conducted. now live coverage of the u.s. house here on c-span. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.]

the speaker pro tempore: the house will be in order. the chair lays before the house a communication from the speaker. the clerk: the speaker's room, washington, d.c., may 27, 2014. i hereby appoint the honorable frank r. wolf to act as speaker pro tempore on this day. signed, john a. boehner, speaker of the house of representatives. the speaker pro tempore: the prayer will be offered by our uest chaplain, reverend alyssa hillo, here in washington. the chaplain: let us pray. god of each of us, on this

tuesday, after memorial day, we pause once more to give thanks for all in our armed forces and their immense sacrifice. strengthens us to support them in substantive ways. we also give thanks for all who serve, especially here -- each staffer, assistant and member of this house. we pray for colleagues still traveling and for loved ones left at home. we give thanks for friendships over the miles and pray for relationships in need of repair. ch servant makes sacrifice dailies. bless them, lord, as they live out this high calling. then remind each of us, as your prophet did that oobey is better than sacrifice. so make us obedient to your

love in all we do today. be it researching legislation or negotiating a compromise. help us obey your commands to love our enemies, serve the weak, seek peace and walk humbly with you. amen. the speaker pro tempore: thank you, chaplain. the chair has examined the journal of the last day's proceedings and announces to the house his approval thereof. pursuant to clause 1 of rule 1 the journal stands approved. the chair will lead the house in the pledge of allegiance. everyone, join me. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

pursuant to clause 4 of rule 1, the following enrolled bill was signed by the speaker pro tempore denham on friday, may 23, 2014. the clerk: h.r. 862, to authorize the conveyance of two small parcels of lands of the coke neo national forest that were developed based upon the reliance of the landowners in an erroneous survey conducted in may, 1960. the speaker pro tempore: the chair lays before the house a communication. the clerk: the honorable the speaker, house of representatives, sir, pursuant to the permission granted in clause 2-h of rule 2 of the rules of the u.s. house of representatives, the clerk received the following message from the secretary of the senate on may 27, 2014, at 10:46 a.m., that the senate agreed to the conference report accompanying the bill h.r. 3080. signed sincerely, karen l. haas.

the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the house stands adjourned until noon >> again the house returns for legislative business tomorrow at noon eastern. work expected on 2015 federal spending as well as debate on $51 billion for the commerce and justice departments. the senate is back monday, june 2, at 2:00 p.m. eastern. senators will debate civil vila burwell's nomination to replace kathleen sebelius as health and human service secretary. you can see it live here on c-span when they gavel back in. the senate live on our companion network, c-span2. president obama will come to the cameras this afternoon in the white house rose garden. the a.p. reporting the president announcing a plan to extend the stay of about 9,800 troops in afghanistan after the war formally ends and will withdraw those forces by 2016. that's according to senior administration officials. we are planning live coverage of the president's statement at 2:45 eastern here on c-span. also live today remarks from

donald trump. he is the luncheon speaker at the national press club today. we'll have live coverage starting at 1:00 p.m. eastern. later today it's a look at iraqi politics and security issues hosted by the american enterprise institute. can you see that live starting at 1:30 eastern. it will be on c-span3. . one -- one of the stories that resonated with me was the moment when they're dithering about whether or not they need to inject sea water into unit 1, and it's a matter of -- the clock is ticking and they're just about down to the wire. plant superintendent who in the end would have to make the final caw knows that it's desperate -- call knows

that it's desperate. meanwhile, everyone wants a say and the top officials and japanese officials are hemming and hawing. and they get the call from one of the supervisors that the president hasn't signed off. well, he's already started. and so he basically calls one of his staff people over and says, ok, i'm going to give an order but ignore it. so he very loudly proclaims so emp in tokyo can hear, halt the sea water when in fact they didn't. to me that was a human element in that story in which in japan and ignoring the rules kind of acting on your own is not rewarded. here was a moment where a guy knew that if he didn't act things would go even worse than they were going.

>> more about the tsunami and resulting meltdown at the fukushima nuclear power plant saturday night at 10:00 eastern on "after words." part of book tv this weekend on c-span2. >> and foreign policy challenges facing the administration, including the situations in syria and ukraine and instability in iraq, libya and egypt from today's "washington journal." "washingto. host: we are back with dan raviv , cbs news' national correspondent, talking about middle east foreign policy challenges for the president. is there trouble ahead? why are there challenges? guest: isn't there always? the big topics right now are russia's move into ukraine, grabbing crimea, still pressuring with a lot of violence. what else comes to mind echo the middle east. the u.s. was trying to mediate between the uas -- between the

israelis and palestinians. it fell apart two weeks ago, and i don't think secretary john state kerry is willing to put his prestige into it again. so the u.s. lost two points there. the syrian civil war treasury, were the u.s. is not absolutely what side it is on -- not absolutely sure what side it is on and who we favor. we feel challenged by china, and then we get these occasional crises like the u.s. wants to -- theyd the could net kidnapped schoolgirls in nigeria. barack obama i am sure wakes up to a basket load of foreign issues every moment -- every morning. host: egypt, too. guest: since the overthrow of hosni mubarak come in who was an ally of the u.s. -- maybe not a nice guy, a dictator -- but

since then the u.s. has not been sure about what it wants in egypt. we had a muslim brotherhood government. now we have a military led government, almost for sure. the u.s. has to decide what the attitude is. we are a major source of aid to egypt. will we use our clout? how can we effect that important country. host: the financial times this morning -- "trouble abroad. u.s. foreign-policy barack obama is accused of timidity oversight. a he still seems to be in tune with the republic mr. obama faces, but now the accusation that there is too little. even john kerry seemed to this international

perception in a speech last week. we cannot allow a hangover from the excessive interventionism of the last decade to lead now to access of isolationism -- to in excess of isolationism." [applause] almost everybody in the past few years has been saying, what is the united states what is with the united states? is it possible that president obama wants the u.s. to take a small role? there are some signs of that. derisively, as this described as the white house leading from behind. that is terrific. -- other countries begin pitch in. we don't have to put men and women in uniform at risk. there is that big? then maybe that is what mr. obama wanted. we will speak tomorrow about the international agenda.

guest: a reset on some topics, all those that you and i just mentioned, i think the president touched on that last point. host: what does he need to say to the sources you're talking about, the sources saying what is going on with the united states? guest: i expect president obama will say the united states is still a leader. ent like "get a statem we are the beacon of hope." some people who are now in the obama administration say the previous administrations did far too much, starting with the war in iraq, which they say was not necessary. after that, afghanistan, which was mishandled. the pendulum always swings too far, so i can see the criticism that the obama administration so much did not want to be george w. bush and dick cheney, that perhaps they have swung too far the other way.

speech thathat we will have tomorrow sound like past speeches? guest: remember mad libs, where you had to fill in words, etc.? the theme of the united states in general supporting general freedom does not change much. -- you current topics have to say something about the syrian civil war, something about russia's challenge in ukraine and perhaps elsewhere, so there are recurring topics. this is closely watched around the world, so, yes, i think obama foreign-policy is important. it affects where countries invest. will foreigners buy our bonds? are they interested in american stock market? will they build new factories in this country? raviv is our guest this morning. we are talking about foreign-policy challenges in the

middle east. raviv, the front page of "the new york times" yesterday shows this picture of pope francis taking an unscheduled stop sunday at the concrete barrier separating bethlehem from jerusalem. he has gotten both sides to agree to come to the vatican for a prayer session. what does this do to the efforts from the united states for mideast peace? what does it say about the challenges there? i don't think there will be much lasting impact. thes nice that the pope got president and the 90-year-old former president, share on -- sharon peres. it is a nice thing, and believe me, there are israelis and palestinians to definitely want him to get along, want to avoid violence. it is just that their leaders and negotiators cannot seem to

come to terms for the future shape of a palestinian state, and what rights would be. was the sovereignty would or would not be through the army, things like that. always saying it is about security. the palestinians wanting dignity and a decent independent nation. i don't think we have gotten any .loser with that com with the israelis say about the wall in bethlehem -- and it runs really as a fence or a wall for many miles, separating the west tank from israel. the israelis say it prevents is suicide bombers from getting through, and there have been hardly any since this ugly barrier was put up. so netanyahu got to say to the pope yesterday that is while though wall is there. and he asked the pope for a matching visit celebrating the wall in jerusalem. the pope getting rehabilitated.

