donald trump is set to host tonight "saturday night live" in what will be his second appearance on the show. tonight's appearances with the protests outside nbc's new york studios because of past comment trump is made over immigration. he spoke some about his snl guest spot earlier this week at a news conference for the release of his new book "crippled america." he discusses campaign and his republican challengers. this is 35 minutes. mr. trump: thank you, louise. i appreciate it very much. it's a great honor. i want to thank you simon & schuster, one of the most magnificent publishers for years and years. i heard about them as being a fabulous -- i was going to say the rolls-royce, i was going to say the harvard or the yale but they really are a great one and i want to thank you very much. you've given us such tremendous

support and we did this quickly and we think we did it very effectively. it's been an incredible experience. we wrote a book and the title, "crippled america," is very tough, but unfortunately we have to do what we have to do. and i think one of the reasons we've been doing so well in the campaign is because we tell it like it is. we tell the truth. and america is crippled. we owe $17 trillion and $18 trillion and very soon it's going to be $19 trillion in debt. we have a military that doesn't have proper instruction from leadership. we don't know what we're doing. we're losing all over the world with trade deals. every country, no matter what country you talk about, you can just pick a name out of a hat, they're beating us in trade and we can no longer go longer. i mention sergeant bergdahl.

they get five of the people they wanted and they want it badly. and that's not the way it's going to work anymore. so we write about it in the book. we tell lots of different stories of lots of different things and i think it's going to be very instructional, very important to me was instructional. when i did "the art of the deal," i think one of the reasons it was so successful is that it was largely instructional. and even today when i speak, so many people hold up the book "the art of the deal," and the other books we've done. so this is one that probably not since "the art of the deal" -- i have to tell this to louise and simon & schuster that i worked so hard on a book. it was in a confined period of time. we wanted to get it out really, really quickly so it retained to what's going on right now. it's a moment of time. and we got it done. and david did a fantastic job. where is david? is he here? david did a fantastic job. and all of my people did a great job.

they helped me so much so this was not easy getting this in we see the lines -- the lines go down to park avenue. they've been forming since last night. i will be signing books starting at 12:00. we're doing a couple of interviews and signing books at 12:00. that will be very exciting for me. we have fans that bought the book and they just bought it and some have been in line for 12, 14 hours. i don't know how they're doing this but they do it. they find a way. so i'm looking forward to getting to the signings. does anybody have any questions, please? oh, that's all, just about 30 questions. yes, go ahead. katie. >> [inaudible] mr. trump: well, i think it's a different book. we just had polls come out today in iowa where i'm leading. you saw the new poll from iowa. you saw the new poll in new hampshire where i'm leading big.

a poll just came out in florida where i'm leading big. georgia, texas. i mean, all over the place. and i think, you know, look, it's -- we're doing well. if you add ben and myself, we're beating everybody by a lot. that seems to be the big story that we're beating -- they call it the establishment. it's really called the failed establishment because the establishment has let us down but i don't know. i really don't know how his book is doing. well, i think my book is very hard-hitting. his is a different kind of a book and he's a different kind of a person. my book is very hard hitting. it says it like it is. and based on what simon & schuster just told me it's selling like hot cakes so we'll see. we're very different people. we have very different qualities and we are extremely different. and i'm different from all of the other candidates. look, nobody can negotiate trade deals like me. we are going to take the $00 -- $400 billion a year that

we're losing with china, that's going to be turned around. the $75 billion a year that we're short on with japan, the $50 billion a year that we lose to mexico and that's right, there will be a wall built. it will go up. it will be built and people will come into the country legally. so i mean, i'm much different than -- you look at marco rubio. very, very weak on illegal immigration. you look at ben, he's very weak on immigration and he wants to get rid of medicare. i mean, ben wants to get rid of medicare. you can't get rid of medicare. it would be a horrible thing. it actually works. you get rid of the fraud, waste and abuse, it works. so when a man is weak on immigration and wants to get rid of medicare, i don't know how he stays there. go ahead, tom. >> [inaudible] mr. trump: i really think that marco is overrated. had bush been a better messenger, he would have a better message.

that was me delivering the message it would have been a , much different story. marco doesn't go to the united states senate. he's representing the people of florida. that poll just came out today. and i'm way up in florida over everybody. but marco is a sitting senator and he doesn't show up for the people of florida. and i don't think he should be doing that. now, bush gave a very weak message, i agree with that. it was poorly delivered but the facts are on bush's side and i think ultimately marco will be hurt very badly. and if you look at mr. singer, you have to see where mr. singer is coming from and when you see where he's coming from i think people are going to say, whoa, we didn't know that. but look at marco's stance on illegal immigration. it's really trouble for him. i don't see how he can win. ok. yes. mark? >> [inaudible] mr. trump: marco rubio's personal finances are discredited.

