doing. >> donald, what are you talking about? what are you talking about? we've been talking about you for a week. what are you talking about? >> joe, you were talking about kasich and mentioned bush and rubio and somebody else i won't mention because i actually like that person. >> what are you talking about? what are you talking about, donald? how thin is your skin? i've been talking about you for a week. >> i agree with that. but when you were talking about bush who, by the way, is ten points lower than me, you sort of mentioned like, you know, can kasich beat bush? what about trump? we are ten points ahead. >> you know what? this is like a golf tournament. we need to bring in the little guy with the jacket, the rule book. alex, have i mentioned bush and rubiomorning, alex? >> having to do with kasich. >> we have one op-ed. >> he is talking about the conversation we had about john

kasich and whether or not he's got the -- jon huntsman problem. then you talked about the other candidates in context with. that but you didn't mention donald trump who is at the top of the poll. and he's taking issue with that. >> you're forgiven, joe. there is one other complaint. one other complaint -- >> donald, you aren't really that thin skinned, are you? >> yes, we are thin skinned. >> oh, yes, he is. >> we are ravaged. everybody said your cam spain a joke. you were going to go away. we had one of the top editors in america come on three weeks ago yelling at mika being offended and shocked and then, of course, he put you on the cover of the magazine three weeks and stormed off mad. this is hilarious. your incredibly thin skinned, my friend. >> i am. even the fact -- joseph? joseph? >> yes? >> even when you said that t polite society, they treat me so well. it helps when i own palm beach.

maybe that's why they treat me well. but that polite society was smiling. they're not smiling. they did smile when i came into manhattan from queens. i will say that. they haven't been smiling for the last 20 years. but that's okay. polite society has been very polite. >> let me as a member of polite society ask you a legitimate question that has to do with what you would do to secure the border as president of the united states? what policies would you push for? what would you put in place that would improve the situation? >> before you do anything, mika, i mean this and i say it to everybody, you have to secure the border. you know, in terms of getting people. when we were there, abc this evening, you know, the major abc broadcast was there. they were setting up. and there were illegals running past their cameras and people running after them. it was a whole mess. they ended up fighting on the ground. it was crazy. and it's all over the place. by the way, laredo and areas like that, it's down in the

valley that's the really big problem. people come in, they go down in the valley. you have to secure the borders. now you can use combinations of wall. can you use fences, you can use in some cases the river in this case they have a river which is certainly helpful. but you have to do something to secure the border. we don't have a country without a border. without a border, we just don't have a country. so everybody is in favor. one of the things, you have kacie hunt there who never reports accurately, by the way, and you had -- >> come on. >> no, it's true. you had katie tur. >> kacie is great. >> they didn't explain what was happening. that was absolutely a happening. and when i got off the plane, there were, you know, tremendous numbers of people. i will say, joe, 95% of those people were cheering madly in favor. i read and i hear -- >> donald, i have to go back to you. i think sometimes you are

actually on tv what mika says i am in private. somebody that can listen to somebody saying 95% things that are nice about me and i seize on the 5% and obsess on it forever. kacie hunt actually was talking about how it was like a presidential motorcade and said it was very big. it was a happening and the biggest happening of 2016. i want to follow up though, donald, on a question that was asked of you yesterday. it really is a tough question. so i think a lot of americans support you as far as the border, making the border tough. >> and other things, joe. >> of course. i know, donald. my god! stop being so thin skinned! >> yes. >> so i love it. so donald, the tougher question

is what do we do with the 11 million undocumented workers that are already here? we're not going to send them back to mexico. that's not possible. do we legalize them and say we know you're here but we're not going to give you a pathway to citizenship because you got here illegally but we'll legalize you and let you work here for a couple years? how do we handle the 11 million already here? >> it's a big question. and a really bigger question is i don't think the 11 million which is a number you've been hearing for many, many years, i've been hearing that number for five years, i don't think that's an accurate number anymore. i'm now hearing it's 30 million and could be 34 million. which is a much bigger problem. >> who you hearing that from? >> i'm hearing it from other people. i've seen it written in various newspapers. the truth is the government has no idea how many illegals are here. they have no idea. >> so what do we do with all of them? whether it's 11 or 30 million, do we give them legalized status

so they're not living in the shadows. let them work but if they break the law send them back? >> we take the bad ones of which there are unfortunately quite a few. we take the bad ones and get them the hell out. we give them back to mexico or make sure they stay or where they come from. they don't all come from mexico. they come from other places. they use that border but they come from other places. we get them out and get them out fast. and we get them out permanently. that's a big thing. if you look at what's going on with big crime waves like kate in san francisco, pushed into our country five fimz and the fifth time he killed kate. you have hundreds of cases like that. we have to get the bad ones out. then the other ones -- and i'm a very big believer in merit system. i have to tell you. some of the people have been here. they've done a good job. you know, in some cases sadly they've been living under the shadows. we have to do something. so whether it's merit or whether