one person went to that wall to, again, showing in even had -- and he preached to both sides -- please, let's go toward peace. do not misuse religion for violence. why is this being put on the forefront by the pope? what does this mean in the broader area of the middle east? guest: i am not sure the israeli-palestinian issue is an issue for the pope. for christians around the world, jerusalem is a holy city. anything in the holy land and jerusalem is always important, it is always there. when the pope got on his plane and was questioned by reporters, the headline shifted to the suspect -- to the subject of abuse, of young people by priests. that became the headline. the pope got back to regular business. he was asked by reporters about scandal having to do with vatican financing. it seems all the leaders in the

world -- yes, even pope francis -- they spend a little time on the israeli-palestinian dispute. they have spent nine months on it, but also our fingers are burned. we do not make any progress, and we back off for a while. host: what is going on with iran and our allegations toward nuclear power? guest: the u.s. is part of six and they reached an interim deal last november and now there is another clock ticking. according to the clock, by late july, we are supposed to reach a furnace single or extend the talks for another six months or so. is notd is, iran going to stop the iraqi heavy water reactor. it can be used to build plutonium bombs.

wants to stopwest that, but iran says it is all for peaceful purposes. but i have this feeling it has to go one way or the other by july. either we will make a breakthrough, the in agreement. the west, including the u.s., would cancel many of the ironic sanctions. that is what the a rainy and we get. we might return to the armed military threat. there might be a strike on iran's nuclear facilities during host host: hi, jeffrey. you are on the air. good morning. comment is i am sick and tired people talking about what president obama is not

doing. why don't they get together and work for this country and try to do something that we can benefit and try helping him instead of trying to bring down and destroyed him western mark --? that he have to mention won the nobel peace prize in his first year in office during around the world, there was surprise at that. it was the hope that he would be very different. that he would not be george w. bush. that is in part why we hear disappointment around the world. he will tell you that european alliances are better than ever despite big bumps in the road the the nsa being caught by snowden lakes having eavesdropped on the german chancellor's phone calls and all sorts of other spying. are tripsell you that

are good. he is improved rations -- relations. one thing that the caller should remember is that we are in an election year. electionsidterm coming up, we are going to hear a lot of criticism that says it has been a failure. taken all in balance. host: this is a tweet from one of our viewers. how important is it for the white house to state their policy to the world? it is not always one-size-fits-all. there are various parts of the world where we have taken the side of an authoritarian government that we might not like. that was true in egypt for years. obama administration is not proud when it is linked with

authoritarian rulers, but maybe you have to. the u.s. military is helping in the search for the kidnapped schoolgirls in nigeria. it has the other day been hard to deal with the military because the units are accused of human rights violations. you can't just say one thing that is going to work everywhere. area -- the miami herald reports that the girls have been located. i usually work on the radio. the chief military officer of nigeria announces that we know where they are. it was a heated encounter. a lot of protesters of gone to the capital. another crowd of came out to

support the government on this issue. is the army doing enough to find the girls? he gave a speech. he said we know where the girls are. we can't yet them up. you don't want us to go in because they might kill the girls. we are taking action. i have heard this from other officials about the military in nigeria, they are not necessarily reliable. don't believe everything they say. i haven't gotten any confirmation that the girls have been located. the it was reported or assumed that they have been broken up into small groups. in,: richard rogers tweets too many countries are holding america's jacket. guest: that has changed. we had members of nato taking

part of afghanistan. i still feel the united states is making it clearer than ever that if we intervene in a situation and we try to help, there might be a civil war in south sudan that is suffering horrible violence, the u.s. supports the african union or another group. sound a littleto bit like we are holding the coat and giving them a lot of money and advice and hoping that the local forces will take care of it. host: at this point, the pope is a better the amount -- diplomat. i am wondering why nobody mentions that israel has 500 nuclear warheads? howt: my book talks about

they developed a nuclear arsenal. secret.his is in the general take is that if anybody has these weapons, we have to after what happened during world war ii and the holocaust. never again can we be defenseless. what do you do with nuclear weapons? your phone call is fascinating. they are not going to use it to solve the palestinian issue or protect the borders or stop terrorists from crossing and attacking israelis. nuclear weapons, chemical weapons, what do you do on the ground? where do you need police roadblocks and checkpoints? can you set up a palestinian state that will live side-by-side in peace? i am still hopeful that it will happen. host: what about the numbers

question mark --? you're going to think that they keep building more. you replacending is or renovate. by can be the strategist, there is no reason that they meet -- need more than 200 nuclear weapons. they can put them on missiles or submarines. i think offer the israelis don't mind the leaks that make some of their neighbors afraid of them. host: we will go to michael in california. caller: i am trying to clarify some terms. interventionalism include

the incineration of 3000 americans. is that the prize your warden for not liberating 56 million souls? i will take your answer off the phone. guest: george w. bush did some terrific things. he responded to 9/11 in a way that the american people wanted. were being sheltered in afghanistan. we are overthrowing the taliban and we will get al qaeda on the run. in part because of the decision to also invade iraq, a lot of the pressure was listed in afghanistan. osama bin laden got away. the bush administration incredibly, wonderfully helped with various health programs fighting aids in africa.

african countries are very grateful to the united states. in every administration, there is good and bad. i take your point. host: we have a caller in las vegas. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. the president's forms -- foreign policy. i agree with everything he is saferas far as being a nation and safer world. nations of the world, we are being more of a leader at .ome

guest: i will answer that. c-span always has a great mix. i will put it in the foreign-policy basket. the obama administration does see as its main duty to keep americans safe around the world. especially here in the 50 states. that means counterterrorism. you may see barack obama as a liberal and wonder why he would support the nsa. why would they need all that metadata from phone calls? as president sees his duty keeping americans safe from terrorism. people ask if we are safer before 9/11 and i would say yes. obviously, what those hijackers that is not going

to happen. they might attack us in different ways and the administration is aware of that. host: we have a democratic color in philadelphia. caller: i just wanted to say that my personal opinion is we as americans don't have ourselves together. we can keep ourselves protected. overseas. involved here.e too many issues i feel like we need to get ourselves together first and then we can lend a helping hand where it is needed. into everyed to jump single situation that arises. they can't handle their own situations.

everyone has to go through something in order to get somewhere. if it has an with us, i can see that. maybe we are protecting our interests in countries or a region. wrong there is nothing with that. nations do do that. i sympathize and empathize with the the caller is saying, i would be concerned if we hold back. the whole world still looks to the u.s. to find out what we think and what we will do. we are big and we have a responsibility from the in big. chew gum at the same time. we can work on our domestic priorities. we can improve education and our

inner cities and pass a farm bill and at the same time have an effective foreign-policy. foreign-policy is very little. it is less than one percent of the federal budget. it gives us clout when we decide to use it. host: janet is a republican caller in west virginia. caller: i want to talk about the palestinians and israel. that will never happen. they do not want peace. they have a little country over there. why don't they leave them alone? they can't let their guard down. they will according to the bible and that will be too late. when you said they, you meant israel? caller: yes.

guest: there you are. we are hearing hope and i don't want to be presumptuous, but that could be faith-based hope. there are a lot of churches. american jews are only two percent of the population who care about israel. a lot of evangelical christians care about the holy land. they usually take israel's side. they are being stubborn about security. they have tried to help the palestinians. they make a point that israel is so concerned about security that there are too many checkpoints and roadblocks that keep women from getting to the hospital when they are pregnant. they add up to a situation. you can see why kerry wants to change it last year. he could not get them to agree.

you can see why everyone is concerned. we would like peace there. what is happening just to the north with 160,000 people killed in three years of civil war with 2 million refugees, it is far worse. there we are just confused and we are not helping at much and russia is pouring weapons into the assad government. that is going on and on with more killing. host: let's take a look inside iran. iranianst of a young because of the happy video. what is the story. there is a battle in iran between hard-liners and moderates. the hardliner is the supreme leader of the country. the president who was elected for more is our hope

moderation. some cynics may say that they can't be moderate. he certainly wanted to appear moderate. he visited new york and found himself chatting on the phone with barack obama. what a breakthrough considering the hostage crisis that we lived through. there's a chance of better relations. the hard-liners don't want it here and some young people when in an videoed themselves and put it on youtube of them dancing. it all looked happy to pharrell williams song. they were arrested and they are to be prosecuted. that is the warning that they don't want to be western. that can affect the nuclear issue. that can affect iran as an oil exporter.

