[applause] >> thank you all. thank you. thank you everybody. thanks everyone. thank you very much. thank you president and mrs. obama. thanks you for your kindness and consideration today. it was really gracious of you to invite us back to the white house to hang a few family pictures. i am sure you know nothing makes a house a home than its former occupants staring down from the walls.

[laughter] this is not the first time i have had the opportunity to confront an artistic likeness of myself. a few years ago after the 2008 election, a friend sent me something he found in the gift shop of the national constitutional center in philadelphia. it was a laura bush bobblehead doll he said he found on the clearance shell. -- clearance shelf. [laughter] i am grateful to know that this work as a permanent home and things to be masterful talent of john howard sandon. you are terrific to work with. -- john howard sanden. i like it so much more than that bobble-head doll. you are terrific to work with. it is wonderful to know that these portraits will be on view at the white house and walking

down the hall from my mother in law and that george's portrait will hang very close to his dad's. it is meaningful to me as a citizen. this is my family's home for eight years. it was our home but not our house. this house belongs to the people whose portraits will never hang there, the ordinary people whose lives inspired us and his -- and whose expectations guided us during the years we lived here. in this room are many of the people who stood by us as we face the tragedy of september 11 and to work with us in the years after. thank you to each and everyone

of you for your service to our country. [applause] i hope others will see what i see, a woman he was honored and -- a woman who was honored and humbled to live in the white house during a time of great challenge and to will never forget the countless american faces who make up the true portrait of that time. thanks so much. thank you, michele. [applause]

>> i do not think we have enough tissue to go round. jenna and barbara are a mess. [laughter] i want to thank you for joining us today. i would like to take this opportunity to thank laura for providing such a wonderful model of strength and grace for me to follow as first lady. it is an interesting job. it has been amazing to learn from your example not just as a first lady but as a mother of two wonderful daughters. you are on the other side of where we hope to be in a couple of years, two daughters who sit up straight and cry and think

lovingly of their mother and dad. [laughter] we are working toward that gold. -- that goal. i want to echo barrack. we cannot be more thankful for the warmth and graciousness that both of you showed our family. it is truly a privilege for us to occupy this house. hopefully we are setting the same example of hope and love and warmth.the warmth is reflected in these portraits. [laughter] i promise you, i am going straight for it. i am sure it will be closer down the stairs. i will get right down to it. i am thrilled for the visitors

who will have the chance to enjoy it. i am thrilled for both of you as you join these incredible americans whose portraits are already displayed here at the white house. congratulations again. congratulations on the work you have done in the example of what it means to be an american family. we are so happy and proud and honored to be a part. it is my pleasure to invite you all to join us for a reception right outside in the state room. now it is time to eat. [laughter] thank you also much. -- all so much. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012]

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>> monday night, join us for a live campaign fund-raiser in new york center -- new york city with president obama and former president clinton. it is one of three fundraisers they are expected to attend together in new york could another one is in the home of a hedge fund manager mark a luxury. the third one will be on broadway. >> donald trump was the keynote speaker last night in the north carolina republican party convention. he criticized the leadership of president obama and again raised the issue of his birthplace. mr. trump endorsed mitt romney

for president in february and held a campaign fund-raiser for him in vegas last tuesday. this is one of the battleground states in this year's presidential election, north carolina. [applause] >> way group. this is great. i have turned down many of these are the last couple months. they want me to do the little speech for the conventions and i love doing it, but i really love north carolina and i have to tell you -- [cheering] i am different from your average speaker because i really back of my words. i just bought a huge job in north carolina right outside of charlotte.

it is a great job on lake norman, one of the greatest lakes anywhere. it is magnificent and we love it. it will be something really special. i am really happy because i was told by jon and others that you broke your record tonight. and anything i can do to help really makes me feel good. by breaking records, that means you will raise more money than you ever anticipated. you will use the money wisely and you will defeat barack obama. [cheers and applause] today, when i left new york, happened to turn on the television and saw some news. the market had one of its worst days today. the very, very bad day. jobs numbers were absolutely