all you have to do is look at his credit card. i mean, he is a disaster with his credit cards. i tell you what, i love florida. i'm in florida all the time. and for years i've been hearing that his credit cards are disaster. i would think when you take a look at it you're going to find that. but his credit card debt and his problems with credit card and what he did when he was running the party apparatus with credit cards, i've heard about it for years. you'll have to find out. >> [inaudible] mr. trump: well, he has a very bad record of finances if you look what happened with his houses. he certainly lives above his means, there's no question about that. >> [inaudible] mr. trump: well, we're going to look -- i tell you on the debates it's interesting because i don't really care that much. i want a room. i want a podium and let's get going because i don't really care that much. but a lot of the people that are candidates who i respect many of them.

not all but i respect many of them. they felt it was very unfair because hillary clinton was given all soft balls. i mean, she wasn't asked one tough question. they didn't talk about her foundation. they didn't talk about any of the problems. they didn't talk about the emails. when the email problem came up, bernie sanders lost his whole campaign. i mean, what he did was so stupid from his standpoint. in order to get a one-minute sound bite of applause, he gave up emails. that was the end of his campaign. first of all, people aren't going to his rallies anymore. he's finished. so unless something happens to her with respect to the emails, she'll easily be the candidate. but i will say this, she only got softballs. that's all she got. and if you look at the way we were treated, it wasn't the same way. with that being said, i don't really care. yes? >> [inaudible] mr. trump: your name is? >> [inaudible]

mr. trump: well, i think the republicans actually are doing a pretty good job overall. they coalesced that last debate. it really started with me. the guy asked me a question. i think harwood is probably finished as a credible reporter. he's a disaster. and it was such a horribly put question and so obvious, and the republicans coalesced around each other. it was actually pretty beautiful when you think about it. and all we want to do is be treated fairly. but with me, i don't care that much. just give me a podium. what i would say is this, the networks have made a fortune because of me. not because of anybody else. you know, they were saying that the last cycle, they had two million and one million people and the networks didn't want to broadcast it because nobody watched, ok. nobody wanted to watch. now they had 25 million people, 24 million people, 23 million people and 16 million people. i mean, give me a break. so somebody said, how did they get there?

and actually "variety" and "hollywood reporter" who do report this stuff pretty well, much better than the political press, solely for one reason is trump. i'll take the credit. i tell you what i also want, i think that wounded warriors and our veterans should be given some of the enormous profits being made on these debates, enormous profits. by the way, beyond anything they ever envisioned. cnn was going to get $2,000 for a 30-second ad. they ended up getting $215,000. they went from $2,000 to $250,000 for a 30-second ad. the networks and cable are making a fortune and i think they should give some of the profits to the wounded warriors and the veterans. that's what i want. >> [inaudible] mr. trump: i'm giving them away. i'm giving the profits of my book, i'm giving them away to -- including the vets. ok. >> [inaudible]

mr. trump: who you with? ok, good. new form of reporting. do you believe it? they used to come up with cameras. they used to come up with a cell phone. go ahead. speak fast. >> [inaudible] mr. trump: i have been amazing with respect to the hiring of women. this building was built as the head person who was fantastic by a woman and that was a time you didn't see it in the construction trades. i mean, it was totally unique. i have many, many executives upstairs and in different buildings that i have that are women. many. a proportion of 50%. might be over 50%. they get paid a lot of money. in many cases more man men doing

the same job. so women have always appreciated that about me. in terms of employment, really a standout and i've been honored for doing so well with women. yes. yes, go ahead. french television. are you going to be voting? i don't think so. so let's go. we don't have to worry about the french right now. go ahead. >> [inaudible] mr. trump: what jeb bush was saying at the last debate, i don't know but he didn't say it well. what is your question, go ahead, behind you? you're with telemundo. oh, welcome. welcome to trump tower. i like telemundo. i like it better than univision. i'm selling it for $500 million. -- suing univision for $500 million. go ahead. >> [inaudible] mr. trump: because the country is doing so poorly. it's a very accurate title.