it can affect them as a supporter of hezbollah. would a moderate government be easier to get along with? probably. the hard-liners chant "death to america." of theirt do they make moderate president and the things he says and does? prolific tweeter. tweets, he hired an agency to do that. an agency and in english some people say it is in the u.s. and some people say it is in london. he tweets himself in farsi. he believes in communication. if you can't beat them, join them. streetember the

demonstrations. they were using youtube and twitter. the government is saying we can use it to. host: we have a democratic color. in order to understand what is going on in the middle east, a couple of things have to be taken into account. israeli plan and the byer is the clean break plan people at the brookings institute and the other washington think tanks. the intent is to change the world in the middle east to israel's liking. host: what evidence do you have of that? i have been and tetley

studying this issue. guest: wesley clark has written a book and cited seven states that were targets of these plans. book pretextd's for war. there is a sentiment and i have heard that reference before to wesley clark. guest: i am going to have to check out that book. other books begin with an animus toward the state of israel. state wasewish established in 1948 after world war ii, there was a lot of sympathy around the world including in the united states. 6 million jews had just been murdered by the not sees. israel was a small, growing economy.

they were likable. the six-day war happened in 1967 and at first, that was cheered. israel defend itself i all of the surrounding arab countries and defeat them in six days. that has been an albatross for the israelis. gaza is still a problem. they did pull out in 2005. the golan heights, syria demanded back. the west bank is what we are really talking about. this is where we have problems. there is this feeling of humiliation. settlers say they have a right that goes back to the biblical years to be there. the west bank and jerusalem are the real problems.

reading on having covered israel for decades is that it security,a search for that concerned that its back is against the wall. it is the real israeli viewpoint. they have to have spies all over the region. i have written about espionage a lot. that drives the israelis. i don't think they want to dominate the region. they believe they have real reason to be concerned that there arab neighbors to not accept them. they're still searching for full acceptance. ben is a democratic color. caller: i have a question about the changing dynamic of the conflict in the middle east. this is something that has

diminished the role of a formal negotiations as a way to resolve conflict. to news given way approaches. this is something commentators don't mention things like the boycott and sanctions movement that has the israelis very concerned. things such as the reliance on the palestinian's on international law. in especially through the u.n. the pope is referring to the state of palestine. society and civil the churches, especially in europe but increasingly in the united states. the churches are starting to play a role a little

bit reminiscent of the abolitionists and the civil rights movement. this is generally on the palestinian side. guest: the government of israel is concerned about these things and believes the boycott movement could be a danger. see it to their credibility and acceptance. that has always been there concerned. now, the rest of the world is questioning whether or not there should be a jewish state. what secretary of state kerry told the israelis is if you don't reach an agreement with , thislestinian government is going to go on and on and palestinians are going to have more children and they

might outnumber you. you could wind up with an apartheid situation. you are ruling over a majority that you are not giving full rights to. carry with through the term apartheid. toe factions of israel want move quickly toward peace. netanyahu and his cabinet are very cautious and reluctant to make concessions. what about international law? palestinianses the a sense that they have more credibility. that means a lot. they have a seat in the u.n. general assembly. they want their credibility. the is a theme in much of arab world and islamic countries. we should recognize that. people's dignity should be respected.

they also won their rights. arab was never a state of palestine before 1967. achievedtinians have peoplehood. everybody seems to agree there should be two states, israel and palestine. host: marie is in reno, nevada. caller: can you hear me? my question is why do we keep giving billions of dollars to israel when we could bring that money back to the u.s. infrastructure and start having loans and grants so we can start manufacturing? guest: there are a few reasons. we are very close to the capital.

it is a very small percentage of foreign aid. israel has been a top recipient of u.s. foreign aid. host: it is not anymore? it is afghanistan, but that has probably been scaled back. we're only talking about two or $3 billion a year. aid, it is being reduced as well. it is not financial aid, it is military aid. usually there are strings attached. the aid ino spend the u.s. and buy american products. u.s. defenser the industry to have foreign customers. israel tried out the weapons. their technology is top notch.

they give feedback as to how these things work. host: elite u.s. troops are helping africans combat terror. special operations are forming elite counterterrorist organizations. guest: if you were to meet someone who is on leave from the whereif you asked them they have been lately they might tell you unbelievable places.

in military is giving advice small teams and all sorts of countries that have a terrorism threat. it is often from some al qaeda affiliate. in africa, there are several. that is potent. there are others, even in nigeria where they kidnapped the schoolgirls. n al qaeda affiliate. we think it is important to keep an eye on them. occasionally we will send local -- military teams to train the locals to be more effective. have countries in africa that could be taken over if we are not vigilant. an independent

scholar in lynchburg, virginia. my question is, in 1948 ,hen israel was established that was the geneva conference. [inaudible]erence, we're going to have to let you go. it is difficult to hear. commentyou just made a that prior to 1967, there was no palestinian state. jordan controlled the west bank and egypt controlled gaza. why did they call for a palestinian state?

when people referred to palestinians, they were talking about jews. put the toothpaste back in the tube. good luck with your book. guest: that is a strong point in the end. you can't reverse history. the palestinians have achieved a sense of april hood. -- peoplehood. you cannot reverse that. i was pointing out that it changed a lot since 1867. some of it was achieved by the late yasser arafat. byput the plo on the map carrying out tell of -- terrorism. it has been a weird 50 years. a time magazine graphic that was put together.

this is from march of this year. guest: the reason for that would domeeating the iron technology. the israelis are the test case, financing it.s criticizeans president obama for the surprise visit to the troops. he did notpset that meet with the outgoing resident. it is pretty obvious. president obama had no intention of going into the capital city. he was at the airbase and addressed the troops and had an

important meeting in the -- with the u.s. ambassador. he had no intention of seeing afghanistan's leader. he did notouse said want to interfere with the election taking place. that they don't care for him. he is the outgoing president. when he leaves, the white house will say good. otherwise we are not going to lock in any of the benefits. you can see where that would violate protocol and insult him. when a new president is installed, we need that follow-up. host: we have a democratic

caller from texas. i have a question and a comment. think alln is do you .f latin america host: we are wanting guest: there are so many parts of the world where the u.s. is involved and we don't talk about latin america and south america much in the news but the u.s. is really important there. africa, we're talking about a terrorism threat. europe, do they feel threatened by russia? these are bi

>> shortly businessman donald trump will speak to the luncheon audience. he's been a real estate broker, reality tv host and hinted he may run for president in 2016. we'll hear all he has to say in about five minutes or so at 1:00 eastern here on c-span. right now, though, a portion of a conversation with -- about the conservative movement and the legislative agenda for the future from this morning's "washington journal." host: we want to welcome back to the table ramesh ponnuru. let me show you the headline from the wall street journal on may 21. gop primaries taming the tea party. is that what happened? entireit does show the -- the entire primary season shows republicans are not in the middle of a civil war. the party has long-running and manageable actions.