terrible. 13 million people out of work. that is a helluva lot of people. 13 million. and the unemployment rate went up today. and all of this is bad news. frankly, you could say good news to the republicans in terms of very much -- an election. but i don't care. we love the country first so it is bad news as far as i'm concerned. we really have difficulty in this country. so many things, if you just picked up today's paper -- in san francisco, they're building something called the bay bridge parent who is building it? the people of los angeles? the people of san francisco? the people of california? no. you know who is building it? the chinese are building the bay bridge. $1.8 billion and now they have tremendous cost overruns and it

turns out that, if they would have used american labor, they could have done it cheaper. and this is the kind of thing that is happening to our country. the united states has become a laughingstock and whipping post for the rest of the world. america today is clearly missing quality leadership like probably never, ever before. on numerous occasions, i have warned that countries like china, india, korea, mexico, the opec nations who are really having a field day with us, believe me -- i have been talking about for years. we cannot go on. we cannot continue to go on where countries are laughing at us, laughing yet our leaders, laughing yet every single thing

we do. it used to be that we had the greatest negotiators. we were the kings and queens. now we are laughingstock. i can tell you, the people in this room don't like it and i don't like it. [applause] we are losing hundreds of billions of dollars a year. china this year will make $350 billion on us. call it profit. call it whatever you want. the number will be $350 billion and is probably going up. today, if you read the newspaper, the devalued the currency. by the way, that does not sound good, but it is great for them and bad for us, as you can probably expect. they don't respect us.

and then devaluation, which nobody believed was possible, but to have the audacity to do it, that the valuation will make it really hard for our companies to compete against chinese companies and china itself. it is a terrible thing. and what do we do? we go out and we hold beautiful, beautiful receptions and dinners, black tie, for the president of china when he comes over. some people loved what i said and some people didn't. i said, if he came over when i was around, i wouldn't give him black tie dinners. i would talk to him first, bring him into the office, and we would discuss things. and we would see how he responds. and if he continues to take advantage of this country, there is no black-tie dinner. there's a mcdonald's. there is no nothing.

it is thank you a lot folks. [applause] because the fact is we have all the cards. people don't realize this. we are rebuilding china. i usually say when was the last time you see a major bridge like a george washington bridge a verrazano bridge -- was the -- when was the last time you saw a major bridge built in this country? but there is one, the bay bridge and that is being built by china. you go to the opec nations and it is unbelievable what you do. then fly back home and you land in new york. you lead the los angeles. you come to love or airport, kennedy airport, -- you come to love or area airport, kennedy airport, lax, and it is like a third world country.

i have a lot of friends were leaders of these countries, that our leaders of the economy. they don't believe what they are getting away with. they cannot believe it. he is showing in airport, the most pitiful airport have never seen and -- the most beautiful airport i have ever seen and he shows me that there is a sponsor of the people can get a massage before they get on an airplane. -- there is a spa so the people can get a massage before they get on an airplane. i said this is the most beautiful airport i have ever seen. he said, no, no, you don't understand. this is just temporary. we're tearing this down next year could look at the horizon. i saw 32 cranes building something i had never seen before, the real airport. then i landed in la guardia and

i said can you believe this? it is a real disgrace. when i look at countries like colombia, very good people, but you look and last year, the made $4 billion on us. we don't make money on anybody. and then you hear about social security and medicare and medicaid and i hear so many different theories and so many different ways and obviously we all agree that we have to stop the fraud and abuse. you know the greatest thing we can do? if we got this country roaring again and the potential is enormous, but if we got this country roaring, roaring, roaring, it solves the problems. but you cannot do that when china is taking our jobs. you cannot do it. [applause] when china is taking our jobs, we are a bunch of patsies.

when they're making our products -- it is not only china. who abuses us more? opec would not be there if it was not for us. one of the things i find amazing -- they talk about barack obama and his foreign policy. what is his foreign policy? think of it. he goes in and does not defend egypt. i don't know what they say behind our backs -- you can imagine -- but at least come out with lee, they were supporting israel and -- but at least, outwardly, they were supporting israel and we paid everybody a lot of money. we can do anything on our own, and we have to pay everybody. now that regime has been taken over by a group of people that make them look like babies,