because the country is doing so poorly. go ahead. >> [inaudible] mr. trump: that's good. they're going to have some demonstrations. good. because it will get higher ratings if they do. i think it's fine. look, i think they should demonstrate. ratings will go even higher. it's going to be one of the highest rated shows ever. and they're very excited about it. and i have a great relationship, as you know, from telemundo, with the hispanics. you've treated me actually very fairly. won the poll recently in nevada. won other polls and in nevada i think i got 37% and leading everybody. so i've had a great relationship with the hispanics. i have working for me thousands right now, thousands of hispanics. i've had tens of thousands of people over the years working for me. i'm a job machine. i'm a job machine. and one of the things that does

come out in every single poll and every single survey is that nobody for the economy nobody's even close. i am two, three -- and you see that -- two, three, four, five times greater than anybody else. and you almost say like it's about the jobs, it's about the economy, then how is anybody going to beat trump, in all fairness? i've had a great relationship with the workers, i've had a great relationship with jobs and i've had an amazing relationship with the hispanics. i predict i'm going to win the hispanic vote. i think i'm going to win the hispanic vote. yeah, i think i'm going to get the nomination and i will win the white house. i think beating hillary clinton is going to be easy because her record is so bad. ok. go ahead. >> [inaudible] mr. trump: that's the question i like.

how am i preparing for my "snl"? well, i'm meeting with loren michaels in a little while. later on. we're going to sign -- i guess thousands of people online, but we're going to sign and then later on this evening i'm meeting with loren michaels and the whole staff and we'll start the preparation. we'll pick our skits. am i nervous? not too nervous. not too nervous. we'll do a good job and we're going to have a fantastic show. we're all going to have a lot of fun. my jeb impression, no, i don't want to do that. i don't like showing a person sleeping at a podium. [laughter] mr. trump: tom is asking, can jeb make a comeback? think it's going to be very hard. very hard. not about money. i came up with the energy. and i just think we need tremendous energy because we need a person that has tremendous personal energy to get us back on track. you can't do that when you don't have that. i think marco is highly overrated. highly overrated. he doesn't have it. and all you have to do is look

at his stance on things. jeb, he lacks the quality that you need. we're talking about everybody in the world is ripping us off. you need a very strong person with tremendous energy. thank you very much, folks. i'll take the job. but -- and it's so important. and by the way, ben carson does not have that energy. we need somebody with tremendous energy to straighten out the military, to straighten out isis, to straighten out our horrible trade deals and deal with obamacare. come up with something that are for far less money. you need someone with personal energy as president. we have a president right now that doesn't have energy. you think obama has energy, he has no energy and he's been a horrible president. we need somebody with great personal energy as a leader so that we can make great deals with other countries and do well in every other respect.

and certainly jeb does not have that energy, in my opinion. >> [inaudible] mr. trump: you are where? from "the guardian." they treat me very nicely in scotland. go ahead. good. thank you. >> [inaudible] mr. trump: well, we just went over that, honestly. we just went over that. it's only going to make it hotter. ok. another question. go ahead. say it again. >> [inaudible] mr. trump: you're going to see what we're going to do. you're going to see. but the whole thing with anchor babies i was right. a person has a baby, lives in mexico, lives in asia or -- has a baby, walks across the border, has the baby here. now we're responsible for that

person for the next 85 years. i don't think so. and by the way, i was right, they were wrong. the 14th amendment does not give them clearance on that. and if you wanted to do that in mexico or if you wanted to do that in almost any other country where you have a baby in that country and that country has that person for 85 years, including all of the costs of that person, they would laugh you right out of the country. you would be laughed out of the country so fast so that turned out i was 100% right. we'll have to worry about that. we're going to take care of it and it's going to be done in a very humane way but we're going to bring back our country and we're going to have a wall and mexico's going to pay for the wall. you know why they're going to pay? and i have great relationships with mexico and phenomenal relationships with the mexican people. phenomenal. they buy apartments from me. they work for me by the thousands, by the thousands. phenomenal relationships, but let me just tell you.

we lose so much money with mexico in terms of trade imbalance. $45 billion last year. plus we give mexico billions and billions of dollars. they will pay for the wall and it will be very interesting. and you know what? people are going to come into this country but they're going to come in legally, sarah. ok. yeah, go ahead. "italian daily news." >> [inaudible] mr. trump: can you talk louder? nobody can hear. >> [inaudible] mr. trump: a lot of european -- he's from italy. a lot of the european countries are going to build walls to stop the immigration. well, walls work. walls to stop the immigration. walls work. all you have to do is ask is real.

not the walls that these characters, these politicians that we have running our country, our a disgrace -- they built a wall this big. they drive cars right through it. walls work. all you have to do is go and see israel. ok, go ahead. go ahead. >> [inaudible] mr. trump: yeah. we need pomp and circumstance. good question, actually. our country has. our country has no gravitas. our country doesn't feel good about itself. and the primary reason is we have no victories. where have we had a victory? where have we had a victory in trade? where have we had a victory -- as an example, this horrible deal with iran. we lose everything. we lose everything.