.e partiers are disorganized it is a tendency rather than a kind of organized faction area when folks affiliated with that faction are running credible candidates and smart campaigns to win as they did in nebraska, and when they are not, they do not win. what about the ones here who represent the tea party i'll be out -- ideology on capitol hill and the influence they have over the public policy debate? this --noticed that precisely because it is a disorganized movement, jessica ackley who belongs and who does not shifts over time. a lot of the folks elected in 2010, some people say they are not he partiers anymore and they have abandoned the movement. other people say, they just never signed up for a particular interpretation of what the tea party means. i would say the general sense we need to have --

that we need to have a republican party more committed to shrinking government and spending and tackling long-term debt problems, those things are issues on which tea parties -- he partiers have had enormous success. the tea party as a whole has move in that direction. host: is tea party influence declining on capitol hill? guest: i would not say that. isould say the tea party being folded into the republican party generally. that is the sort of thing that is happening to the new group that tried to come into the republican party. it happened with the christian right in 0870's and 1980's. there are some tensions when you have got a new group of people with slightly different priorities and different ideas, but overall, parties are very of vision. the political parties are very of agent at managing the problems and adjusting to them. class what does that mean for the agenda?

what does it mean for the agenda heading into november, the general elections and after that as well? there is a question that cuts across the tea party divide. there are republicans who think we do not need to have a can of if agenda and the opposition to resident obama and his agenda will be enough to carry them through the election. that is probably a little bit more on the establishment side of things. there are folks on both sides who say, we need to have an alternative, we need to show people. this is where i'd identify myself. we need to show not only that the presidential agenda is wrong for our country, but that there is a better way. mcconnell was recently at the american enterprise institute causes conservative metropolitan forum. after his i marry win. primary win.

this is what he had to say on what the gop focus should be. >> it should also be admitted that our rush to defend the american entrepreneur from daily recommendations that pursues any enterprise that is profit making with suspicion. the average voter is not john -- it is a good impulse, to be sure. revolve around aging parents, long commutes, shrinking budgets, and obscenely high tuition bills, these homes to entrepreneurism are a practical matter, largely irrelevant. the audience is probably a lot smaller than we think area -- think. i was there when senator mcconnell made those remarks and i thought they were spot on. the story of the heroic entrepreneur who is stifled by

regulations and taxes is very important. it is a story the free market party has to tell. conservatives need to do -- to be aware it is not a story that identifyost americans with. we heard in the convention in 2012 a lot of talk about job creators. that is fine. most americans are not job creators. they are jobholders. in recent years, they have been job seekers. host: there is a headline. may 21. "conservative jeff manifesto help republicans draft republican voters." -- middle-class voters." in that tax overhaul that benefits middle-class parent, modified student loans system, opposed immigration overhaul, borders only secure, opposition to same-sex marriage and

abortion. what you think of the manifesto and is this the right focus? guest: the manifesto he was writing about recently is something i have been deeply involved in. is about reforms that could limit the government and help the middle-class. the idea of the book is to show that conservative ideas are not just philosophically sound, something conservatives spent a great deal of time doing. it is also to show that applying conservative ideas would use -- yield practical benefits on a range of issues. we actually do not like so much about the immigration question, for example, in this, the conservators to the book have different views on the issue. i certainly have my own views on it. the main idea is that we cannot keep feeding these large areas to the left,ll see

making policies more -- a liberal concern and we will not advance ideas on it or think or how to do this. apply insight to >> we are live now at the national press club where lurnon speaker donald trump. we join as the guests are being announced. >> id' like to welcome our c-span and public radio audiences. follow the action on twitter using the #npclunch. after our guest speech concludes, we'll have a question and answer period. i will ask as many questions as time permits. now it's time to introduce our head table guests. i'd like each of you to stand briefly as your name is announced. schlaffer ight, alan

president of the wharton school club in d.c. thank you for bringing in so many alumni to this luncheon today including four at the head table. herb jackson, washington correspondent for the record. shioko, contributing editor for the globalist. matthew, president and c.e.o. of hiltsick strategies. mark, washington bureau creef and former npc president. ivanka trump, executive vice president for development and acquisitions for the trump organization, and a guest of our speaker. jerry, the buffalo dues washington bureau chief, chairman of the national press club speaker's committee and a past n.p.c. president. skipping over our guest of honor for a moment, mary lou donahue, president artistically speaking and organizer of today's event. thank you very much. david, senior vice president for acquisition and development of

the trump organization. and guest of our speaker. natalie, breaking news reporter for "usa today." lonwan, press secretary for the representative office. mark, senior associate editor for kiplinger washington editors and n.p.c. membership secretary. [applause] donald trump has become the most recognized businessman in the world. whether in real estate, sports, or entertainment, he is a consummate deal maker. his real estate holdings span the world. trump's latest project is a luxury hotel in the old post office building just a few blocks from here. millions know him from his television programs. the apprentice" and "celebrity

apprentice," you're fired is surely one of the most quoted catch phrases of all time. he's also an author of several best-selling books, including "how to think like a billionaire." donald trump has also flirted with politics. suggesting but then dropping the idea of a presidential run in 2000 as a third party candidate, and in later years as a republican candidate. he also considered then dropped the idea of running for governor of new york this year. and most recently trump has raised the possibility that he might want to make a bid to buy the nfl's buffalo bills. through it all trump has been a careful manager of his own brand. he's been highly successful in business in part because he has made managing that brand central to his strategy. self-branding is a concept journalists never considered a few decades ago.

today, though, many journalists make an attempt to heed the advice trump outlined in a 2008 book chapter, i quote, "you are literally your own brand whether you have a business or not. if you are serious about what you are doing, take a responsibility for building your own brand, that starts now." trump is here today to tell us about building the trump brand. let me say, mr. trump, your brand i'm convinced helped generate a sellout crowd today in the ballroom at the national press club, including people standing in the balcony, we did so in the matter of days. ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming to the national press club, mr. donald trump. [applause] >> thank you very much. this is a great group. thank you. if if sold out so fast, the first question i asked myron today is why didn't you raise ticket prices?

you could have raised money? that's all branding. 25 bucks, that's so cheap. he said it's the same whether it doesn't sell at all or whether it sells out like crazy. i think they are going to revisit that. are you going to? you're thinking about it. it's an honor to be with you. i will tell you this that our country, which i love very dearly, is in serious trouble. but the old post office building, right down the road on pennsylvania avenue, is not. it is going to be spectacular. we are building something that's going to be amazing. we are going to be spending more than $200 million. when it's completed in a very short period of time, probably about 18 months, it will be one of the great hotels of the world, and you'll have it right here in washington. it's going to be really something. [applause] we are building projects all over the world. cure ral, you know about doral in miami. that was sort of a another thing. we looked to buy and fix and make them great. and we'd like to get the right

ones. doral is 800 acres right smack in the middle of miami, right next to the airport. tiger woods won the tournament a year ago. he was there again this year. hurt his back, unfortunately, he will be back. i hope. tiger will be back. we have had tremendous success with doral, and we have rebuilt it. it's been an incredible thing. i just got back from due by and it was interesting. -- dubai, and it was interesting. we were in the middle east, and somebody said a very wealthy person over there was smelling the air, you could smell it will a little sense of like a gasoline smell or oil smell. they said, oh, donald, i love that smell. it means money. now, in this country you're not allowed to have that because the environmentalists don't let you have it. i, by the way, happen to be in my own way an environmentalist. i've gotten many, many awards. we can't go to the extent where the country suffers. and the country is suffering greatly. we build all over the world. we get to know people all over

the world. and we have a lot of fun. we have a lot of fun doing it. when i spoke with the national press club, they asked me would i speak about branding and talking about branding, and what makes branding so special and so important. there are a lot of things. it started with me, very early on, by having success. when you're successful, that sort of creates a little bit of a brand. and then i get a number of billings. i started in brooklyn, with my father, brooklyn and queens, and we had some good successes. hi some good successes. it's a little bit in sports. if you sink that first three footer in golf, you have confidence for the rest of the round. if you get a home run when you are at-bat, you have confidence. well, when you have early success, it gives you confidence. i had a lot of lot of early success. hi a wonderful mentor, wonderful father, fred trump, who loved brooklyn real estate. loved brooklyn. he spent a lot of time there. never wanted to come into manhattan. he just loved queens and

brooklyn because that's what he knew. he was good at it. i learned negotiators from him and contractors and how they can rip you off. there is nobody smarter than a contractor who can't read or write. they are smarter than wharton, they are smarter than harvard. these are geniuses. you can imagine what's going on because you see what's going on in the contry. i hear that the website for obamacare is up to $5 billion for a website. i do websites. and of they cost $3. you hire some guy. or some woman. they could be young, they could be old. i got in trouble, you hire some young guy. they said, well, what about older people? you can hire anybody to do a website. you know what? i have some of the best websites in the world. you can look at every one of my projects as a website. some are very complex. they cost us peanuts if you know what you're doing.

we are up to almost $5 billion and it's really -- obviously it's a very, very sad thing. so in terms of branding, you have success. whether it's doral, whether it's many, many jobs that i built, but what happened about 20 years ago i built a building, fifth avenue and 57th street, called trump tower. it's been tremendously successful. right next to tiffany. bought the air rights over tiffany, if i had the right to call it tiffany tower, that was before people knew about trump so much. i was doing really well. real estate. the world didn't know too much about trump. perhaps it was a better place if you think about it. i had the right to do something and a lot of people said you have to do it. that was call it, tiffany power. i bought that right. i was going to call it tiffany tower.