totally anti-united states, totally anti-israel, totally anti-everything. and the world sees how we acted. and they cannot count on the united states. a look at what we have done in iraq. i get in trouble for saying this, but i am not changing my mind. the nice part of not being a politician is i can say whatever i want. if people like it, that is fine. if they don't, that is okay, too. but look at iraq. the smart people said, when we went in to iraq, we did it for the oil. it never made sense. they did not have the weapons of mass destruction. we knew that early on. we ended up in this absolute quagmire. $1.50 trillion, thousands of lives and our wounded veterans

all of the united states -- you see them all over the united states. and i made the statement very strongly few years ago saying, look, they have the second largest oil reserves in the world. people don't know that, right after saudi arabia. why are we not at least paying ourselves back out of that oil? [applause] and these stupid politicians said -- and some of the press, by the wycombe in all fairness. i think -- by the way, in all fairness. but the student politician -- the stupid politicians say, can you believe? how horrible it has been. we have given them democracy. they will not have democracy, folks. there will be the meanest and hardest and greatest hitter of the united states that will takeover.

and what have we done and what have we gotten? i actually said take the oil, leave them plenty. at least give us back our $1.50 trillion good in the old days, when we were smart and we were strong, we had a war and, if we won the war, we take it. we take what we need. it is called to the victor belongs the spoils. [applause] so look at iraq. we go in and spend $1.50 trillion. we're there for years. and we leave. we leave. we get nothing. whoever heard of this? take another one, libya. so libya starts and the rebels are being routed by gaddafi. so the rebels see obama, this

man with the great foreign policy and the rebels see the obama representatives and say we are being eroded could if you remember, they could not have lasted another two days. those people were loyal to gaddafi. they died with gaddafi. they died with him. and the rebels were gone. they gave them two days, three days, but they were gone. and the rebels, who we do not even know who they are -- who are these rebels? we don't even talk to them anymore. it sounds like a very romantic term, like "gone with the wind," the rebels. a lot of crap. the rebels say we are being routed, will you help us? and we say, yes, we will help you. and we spend hundreds of millions of dollars dropping these missiles all over the place, knocking the hell out of the army, knocking the hell out

of the about the -- i mean, that guy got wiped out -- but we're spending hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars. the rebels take over and you know who they sell their oil to? china. we don't buy oil from them. china is their primary customer. do you know how much china spends? nothing. they were not involved. i say, before the end, before they made the deal -- because i am very instinctively a businessman. i made a lot of money. i love making money. i love creating jobs. i'd just like the system. but it is a hard system because regulation is so bad. i said to the representatives and whoever would listen to tell the rebels -- they would have given you anything. three days they had, maybe one day -- say, listen, we will help you, but we want 50% of royal --

of your oil. you know what they would have said? where do i sign? if you had said 75%, they would have said ok, too, but i want to be a nice person. i don't want to get greedy. [laughter] libby is a big oil-producing state. we would have gotten their oil. there would have had plenty for themselves. i don't want to take it all. and all you had to take it -- anybody in this room could have done it could just say we will help you, but we won 50% of your oil. hear,. they would have signed. now, by the way, it was suggested that they pay is that the money that we spent, which was peanuts, and they said how dare you ask us for that? we are sovereign nation. how dare you, and they throw them out of the room. by the way, this is the duty of all duties.

beauties.auty of all dutie in iraq, they said we have destroyed their country and we want retribution and we want you to pay us back for the damage you have done in iraq. do you believe this? our leaders, they don't have it -- i wouldn't be surprised if the media. it is hard to even talk about. so you look at what is going on. you look at two cases -- i just use them as examples, iraq and libya. now, iraq was a very powerful nation. it took us three days in terms of wiping out their army. but we did not count on the people with the bombs and the this and the dirty pool that was played. but iraq was a counterbalance to

iran. for years and years and decades and decades, one would go 3 yards over and the other would go 3 yards over. one would use poison gas and the other would use something. but they were basically a identical. and they could not do anything. this was a natural chess that took place over many, many years. military check. we decapitated the iraqi army. so now iran is just waiting. at some point, there is no question, as sure as you're sitting here, unless something else happens first, like somebody wanting to get elected and the only way he will do it is to start a war with iran -- i will tell you what, if iran is negotiating now, they have to be crazy. i said this the other day. they are sitting on hot timber. they are really crazy if they are not negotiating. and, by the way, do, in my