it is a laughingstock. the worst deal. we have no victories. and i do write about it. we need some pop and circumstance. we needs. . we need a cheerleader. -- we need spirit, we need a cheerleader. obamae thing i thought would be a good cheerleader for the country, he is not. he has been one of the great dividers of all time. i am not saying -- [indiscernible] -- it has to do with the fact that what he says is very divisive. he has been a great divider for this country. and that should not have happened. ok. yes? >> [inaudible] anyway they want. i don't care too much about the debates. i am the one who gets all the nasty questions anyway. in a certain way, maybe they are

defending me, although i will tell you, they are not doing it for that reason. i think it is irrelevant. i like the debates, i have done well in the debates. as you know, every single poll said i won all three debates. i certainly didn't do badly. every single full, even cnbc's poll said i won the debate. so i like the debates. me,ink there are good for but we have to be treated a little bit fairly. as an example, hillary clinton. no tough questions. i mean, why didn't they ask about bill, why didn't they ask about all the different things? no tough questions. that was staged by the democrats. frankly, they did a very smart thing in the way they staged this. as far as i'm concerned, i really don't care that much. i just want a debate. i think it is healthy, gets everything into the open. but you don't want people like

him who read a question -- his career, in my opinion, his career is properly -- probably ruined or certainly threatened. you can ask about anything you want. hillary had only softballs all night long. it was like this, here, hillary, hit this one over the park. yeah, go ahead. >> [inaudible] mr. trump: are you from russia? all right. i think our relationship with russia will be very good. vladimir putin was on 60 minutes with me three weeks ago. putin. and they have one of the highest ratings they have had in a long time. so i'm going to give him total credit. but we will have a very good relationship, i think, with russia. maybe we won't, but i believe we will have a very good relationship with russia. i believe i will have a very good relationship with putin.

go ahead. >> [inaudible] orangeburg sounds ok to me -- mr. trump: sounds ok to me. yeah, go ahead. >> [inaudible] well, i think there are a lot of economic issues. we didn't talk about trade, devaluations, right? we didn't talk about corporate inversions, which, by the way, none of the other candidates, they don't even know what it means. when companies are leaving our , massive countries, because they can't get their money back and they are getting lower countries elsewhere. they are leaving and taking their jobs with them. the corporate inversion syndrome is a very important thing to be talked about. instead they talked about fantasy football. it was a big question. i am saying, what about corporate inversion? $2.5 trillion at least.

i think it is probably twice that number. because our system is so corrupt and terrible, they can't get their money back to invest in this country. so they don't talk about corporate inversions at the debate, they talk about fantasy football. yeah, go ahead, sarah. >> [inaudible] mr. trump: you have to talk loud enough. >> [inaudible] mr. trump: right. >> [inaudible] mr. trump: i was against the war in iraq, yes, very early on. i will give it to you. yeah, i have it upstairs. >> [inaudible] mr. trump: i don't know. i will give it to you upstairs. you have to understand, i was a developer. a lot of people didn't care about my view. but there was a reuters article taken from a magazine about my stance in 2000 and four -- two thousand four, i believe, and it talked about my stance on how i felt about iraq.

i said very strongly exactly what happened. you will destabilize the middle east, and when you destabilize the middle east, iran will take over iraq. that is exactly what is happening. and he will take over the oil reserves. in addition, other things will happen. the other things are isis. that was from a nautical that was taken from a magazine. i have felt that for a long time. >> [inaudible] your best that is question that you have ever asked me, sarah. sarah, finally you are asking me this great question. sarah from cnn. terrific person. do i think that it is time for some of the other republicans in the race that are registering a zero -- in a couple of cases, they have zero with an arrow pointing left, which i assume is a mistake because that is less than zero. do i think it is time to have

some of the other republican candidates drop out? yes. there are too many people. well, i don't want to get personal, but you can look at the poll numbers. if a person has been campaigning for four or five months and they are at zero or one or two, they should get out. like, you know, look at me. i go to florida and look at the numbers that just came out. 37%. georgia. those are real numbers. these numbers that these people have -- i often ask myself, what are they doing? do they do this for their brands? i think it is very bad for their brand. i think walker did a good thing. he saw it wasn't happening, wasn't going to happen, and he just got out quickly. he was favored, don't forget. that was before trump was going to happen, right? but he was favored for a period of time. what happened is he got out.

i think the way he got out was great. i think you did a really smart thing for himself. frankly, other people should get out because i would like to personally have more time to talk about the problems of the united states, and more importantly, how to solve the problems. people should get out. yes. >> [inaudible] mr. trump: eve anke. -- ivanka. it is true. i talk about my daughter. "he was just in "fortune magazine for something like woman of the year, which is great. just say hello, ok? is going to be very involved very soon. oh, ivanka is going to iowa. very soon. good question.