hi a friend who was very smart and streetwise guy. what do you think about calling the building tiffany tower. when you change your name to tiffany call it tiffany tower. i gave up a valuable right and called it trump tower and it was a tremendous success. many other buildings all over new york. and then all over the world. we are doing some incredible things in the middle east. we are doing some incredible things in china and asia. we are doing some incredible -- we have a magnificent hotel that opened recently in panama. it's been tremendous. they have been successful. and it feeds on 2 self -- it sefment perhaps the brand gets better and better. i think it all began with the great suckcies of trump tower. best location in new york. most visible building. most -- highest retail space anywhere in the world. gucci is there, my primary tenant. nowhere in the world you get rents like you get on that one block. i always heard the tiffany

location. that's the best location. who would have thought i someday would have the tiffany location. that's what happened. so the success really fed on itself. and then i did a book thinking, you know, what's the big deal with doing a book snill' do a book. it was exciting, and random house was the publisher. it was called, "the art of the deal." it became the number one best-selling book on "the new york times" list and every list for many, many months and almost a full year. and i remember on the fictional side it was bonfire of the vanities and us. these were the two books. the whole year. "trump the art of the deal" and "bonfire of vanities" and it was a great honor. it was great thing to have a number one selling book. it turned out to be probably, according to everybody's count, the biggest selling business book of all time. there's never been a business book that sold like trump, the art of the deal. it was such a great honor.

that's branding. then i had the apprentice. the apprentice was interesting. mark brew net, who was hot at the time, young. smart. he was renting the skating rink. the city took eight years, couldn't get toped. i took it over, got it opened in three months for a fraction of the cost. that was a pretty well-known thing. that was pretty well-known. tells you about government. i'm talking about all government. but that was a disaster. the rink just wouldn't open. my daughter here, who is so wonderful, i wanted her to go ice skating. ivanka, she's here with us. she kept saying, daddy, do you think i'll ever be able to go ice skating? i went to see ed koch, the mayor, do me a favor. can i build it? i go down there and watch and they would have three -- massive space. they would have 300 or 400 people sitting in the rink doing nothing for years. so i said let me take it over. i took it over. very interesting story about the

lowman rink. when the city designed it they went to a refrigeration company from miami. who wants refrigeration -- they do refrigerators but they don't do ice skating rinks. they recommended a what's called freon, a gas that goes through a copper pipe. and if you have one little hole, there's miles of it, like a pin hole, it doesn't work because the gas escapes. so they couldn't get it to make the ice because they would have a pin hole. besides that everybody would steal it. they put this beautiful copper piping down and the tubing would be all over the rink and they go back the next day and it was gone. people were stealing it. it wasn't working. they poured it down. finally they poured and it never worked because there were like 4,000 little holes all over the place. what did i do? first thing i did was say wait a minute, there must be something wrong. so i sent up to the montreal canadiens. if you want to make ice, you call the canadians, right? there's nothing wrong with a

little canadian help. i spoke to somebody at the montreal canadians. they were nice. sent somebody down. he said mr. trump they are using the wrong system. they are using gas. and explained how you can't capture it. what we want is brine. brine is water with salt in it. ok. and the tubing isn't copper that costs a fortune. it's rubber. so we put the tubing down. then i'll never forget, the surface is so massive, we had cement mixers backed up all the way to harlem. we did one pour. they went all the way back up to harlem. all the way through the park. and i had it built in three months. after 8 1/2 years. believe me, most of it was demolition. most of it was demolition. things can be done. if you look at government and if you look at what happens. so we are at the rink and mark brunette and cbs leased it because they were having the finale of survivor. they built a village in the middle of the rink and it was live television. and he said i'd like to see donald trump. is that possible?

i said sure, let me see. we met. i have an idea i want to do but i'll only do it if it's you. and he turned out to be right about that because they had 15 copies of "the apprentice" i love it. all of them failed and failed badly. they failed like you never saw. don't we love that when your opponents fail? i love it. i don't know about you. i'm not sure our country loves it. i love it. what happens is so they had 15 copies. i could give you names, but maybe i will anyway. you had mark cuban copy, total failure. lasted for two nights. martha stewart. richard branson. tommy hilfiger. all these copies, they had 15 all together. they were all off. mark said to me, you know, i'd love to do it and i had an agent. you believe i had a hollywood agent. the biggest. he said, don't do it. i said it's too late.

i shook hands with mark brunette. he said what difference does that make? it's hollywood. doesn't mean -- handshake doesn't mean anything in hollywood. i said but i shook hand. donald, 97% of the shows that go on television fail. i didn't know that. what do i know? i never did television before. he said, of the one that is make it they don't make it big and you'll have a great embarrassment. in the history of television there's never been a business-type show that worked. so i said i still have a problem. i wish i knew this before. i would have never done t i shook his hand. it means a lot in life. it means a lot even toward branding. i don't want to do t i called mark, i said do you think i could get out of it? he said you shook my hand. so we did it. so the show opens. and it opened at number 10, which is massive. when you're number 10, that's a big show. it opens at number 10. it goes down to number eight. it then goes down to number five. in three weeks. it then goes to two and then

goes to one. and i knew how big it was because the head of nbc television and the head of nbc called me up. i never met them. he said, it was 7:00 in the morning. and he called me up he said, donald, hello, i just wanted to wish you happy birthday. i said i never spoke to the guy. called me for a happy birthday. she's showing weakness. you have to remember. -- he's showing weakness. you have to remember. i get call from the chairman of nbc, fantastic guy, he calls and he said, happy birthday, donald. is everything good? i'm feeling great, thank you very much. my wife said, who was that? that was the chairman of nbc. they wished me a happy birthday before you did. so i knew that i had a big hit. and it went on and on, and the interesting thing is that was in the age of friends. that was the last year of "friends." we started and took their place. i'm just saying to myself this is something. and it just tells you about

branding. you never know what's going to happen. you have to take risks in life. you just have to do t the end result of that story, though, is the agent called my. he goes, mr. trump, i'd like to see you at your earliest convenience. about what? i think i'm entitled to a commission. your show went to number 1. you have the number one show on television. and i honestly think i'm entitled to a commission. i said, jim, you didn't want to do the show. you told me don't do the show. you told me break the deal. what are you talking about? i said, by the way, what kind of money are you talking about? he said, would $3 million be fair? i said, jim, you're fired. i fired him. that was the last i ever heard about the guy. it's all about winning. like i'm watching over here and this guy, buffalo news, he's telling me buffalo news is doing great. good, right? i'm seeing these questions. hundreds of questions coming. and a couple of them i see,

couple of them, i said please don't ask that question. but i'm looking at him. i was saying to myself as i'm watching, that leadership and branding and all of that kind of success to a large extent it's about winning. if you don't win, people aren't going to follow you. now, there are other qualities and i believe strongly in compassion. a lot of people don't know that about me. but i have great feelings of compassion for people and helping people. making people thrive and love their life and take care of people. and we need great health care in this country. obamacare's not working. it's a disaster. we need great health care. you can have great, great health care much better than we have now for much less money if you have people that really have compassion and really know what they are doing. i was thinking to myself as i was looking at all these numbers of questions about leadership, because one of them was about leadership, i said to him, you know, it's about winning.

vince lombardi was great coach. i'll never forget, i was in a room with one of his players, four times the size of vince lombardi, and it was at a club, and i'm sitting with the player. the player was full of bravado. all of a sudden vince lombardi, a small guy in stature, walked in. and this football player was petrified. petrified. i said are you ok? he looked like he was ready to have a heart attack. young, strong guy. petrified. you have had other coaches that were rough, tough guys. but you know what happens, you see it all the time, you have seen it here, right in washington, when you don't win, they don't get away with being tough. when you win, they can be as tough as they want. it's about winning. now, you look at branding and you look at what's happening and i told you the story about trump the art. deal, and "the apprentice" and i'll tell you today you have twitter, facebook, and i.n.s. at

that gram, and all these other amazing things, i have millions of followers. millions. i don't do a press release. if i do it i put it on twitter. i have a press release. it's like owning "the new york times" without the losses if you think about it. you have millions of people watching. if i want to say something, i just put it out. i'm reading stories about it the next day. it's fantastic. i love t i sit there at 3:00 in the morning, ding, ding, ding. our country is going to hell. we must stop t we need leadership. i keep saying the same thing. nobody's listening. it's largely true. you look at the united states and let's look at branding. we haven't had a success in years. where have we had a success? i wrote down just a few things coming down. we have nothing. the v.a., the veterans administration, catastrophic. benghazi, catastrophic.