opinion, want to negotiate. if you have someone who wants to have war because he does not want to excepting negotiation that could turn out to be much stronger than war and you could make a much better deal than war. but it could be better politics. i love this twitteromh smf -- the twittering and tweeting. it is the new-age. i always wanted to own a newspaper. now i own a newspaper and it did not cost me anything. it is unbelievable. [laughter] i predict there is a very good chance we will end up in a war with iran because i think it is politically possible we have a positive for obama, even though it is not a good thing for our country. and we're also talking about -- hey, look, i am the most militaristic person in this room and we got a lot of them, especially the sheriff who

picked me up at the plant. tough guy. that is why your crime is down. i love people like that. but i am the most militaristic person in this room. but you have to know where and when to go with it. i think we can do anything we want with iran. we don't even talk to them. the leader comes to new york city and nobody talked to him. he gets up at columbia university and a disgrace him with the worst statement. and you know what, i am only interested in the deal that is good for the country. let's see what happens with iran could but assuming it goes on or less the way it is going right now, iran will walk in and takeover rack like nothing to take over direct like nothing. and they will take over the second largest oilfield and reserves in the world. and we will have made that possible with their $1.50 trillion dollars and -- on $0.50

trillion and the thousands of lives that are wounded and dead. people in washington don't know what they're doing. it is a very sad thing. [applause] during my lifetime, i have always been told that a person of great accomplishment, somebody that is really, really successful cannot get elected president could cannot even run for office. and i am starting to see that. as an example, i have great, great respect and have learned a lot about him -- i know him well. he is a fantastic man, a fantastic guy, mitt romney. he really is. [applause] he has had great success. in fact, president bill clinton,

who i also like -- he said really nice things about me last night which shocked the hell out of everyone could he is a great guy. he is an honest guy in his own way. [laughter] but he said -- he is. but he was very, very, very positive on the business career of mitt romney. us night, magic last night, -- last night, piers morgan interviewed last night. it has become the biggest story. he interviewed president clinton, which was a great interview. the president was correct, although i don't think barack obama think so. they talk about the business career of mitt romney.

and the president, among other things, said it was sterling. the word "sterling" is powerful. that is a great word, especially nowadays with the dollar having problems with everything. [laughter] but the word "sterling" is a great word, a powerful word. i can imagine the white house must be going nuts. but he was honest. and the man has had a great business career. over the years, have seen him. i have always heard that, if you have accomplished something, if you have done something that is terrific, if you are a great businessman, which this country really, really needs. as i said, we're just being ripped left -- we don't know what we're doing. and it is just so important. but when president clinton made that statement, the word is today that the white house is livid.

if you know and if you have been watching -- and most of u.s. republicans have been watching the way i have been watching -- the original cell of -- the original salvo in the obama campaign was the romney business acumen. it was an attack. now you have cory booker, the mayor of newark, who came out and said you should not do that. and then must not, you had president clinton really, really giving positive kudos and just fantastic words of praise to mitt romney. and he did that because it was the right thing to do. and i assume that ends that particular attack because it will be very hard to continue to attack mitt romney from a business standpoint.

i'm sure there will find something else for the will try like hell. but it does tell you, when a man who has done so many wonderful things and can be attacked so viciously, it really is a tough life being a politician. i know we have plenty of politicians in the room. it is not easy. one of the reasons that i decided that i would not run -- as you know, was doing very well in the polls and i loved doing it -- i had to make a decision because i had so many things going. i don't want to bring up a very successful show called "the apprentice." i assume you all watch "the apprentice." summary said, because i brought up the birth certificate, i am -- somebody said, because a product the birth certificate, i am a racist. i have arsenio hall.

because i asked to see his college records, i would love to see them. there is one line called place of birth. i would like to see what he said. it would be very interesting. i don't care what his marks were could i just would like to see place of birth. perhaps it will save hawaii. perhaps it will say kenya appeared i would like to see place of birth. and they said racist. what does this have to do with racism? people are writing stories about what does it have to do. all other presidents have given their records. so this is really the reverse. as you know, last week, i just happened to have been -- and

just happen to have it in my pocket. this was from barack's publisher. it said, this is a book, printed -- this is printed. and it said barack obama was born in kenya and raised in indonesia and hawaii. ok, that is what it says, 1991. he is very protective. it is hard to believe. bill clinton last night actually said on television that it is pretty well the tournament -- he used "pretty" and not the word "determined." he said it is pretty well determined that he was born in