>> [inaudible] mr. trump: i would say -- i don't see threats. whatever it is i have to do. what are the top threats to your candidacy? who knows. you are in a crazy world of politics. i'm going to make america great again. nobody else is going to be able to do this. i am going to make it better than ever before. and i think that is awfully tough to compete with. one of the reasons that in my book i put financials and there. i showed some of the development, and i have many, many more because they kept me to eight or nine pages, right? i showed some of the great developments that are so successful and so incredible and so financially good, i show my financial statement from a year and a half, two years ago. now it is even better.

but we didn't have that certified yet. i do that not in a braggadocio's way, i do that because that is the kind of thinking our country needs right now. we are run by people that are in competent. we are run by people who, in so many words, i hate to use the word stupid, but you have to use that word unless they have bad intentions, which i don't believe they do. but we are run by incompetent people. there are some of the things -- like i mentioned corporate inversion. the democrats want the money to come back. the republicans want the money to come back. for three years, the democrats have said we want the money to come back. for three years, the democrats and the republican agreed 100%. you have a fast maturity, maybe everybody, for three years. guess what? a haven't done anything, right? they can't even get along when they agree. he is a thing where we can take trillions of dollars, bring it

back to this country, rebuild big parts of our countries with it, companies can spend that money in our country. everybody agrees it should be done for years, and they can't do it. that is part of the problem. look, a lot of controversy. a lot of controversy. there are those people who probably wouldn't want him to back. but we will see. go ahead. >> [inaudible] mr. trump: oh, they will agree. they will agree. they just didn't want to go through the unfair questions because they were questioned, they were statement. in awere giving statements sarcastic, disgusting way. i think becky is terrific and i think carl is terrific, but i think john harwood is not very good at what he does. but i think becky is a terrific person. i think carl is a terrific person. but i will tell you, john harwood was a disgrace to cnbc.

yeah, go ahead. >> [inaudible] well, the threat -- it is really an interesting question actually. the question is should the fed raise rates. they are not raising them because of obama has asked them not to raise them. in my opinion, he wants to get out of office because we are in a bubble. and when those rates are raised, a lot of bad things are going to happen or potentially going to happen. ismy opinion, janet yellen highly political and she is not raising rates for a very specific reason: because obama told her not to. because he wants to be out playing golf in a year from now, and he wants to be doing other things and he doesn't want to see a big bubble burst during his administration. janet yellen should have raised the rates. she is not doing it because the obama administration and the president doesn't want her to. if she doesn't, you see what

happens every town there is even a thought it one of the problems that we have is our currency right now is not competitive with other currencies because if you look at the devaluations of china, of japan, of many, many different countries, they are making it impossible for our countries to compete with them because we don't have leaders that know how to say to china, don't do that, don't do that because if you do that, we are going to put a big fat tax on you. if you said that, they wouldn't do that. if you have the right message. how about one more question? i love how we. he always treats me so nice. who? yes. yes. >> [inaudible] really, i am focused on one very big collection. there are some pretty good elections. i am not watching any of them in particular. but i will be out there, we will be out voting. the election i am watching is

the election for the presidency of the united states and that is going to be, in my opinion, this will be truly one of the most important elections we have ever had in this country. we are so far behind, and we cannot go another four years with incompetent leadership. fine. >> [inaudible] mr. trump: ok. what else? >> [inaudible] mr. trump: one more question. yeah, go ahead. go ahead. >> [inaudible] mr. trump: that is a good question. ok. simon and schuster came up to me, they wanted to do a book. they wanted to do one on success and how do you build it. that is what the book is largely about, but we talk so much about the country. i said, we will do it, but we have to talk about the country. they sent this incredible photographer up to do a book cover, and he did some great -- almost as good as you, my friend over here -- did some great photos.

i am happy, i looked good, everything was fine. one, and it turned out to be a nasty picture. and then the book was written, and the title was given, and the only really terrible picture i had was that one. a terrible, horrible, nasty picture. but when you are talking about crippled america and you are talking about all the problems we have, i can't have a big smiley face on there. so that is how we picked it. we took the worst photo of me. i would have loved to have a beautiful smiling picture, but somehow that doesn't go with the book. and simon & schuster agreed with me, ok? >> [inaudible] mr. trump: say it again? what? >> [inaudible] mr. trump: are the other republicans afraid to debate? well, some of them should be.

thank you very much, everybody. thank you. simon and schuster, thank you. louise, thank you. >> [applause] >> [indiscernible] >> [indistinct chatter] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2015] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]