russia. putin has an 80% popularity in this country. i thought they didn't like him a year ago. but he's so outsmarting the united states. all of a sudden the people in russia like him. you have us, we are fighting, and another country wants to come in -- they love russia. we send in our pollsters. guess what? they want to form with russia. how are we involved? we are involved in this. isn't europe's supposed to be involved? they don't want to get involved because they don't want to anger russia. we get it. why? then you have china. now, the old time curse, i love politics and i have been studying politics, and despite what myron was saying, i never said i was running, other than i said i might run, i never did. but everybody thinks -- made a speech in new hampshire years ago for freand of mine, because i made a speech, everybody said i was running for president. which i wasn't. i did give it serious

consideration. i don't know what happened to mitt romney. it looked like he was doing fine. i was leading in every poll. i love what i'm doing. i love building the old post office. i love building doral. i love building panama. i love building all these buildings we are doing. i just love it. i love what i'm doing. it's why do i it well. i tell it to people. what's the secret to success? you got to love what you're doing. i would prefer not running. and i did prefer not running. i'm the only person -- impeachment said, i'm a private company. nobody knows what i'm worth. nobody has any idea. forbes, nobody knows. some people say $10 billion. they say $2 billion. they say $3.9 billion. so accurate. $3.9. they have no idea. and i'm the only candidate in history -- because there were a lot of history -- do you think trump is really rich? i'm the only candidate in history that filed a financial disclosure statement that wasn't running.

think of it. i'm not running. a lot of people said, he'll never run because he doesn't want to reveal his finances. i said, hey, i'll reveal them. i a -- i'm proud of what i did. i built a great company. very proud of it. one of the reasons, i think ivanka can tell you this better than me. we won for the old post office. i think we had a better concept. that was a highly sought after project. everybody wanted it. obviously it's pennsylvania avenue. it's an amazing building. i think it's the tallest building in washington because they have the zoning restrictions now. that was in the 1880's. you know one of the reasons we won is because my financial statement was so strong. they want to make sure it gets done. the g.s.a. did a very professional job. i have to till. they want to make sure it gets done. for us it's an easy project. you have people bidding that couldn't handle it. others that could v we are going to do a fantastic job. when i look at what's going on and when i see the country -- where, just tell me where -- i

wrote a couple other things down. china, russia. they just got together. i have always heard the big curse on this country will always be if china and russia unify and get together. they just made one of the biggest deals ever made. china, our great friend -- by the way, i have great respect for china. i have many chinese friends. they live in my buildings all over the place. they give me $30 million, $40 million, am i supposed to dislike them? i like them very much. i have more owe lig arcs living in my buildings. i bought a house in palm beach, ivanka can tell you, i bought $40 million, and i fixed it. i call it -- you have a $40 million fixer upper, that's what i have. i bought it as a real estate deal. a mile down the road there was a house of a man who fell on very hard times, nice guy. he fell on very, very hard times. went down the tubes to put it mildly.

and his house was sold by the bank. it was sold at a bankruptcy auction. i bought it, i paid $40 million, i sold it for $100 million and sold it to a russian who then announced his wife is suing him for divorce and wants the house. she just won $4 billion supposedly in the proceedings. i looked at it and i see that. and i say to myself, where is the united states doing well? russia and china now are unifying and they are getting together. then you have iraq. ok. we spend $2 trillion in iraq. $2 trillion. think of this number. this number is not even a number -- 10 years ago you didn't hear the word trillion. we spend $2 trillion. more importantly, thousands of lives, including lives on the other side, by the way. ok. some people say -- i care. destroyed. and what we did is we took this

country and so weakened it. it was always iran and iraq. they fight. one country would go two feet over here. then after 10 years it settled and start over again. they had -- we destroyed that country. but we spent $2 trillion, thousands of lives, tens of thousands of wounded warriors all over the streets you see them, we can't even call them. they won't even return our call because china's buying their oil, china thinks we are truly the dumbest people on earth. china now is buying a big portion of their oil. they are being controlled by iran, which i said a long time ago, and then when i said the statement, because it looked to me like it was going down the tubes, why don't we take their oil? we are at war. people said what a terrible thing to say. now you call iraq, they won't even take our phone call. think of it.

now an interesting thing happened in afghanistan. nobody knew that afghanistan has tremendous minerals and tremendous wealth in minerals. everybody thought this was a country that didn't have that. but they have tremendous wealth in minerals. we are fighting over here and on the other side of the mountain china is brilliantly, i didn't say negatively, they are smart. they are brilliantly taking the minerals. we are fighting here. big mountains. china is take the minerals on the other side. and i say to myself, how is it possible that we can be so stupid? an interesting thing happened the other day. i'm reading the front page of the "new york times." number one story, we can't make a deal with japan. for agriculture. think of this. we can't make a deal. japan will not allow our farmers to put food and sell food in japan. i like the japanese, too. i like everybody that buys apartments from trump, ok? i respect them. i respect people.

the fact their leaders are much smarter than our leaders, tonight doesn't make me dislike them. i'm reading this article that japan won't let us even think about putting our food in japan. and then i'm looking at boats. millions of cars pouring into this country, tax free, made in japan, and i'm saying, who are our negotiators? if i was negotiating i'd say fellows, you're going to take our food and you're going to love it. you're going to love our food. i mean, the food is peanuts compared to what we are talking about. peanuts. so you say to yourself, how is 2 possible -- is it possible that japan would have the nerve to ay, we are not going to take small potatoes, farming goods, from united states farmers, great product, everybody admits that, it's not like it's tainted or problems, it's great product, better than what they can do, so they say we are not taking your product, but by the way we are

selling you millions of cars. look at the size of these massive car companies. and it's because of the united states. no tax. tax free. so all you have to do if you're sitting down -- i guarantee you this. if i was the negotiator for that deal, you would be -- you would have so much food pouring into japan right now they wouldn't know what to do with it. they wouldn't know what to do with it. aren't we elf, why smart? we used to be brilliant. we used to be a brilliant cop -- contry. we are not a brilliant country anymore. we are a foolish contry. we are a dumb contry. we have leadership that is either something wrong with them or they are not intelligent or there's something wrong. maybe it's lobbyists. i hear the lobbyists are so powerful in washington. maybe it's lobbyists. maybe you have to do something about that because maybe japan and maybe the middle eastern states. look at this i heard a number today that since 1931 we have

more oil reserves in this country in terms of storage reserves than we have had since 1931. think of that. yet the price is at an all-time high. i went to wharton, greatest business school in the world. did i say a good thing? the wharton club, great club. i went to wharton. i will tell you that the very basics of that are that prices come tumbling down. here we have and we are buying from opec, and we are buying from saudi arabia also great relationships with the people in saudi arabia, they cannot believe, by the way -- they are friends of mine. they can't believe how stupid we are. they tell me, hey, donald, we are getting away with it. i say you're right. saudi arabia's making, think of this, a billion a day a balance a day. so much money what they are doing there is unbelievable. you look at our airports. you look at your airport here. you look at your airport la

guardia and kennedy and new wark and l.a.x. in los angeles. they are like, third world country airports. falling apart. they have floors inside that are so old. when they fix them, they don't fix them with tarazza, they fix them with asphalt. so you're walking, you have tarazza that's tired in the main terminal. then they they put black asphalt from a road. our roads are falling apart. our bridges are falling apart. in china they are building 24 bridges, most of which are bigger than the george washington bridge. massive bridges. massive construction. they are taking our jobs. we don't even know it. then the president of china comes over. we have a state dinner for him. honoring him. he's laughing all the way back to china. it's all branding. when you look at the things going on -- in afghanistan we are spending tremendous amounts

of money and president karzai, as you know, our president flew in to afghanistan, and president karzai, who is getting sacks and sacks of cash -- they are getting $50 million in cash. i mean green. and i want to know who is the soldier that's delivering the cash. that's what i want to know. do you trust somebody -- they are carrying catchles of cash because they are paying off the tribal leaders and warlords. it's incredible. 50 million i want to know who are these people doing this. karzai said, i won't meet with the president and won't meet him at the plane. you have the president of the country who spent i guess close to $1 trillion there also, lands, and the president doesn't have the decency to come and pay his respects, even to just shake his hand. and i say to myself, that's very bad branding. because when you get right down

to it, that's what we are talking about. that's pretty bad. it's pretty sad. so you look at libya, you look at syria, the line in the sand. remember the famous line in the sand? nothing was done. not that it should be done and not we should being involved, because we shouldn't. you don't say we are going to do this and do that and then they do it and then you don't follow up. by the way, i don't want them to follow up, but you should have never made the statement. so, we are in very, very serious trouble. i just ask you what positive thing has happened to this country in thes -- in the last 10 years? it includes bush, i'm not a bush fan, believe me. he got us into iraq. i think obama should have gotten us out faster. bush got us into iraq. i am no bush fan. anybody that knows me knows that. but what's happened -- can we say that the economy's booming? no.

