talking about running mates. mark: let's talk about the supreme court -- that is a big responsibility of the president, nominating justices. is there someone you have in mind, a current or past justice, who would be a model? mr. trump: you know, justice roberts -- if he had not come out with that horrible decision on obamacare, which was a disaster. he should have ended obamacare. i really liked his thought process and background, but i am not at all a fan. i would say very smart, great levels of intelligence, great temperament. temperament is very important. believe it or not, i have a good temperament. some people say my tone is a

little bit tough, but i actually have a very good temperament, or you wouldn't be in places like this. mark: you talked about carl icahn. is there someone out there today who says isn't on the court but who you would consider? mr. trump: i don't want to mention names -- i think it is inappropriate to mention names , certainly at this stage. mark: what about your sister? mr. trump: my sister is great. i have a sister who was on the court of appeals and she is fantastic. mark: which he be a good supreme court justice? mr. trump: i think she would be phenomenal, one of the best, but frankly we will have to rule that out. but she is very smart and very good person. by the way, you mentioned carl icahn -- i just spoke to him, and he said such a big problem -- corporate immersion. -- corporate inversion. we have $2.5 trillion sitting outside and can't come in, and what's happening is companies are leaving this country. get used to be you leave new york for florida, new jersey for texas, it used to be state to state -- now it is country to country.

we have companies with with thousands of thousands of jobs, leaving this country to go out and get their money. mark: what is the trump proposal to handle the question of inversion? mr. trump: let the money come in, tax them at a lower rate. it is $2.5 trillion. it could be more than that. this is money that could be spent in this country. they can't get it in. part of the problem with politics is that democrats and republicans, for two years i have been hearing about this, they always agree and they still haven't gotten it done. companies are leaving this country in order to go outside and get their money. they are taking the money and we -- and going to the money, and we are losing thousands and thousands of jobs, and it is getting worse. there are so many big companies looking at going outside and getting that money right now. john: you expressed a lot of concern about the chinese currency devaluation. mr. trump: big concern. john: if the currency is devalued, the price of goods goes down. that means americans pay less than the goods we buy from china. mr. trump: it also means you

make less, because we are not making our own profit. john: are you against the notion of lower prices for americans? mr. trump: what i am against is them devaluing their currency. japan is doing the big devaluation now. it is impossible for companies -- our companies to compete. the other thing, if you look at japan, they sell cars, millions and millions of cars to this country. you look at the imbalance between what we give them and what they give us, tax-free here, it's very hard to get in. when we sell them beef, they don't even want it. they fight us. mark: you announced for president just over two months ago -- does it seem longer? mr. trump: it seems longer, but it has gone fast. mark: what has been a single highlight and low light? mr. trump: the low light -- i was attacked for the words "illegal immigration," and it has turned out to also be the highlight. now people are saying -- you know, he was right. you had that horrible story with kate from san francisco, so many people were so badly hurt.

what's happened is incredible. i think that was maybe a highlight. john: i think it may have been youword "rapist" that got into more trouble than "illegal immigration." mr. trump: that is true, too. just the other day in california -- a 66-year-old -- raped her, killed her, sodomized her, tortured her. raped her. you have that, too. we can be babies and say it doesn't exist -- tremendous crime coming in. i think i have done a great service. frankly. i hope i have. mark: mr. trump, thank you for hosting us today. we will see you out on the trail. we appreciate it. we will be right back after this. ♪ ♪

john: well, that was really something. a lot of minutes, a lot of time, a lot of questions and answers.

things to chew over. we will chew over them to the extent we can after this break. ♪

♪ john: as we mentioned, we took a capital in -- we took an --lusive to her -- toward tour of the campaign headquarters and trump tower. watch that on bloomberg politics.com. let's talk about this interview. mark: he said interesting things about tax policy and jeb bush. said interesting things about oswald acting alone. i think some of the things he said about david duke were interesting as well. john: he is just relentless on jeb bush, even when he big knowledge that jeb bush had -- acknowledged that jeb bush had higher energy today. he hammered him on the anchor baby thing. mark: tomorrow on the program,

we will have our behind the scenes look of the headquarters here. some ways like a typical headquarters, someways not. until tomorrow, here from trump tower, sayonara. ♪ emily: apple since invites --

sends invites to its next big event, while a former ceo unleashes competition, the new -- competition to the new iphone. ♪ emily: i am emily chang. this is "bloomberg west." coming up, president obama is about to speak in new orleans on the 10-year anniversary of hurricane katrina. we will look at how companies like airbnb are helping to revitalize the new orleans economy, and how local leaders are shaping sharing economy regulations. plus, amazon may be re-thinking its mobile phone strategy and