hawaii. i am not a believer. we will see what happens. but i am about jobs. i am about economic development. i don't really talking about the place of birth because, every time i get on a television show, i want to talk about jobs and what we can do and how we have all the cards. and they say, mr. trump -- i want to show how many jobs we create and we don't need saudi arabia and these other countries. [cheers and applause] frankly, we don't even need the canadian pipeline. i think it is great to have it. we don't need it could we have the soil right under our feet. by the way, i love canada. but we don't need it. technology has become so incredible today in terms of getting things come in terms of

getting what is under our feet give it has become so incredible that, 10 years ago, five years ago, nobody realized what we had. we are a tremendous power. you know, we should be a tremendous amount -- have number one customer of our coal -- to china. they use our coal, but we cannot use it. we have something called clean coal. let's assume it is "pretty clean," ok? [laughter] but we have coal. we are the saudi arabia of natural gas. it is hard to get it because of the regulations. we are beyond saudi arabia for cole. we're the best, the biggest. and it goes to china. by the way, china talks about carbon content -- believe me, they talk. it is all talk. you know what it is? it is all laudable -- it is all

a lot of bull. china is spewing more crack into the ear than ever before. i know more about it than barack obama will ever know. and green energy is fine. the problem is the great cost prevent me give you a great example. when bills are a great disaster. when you need the energy, -- windmills are a great disaster. when you need the energy, the wind is not blowing. when the wind blows, the sucker's explode. did you see it? the suckers blowup. they'll want windmills' until they say to put them in their backyard. go to cape cod and see how the environmentalists feel about windmills. there was the consummate else's neighborhood, but not in there's a good look at what happened to

ornia.prings, calif. you feel like you're in a bad version of disneyland. what it does to the environment, windmills are a disaster for the environment. you put them near plants and factories, that is one thing. but when you put them all over your countryside and the sort -- and destroy your countryside and it is a lousy form of energy -- you never heard of cylinder, i'm sure -- solyndra, i'm sure. i could see it going bed. but let it go back in three or four years, not like a couple of months later. [laughter] we'll run businesses. many of us have businesses big and you make good deals and you make bad deals, but they take

years to go bad. it is not 15 seconds after the loan is approved. it is unbelievable. so i think that this country has enormous potential. we have horrible leadership. [cheers and applause] if we had, as an example, the right people negotiating with some of the country's that are all laughing at our stupidity and who are all over the lot and everyone has a different deal and that is fine -- to me, it is very simple. i know people who are so horrible, that are so vicious -- in some cases, they're nice,

but they're great business people. some of them are nice, some are not. most are happy, some are not good but business is all they think about. they have no life. their names that you would have heard of. they went in lot. -- they win a lot. i don't like to call them friends. they almost cannot be friends. but i want the negotiating against the chinese, not a diplomat who has to be nice. you know what a double mass -- you noted diplomat does? they go to school and study how to be nice. you go home to your wife and say he was a nice person. china uses their best. they have a school system where, you are not good, boom, boom, boom, and they end up with

their best people. they have a system. i am not saying we should have a system, but we do have a system in our own way. you have people who have made a lot of money and have been really good and know what they're doing. why are we not using those people to do our negotiations against other countries? look at brazil. a friend of mine is buying an airplane. i said, a great, great. where are you buying it? brazil. i said, brazil? why are you buying it in brazil? i get a great tax credit. where do you get that tax credit? here. if i by the airplane, i can get a great tax credit. you mean, if they build their plan in brazil, you get a tax credit here? yes. it is like the bay bridge. it is like so many other things. and he didn't even think about it, but i thought about it. isn't that crazy? that is what is happening to our

country. that is really what is happening to our country. what has happened is i was having a great time running. i really liked it. i went up to new hampshire. great people. we had an amazing time. i was doing, as you all know, really well in the polls. i went to the white house correspondents' dinner. the press is so dishonest. the president of united states spent a lot of time talking about donald trump. i made -- i was in this room where i made this ballroom. and the president of the united states was telling, very respectfully, dol trump jokes. it is funny could -- donald trump jokes. it is funny. when i walked in, they said, do you think they