can we say unemployment -- unemployment is a totally phony number. if you stop looking for a job they take you off the unemployment rolls like you have the job. we don't make our products anymore. they are made mostly in china and other countries. mexico is doing phenomenonly well. phenomenonly. that's going tonight new china as far as making broads. look what's going on in mexico. and you say to yourself, isn't that sad? isn't that a shame? now, the good news is we have tremendous potential. tremendous potential. we have power over china that you wouldn't believe. china sells their product to us, no tax. no tax. and yet they'll manipulate their currency so that our people cannot compete with their product. we make better products than them, by the way, but we can't compete because of the manipulation, which is in the history of the world, there has never been a better or smarter currency manipulation than that

done by china. all you have to do is say, folks, it's going to end. it's going to end now. and if it doesn't end, we are going to throw a little tax on you that every product you sell in this country it's going to be a 25% tax. the number should be 48% based on their manipulation. i want to be nice. we'll settle at 25. you won't even have to do the tax because everything would stop. same thing with japan with the cars. i mean it's the same thing. so simple. but we don't have the right people. i don't know who these people are. where do they find these people? i assume they are diplomats. they are incompetent. we have incompetent people running the country. now, obamacare is having a devastating effect on the country. and they say whoever becomes president 2016 is going to be a catastrophic year for the economy, because you know all of the problems of obamacare and other things were delayed until 2016.

somebody's going to have a real problem. they better get smart. and the republicans better get smart because they are going to inherit a mess like has never been inherited before ever, ever before. so the good news is we have tremendous poe potential with proper leadership. tremendous. we can turn tarned so fast. we are sitting on energy that's bigger than all of them, almost. we are sitting on massive amounts of dollars coming out of the ground. we don't use that. even the pipeline, keystone pipeline, i don't even care that much about it. i say build it because it's jobs and all that. but we don't need canada's oil. we don't need canada's oil and gas. we don't need anything from anybody. but build it anyway. it's jobs. it's environmentally very good. and it should be built. it's amazing that it hasn't been built. and obama's having a hard time with it. some of the people that don't want it to be built, they are people on wall street. i know them. you know why they don't want it to be built?

they are invested in oil and gas and they don't want to bring down the price. it's not that they are great environmentalists. look at these people. they couldn't people -- people couldn't give a crap about the environment. they are invested heavily in oil and gas. they don't want the competition. our politicians silt back -- sit back and say wow, he gave a lot of money in the democratic party n this case. gave a lot of money to the democratic party, we have to be nice to him and others. so it's a very, very sad thing. i would say that-dirnl' very proud of this country, but i would say if we don't act quickly it's going to be very, very hard to bring it back. we are very, very far out on a limit. something has to take place and it has to tabling place -- take place quickly. our people have to be taken care of. in order to take care of people, we need wealth. we don't want to cut social security. we don't want to cut medicare or

medicaid. i'm different from a lot of republicans. they keep talking about cugget. i keep saying, build the country up so you don't have to worry about social security. it's peanuts compared to the numbers you are talking about if we knew what we were doing. we have to take our business back from china and other countries. we have to take it back. and you will see, i said it, winning. it's about winning. we've got to start winning. not one -- i searched everything. we haven't had one good story about this country being great for years. and it's about time that we started getting the good stories. and we can do it but you need proper leadership. and with that i will take some of these killer questions that i have been viewing. let's go. go ahead, myron. thank you. thank you very much. [applause] >> i already had one note

saying, why are we showing mr. trump the questions in advance? we don't show mr. trum the questions in advance. he was sitting next to our chair of the speaker's committee, who was trying to organize the cards. we'll ask the questions. and i know that mr. trump can't wait to answer them. let's go right into politics. you have flirted, i think that's the right word, you have flirted several times with a possible run for the presidency. why have you never run? >> again, i didn't flirt. people were asking me to run. they wanted me to run for a lot of things, including governor. i kept saying no, no, no. they want immediate to run for governor of new york. finally i just said i'm not doing it. i didn't flirt. people wanted me to rufpblet we are going to see what happens in 2016. we are going to see what happens. i want to see what's going on. this country is it in serious trouble. i didn't flirt. and i think i probably during the speech cleared it up pretty much. i love what i'm doing. i would rather do what i'm doing than do that. but i also love more than what

i'm doing, more than virtually anything else other than family, which includes my beautiful ivanka, i love this contry. i love this country. i hate to see what's happening. if i don't see the right person, will i do something in 2016. i will do it as sure as you're sitting here. thank you. [applause] >> do you think chris christie is too damaged to be a viable presidential candidate in 2016? if not, who is the best g.o.p. candidate at this stage? >> chris is a friend of mine and a good guy. he's got to get his problem cleared up. no question. you have to get that cleared up and it has to come out very, very good. obviously it was foolish. i have spoken to him about it. it was a crazy set of events that took place. and i would say that chris-dirble' say it to anybody, you have to get that whole thing

straightened out and behind him, in which case he would be a viable candidate. certainly he's been devastated by it and hurt very badly by it. you have to look at the polls. at some point it will come out. there are many people looking. i made the statement, i didn't mean it as a negative statement or positive. he's one email away from having a big problem. that has to disappear. it has to go away. certainly he would be viable. >> going back a few years, do you regret questioning president obama's citizenship? why or why not? >> not even a little bit. i don't regret it. why would i regret it? he came out with a book that wasn't published, you remember the famous book. it said a young man from kenya. he -- i was offered -- i offered him a tremendous amount of money just to -- didn't want to see his marks. i just wanted to see place of birth.

there are three things that could happen. and one of them did happen. he was perhaps born in kenya. very simple. he was perhaps born in this country. but said he was born in kenya because if you say you were born in kenya, you got aid and you got into colleges. people were doing that. so perhaps he was born in this country, and that has a very big chance. or, you know, who knows. maybe it was all right. i have offered $5 million to see the records. he would have done a great service, because there are -- there are people in this country -- i walk down the street they say please don't give up. please don't give up on the whole thing with the birth certificate. i hope it's 100% fine. a lot of people are questioning the birth certificate. they are questioning it's authenticity. i say this. i offered $5 million to see basic records. not the marks. nothing. just some basic things on applications to colleges.

i'd love to see what's put down. why didn't a man take $5 million for his favorite charity? what wasn't reported by the press is some time just prior to the expiration date of that offer i raised the offer to $50 million. $50 million. for charity. pick your charity. $50 million, let me see your records. and i never heard from him. so i would take it, i mean i would take it -- i'd give it to chicago charities and give it to all sorts of charities, and they could use the money. so it's one of those three things. either it's fine. or it's born in kenya. or in my opinion there's a very good chance he was born here and said he was born in kenya. because if you were born in kenya, you got into colleges. and you got aid. very simple.

>> perhaps ivanka would like to answer this. what will the new d.c. hotel be ike? >> thank you. well, thank you, everyone, for welcoming 8 -- us here. we plan to spend much, much more time in d.c. i personally have been down every week for the past year and will continue to come down as we start the development of the old post office building. this is an asset that i don't need to describe to anyone. it sits on pennsylvania avenue. at one of the great addresses of all time. it's a landmark building, a building, the likes of which one could never replicate today. unfortunately it's full potential hasn't been materialized for a long, long time. we are going to change that. we are going to develop superluxury hotel, 272 rooms. the largest ballroom of any of the luxury hotels in all of d.c. unbelievable meeting space. unbelievable spas. restaurants. and really bring in tremendous amounts of life and vitality to

pennsylvania avenue. and to the hotel itself. we love d.c. we love this building. for many, many years, for decades my father's been looking and waiting on exploring various opportunities in d.c. but when he came here, he wanted to do it the right way with the right location with the right development. and that's the old office building. we are incredibly excited and we'll start construction soon and be opened in 2016. [applause] >> 2016, in time for the next inauguration. thank you, ivanka. we appreciate your coming here and sharing the podium with your dad. a few more questions, mr. trump, because i think as the more you are being so ill louis dating, we are getting more questions.

what would you you do if you were dealing with president putin? >> well, in negotiation the primary thing that you have to do is to get the other side to respect you. and president putin does not respect or like president obama. so you have a problem. i'm not sure that's a problem that's easily solvable. there is a dislike. but russia does not respect our country any longer. they see that we have been greatly weakened, both militarily and otherwise. and he certainly does not respect president obama. what i would do would be, as an example, i own the miss universe. i was in russia, moscow recently, and i spoke indirectly and directly with president putin who could not have been nicer. we had a tremendous success. the show was live from moscow. we had a tremendous success

there. it was amazing. but to do well you have to get the other side to respect you. and he does not respect our resident, which is very sad. >> we'll turn to sports. you said you are interested in buying the nfl's buffalo bills, and i hope we have that correct. you have even spoken with nfl commissioner roger goodell about that possibility. do those conversations give you any sense as to how intense the bidding for the team will be? >> i have no idea. i have no idea fill' be able to. i would keep it in buffalo. we are just discussing it. we had a great discussion. buffalo news is a terrific paper and they treated us very fairly, i will tell you that. we are going to put in a bid. if the bid's not the right bid, i buy a lot of things, but i buy them if the prices are

reasonable price or fair price. i don't know what's going to happen with buffalo. if the price is in the right price, i won't get it and i won't be ashamed. aim not going to be forced into paying too much. if i did, i would do probably a good job. i think the people in buffalo, they already like me. i have a great relationship with the people of buffalo. we'll see what happens. it's about price. i don't know how many bidders there's going to be. probably a few. but we will probably put in a bid and we'll see how that goes. >> one more sports question, do you feel that some nfl owners might still hold a grudge against you because of your involvement in the usfl or because of casinos bearing the trump name? >> as far as the usfl i did a great job. the league was failing. i came in way late when the league was failing. and got a team for peanuts. it was a very small price. because it was failing. it was a failure. and people don't know that.

because i came in, it became really hot and people started seeing t i came in on the basis you go to fall football. i said i'm only doing if if it's going to be first class football. i consider spring football not to be first class. i don't think it could work in the spring because your television audiences in the spring -- learned a lot about ratings through "the apprentice." your television audience disappears in the sprick. -- spring. just disappears. i said to them i will do this but -- when i wanted to go to the spring, when they wanted to go to the spring and keep it there and stay that way, i think the opposite. i think the nfl owners, there aren't too many around that remember that because i think six or seven, but i think they gained a lot of respect for me. i actually think -- i have been told by a couple of them, it was amazing the job i did. i got lawrence to sign a contract, one of the great linebackers of all time, i sold him back to the nfl. i actually think they respect

what i did. and i think they rebect it a lot. i don't see that as a problem. as far as the casino business, we got out of atlantic city about five years ago. we sold, our timing was good. atlantic city is having tough times now. our timing is good. esectionly i'm not too much into gaming. if i go in it later on, yes. but if i did an nfl team i wouldn't. >> do you ever worry about your brand becoming damaged? what could damage it? >> i don't worry about it. if it happens, it happens. it's sort of interesting. the beautiful thing, again we'll go back to twitter and facebook and i.n.s. at that gram. somebody -- insta gram, somebody says something about me that's false i will hit them hard. they disappear, amazing. i have these wise guy reporters, probably members of the national press club, they always say, trump filed for bankruptcy. excuse me, buffet has used bankruptcy, it's a tool.

it's a tool. when i use it, i buy a company, i throw it into a chapter, i then negotiate the hell out of loans and all the problems they have, it comes out, it's a good company. they say trump filed bankruptcy. they don't say that with these other guys. i let people know, it's not right when you're saying. they attack my hair. my hair. it's mine. come here. would anybody like to inspect -- [applause] >> is there a nice woman that would like to inspect it in the audience? it's actually my hair. they say, you wear the worst hair piece i have ever seen. what a horrible wig. so i put on twitter, i don't. it's funny, when people want to keep -- but i like to defend myself. and the beautiful thing about the new media is that you actually can. if you have enough followers, i certainly have a lot. many, many millions.

you can protect. it's interesting. sometimes i'll be attacked. then i'll attack back really viciously. i never hear from that person again. especially if it's a famous person. if it's not a famous person, they continue because what do they have to lose? . was attacked like by cher she didn't like my politics. i hit her so hard, she still doesn't know what happened. the last i heard of her. i don't know. rosie o'donnell has gone around saying the worst thing i ever did was to attack donald trump. she attacked mee. hi a young woman of miss u.s.a., lovely young woman, she had an alcohol and drug problem. she was going to be fired from miss u.s.a. they came into my office to get the final blessing. there was a news conference downstairs which was packed, it was a big event. and i met the girl, she was a nice girl. i said, don't fire her. you'll destroy her life. it never happened where we fired the winner. they are going to take her

crownway, humiliate her. she's already got a problem with drugs and alcohol. don't fire her. rosie o'donnell's on "the view" who is he who give somebody a second chance? i get a call from entertainment tonight, and i said, did you hear about rosie o'donnell? i have other things to do. tell me. they told me. and i hit her like nobody's ever hit her before. and that was it. and she goes around telling people that was a mistake. but you know when somebody attacks you, attack them back. stop it. get it stopped. it's so important. in my opinion, it's so important. so that's the way it is. go ahead. next question. >> personal question, mr. trump. what do you do for relaxation? >> i build buildings. it's funny, ivanka said the other day, do you ever go away, daddy?

i do a thing in dubai, but we are doing a massive job, phenomenally successful, i was in scotland where we were doing something big, in ireland where i bought property. different places. that's for me relaxation. when you love what you're doing. if somebody said you are going to take an enforced vacation for two weeks and go to some beach and can't use your phone, it would not be good for mee. it would not be healthy for me. so what i do and what i really like doing is working. it's been a lot of fun. the great thing, i put a lot of people to work. i have thousands and thousands of people that work for me. health care, education, they are not worried about obamacare because i take so good care of my people. but so many different people are working because i love to work. so that's the thing i like doing the most. [applause] >> we are almost out of time, but before asking the last question we have a cusm housekeeping matters to take

care of. first of all, i'd like to remind you about our upcoming events and speakers. tomorrow, dr. ben carson, neurosurgeon and author. june 11, hollywood writer-director m. knight shabal ayn. we have have other ones before august 1, but let me tell you we just finalized on august 1, the president of the republic of congo. we'll discuss peace, security, and stability of the central african region and oil ininvestigationments in the contry. next i want to have for the first time that i can recall a double presentation of our brand, the national press club mug, to ivanka and donald trump. [applause]

>> how about a round of applause for our speaker and ivanka. [applause] >> thank you-all for coming today. i'd also like to thank national press club staff. that's the last question, and jerry always reminds me of that because i skip over the script. i want to finish with the last question. but like to thank national press club staff, including the broadcast certainty for organizing today's event. for our last question we have two minutes, you can make it short or take the full two minutes, if you had the power to fire one person on the planet, who would it be and why? >> this is such an easy one, isn't it? but i won't do it. i won't do it. too corny.

look, we are a great country. we have great potential. let's live with that potential and let's make that potential come true. we need fantastic leadership. we have the people in this country that have the potential to be fantastic leaders. let's use our great minds. we are smarter than anyone. we can do what nobody has ever done before. but we need great leadership and we need it quickly before it's too late. thank you very much. thank you, everybody. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national able satellite corp. 2014] >> fud' like to get a copy of today's program -- if you'd like to get a copy of today's program, please check out our website at press.org. thank you donald, ivanka trump. we are adjourned.