it's whatever, but i'm a believer in the merit system. somebody's been outstanding, we try and work something out. but before we do anything, joe, we have to secure the border. the border is like having no border. >> let's go right now to willie geist who i'm sure criticized your backswing, your golf backswing or something. >> donald, good to talk to you this morning. good to talk to you. so you're having huge success in this campaign. you're up by double digits in a couple national polls. you're clearly enjoying yourself. my question for you though is when you get to the end of the day, do you really want the job of being president? this is the next decade of your life. january of 2025 is when you'd be out of that job and doing work that it meeans to be president. is that what you want? >> i do. i want to make the country great. nobody else is going to be able to do it. bush won't be able to negotiate with china. he doesn't have it. he's a nice person. i think that jeb bush is a very

nice person. but when he meets the chinese and sees the blood pouring out of his eyes, he's going to leave the room. they're controlled by the lobbyists and the special interests and donors. believe me, china has lobbyists in our country. china has lobbyists, can you believe it? they're ripping us left and right. we're not only talking about china, we're talking about many other countries. i have a lot of respect for mexico. i have thousand of mexico workers, mexican people. they're great people. but, joe, i'll tell you, mexico, the leaders are too smart for our leaders. mexico is killing us. when i was in laredo, i looked at that traffic going into mexico. i said one little question. mexico's booming, right? oh, yes, mexico's booming. mexico's booming. we're not booming. you look at our gdp, it's gone. the first quarter we're actually negative in gdp. that means we're contracting.

we're getting smaller. willie, the answer is, yes, i would love to do it. i want to make the country great. and willie's father, the great -- you know that, the great william geist, he wrote the first major story in donald trump on the cover of "the new york times" magazine. and i love that family. even though willie sometimes can be a wise guy. >> that's a true story. my dad did write a profile in the 1980s. >> the cover of "the new york times" magazine which was a great honor. he was a great, great writer. >> thank you for saying that. but my question really, are you going to give up this life you have? look at your life. you've got tv shows. you've got buildings. you have the jet. you're donald trump. do you want to go down to the nitty-gritty of politics and live in the white house and work in the oval office? you are willing to give up being donald trump, this great public figure and have to be the president of the united states? >> well, i'm willing to do it because i think it's so important to do. you know, it's interesting. when i got off the plane yesterday, we had a motorcade like you've never seen. we had hundreds of police.

they were so nice and so great. somebody said why do you have to be president for? look, there is the same thing. the truth is, we have such potential in this country. we could make our country so strong and so smart again. we have to take back our jobs from all of these countries that are taking our jobs. we have to -- we can make our country great again. i can do it. now with that being said, you know, i told -- as you know, i told at prentice people, i told the top people in comcast who came to my office three months ago, the top people at nbc, i'm not doing "the apprentice." they came up to try to beg me. i'm not doing it. mark burnett said you're the only one that ever turned down an extension. nobody turns him down. i turned down tremendous amounts. when you saw that i made -- what i reported is certified numbers that i made $213 million doing "the apprentice." and then lawrence, i can not mention about lawrence. i was nice the way' polli he apologized. i gave up tremendous amounts of money just in.

i gave up hundreds of millions of dollars on deals and opportunities. so you know when a politician does this joe and everybody, they run and they just keep running. they win, they lose, nobody cares. when i do it, i'm giving up a lot. but i really -- i think we're making a huge impact even though joe never mentions me in the front. >> oh, my lord. >> oh, my lord! oh, my lord! >> mark halperin. >> i think i have a really good chance of getting the nomination. if i do, i'm the one that can beat hillary. she's the worst secretary of state in the history of our country. >> joe, you have no excuse to moan. mark halperin and then amy. >> donald, we're going to go to mark halperin, next. >> mr. trump, good morning. >> hi, mark. >> huge debate in the republican party among the establish. insiders who are taker fifd your candidacy about how you're going to be derailed. you're pretty smart about presidential politics. what do you think the most likely way your candidacy could

be derailed would be? >> well, you know, you have blowups. i've seen it over the years. it could be the a much bigger story than speaking to me is the whole hillary criminal probe on the e-mails. it is a criminal thing what took place. there's no question about it. i think she won't be indicted because it's all democrats that are the prosecutors right now. >> but how could your campaign, what could keep from you being the republican nominee? >> i don't know. you just -- i'm just chugging along. maybe people get tired of me. who knows? this press is crazy. i turn on the shows, the entire show is -- last night on one of the shows i won't mention which, they were interviewed a candidate and they asked if he could come back because they want to talk about trump. i'm saying i can't believe it. i tuned in to hear what he was going to say. do you think you can come back? we want to talk about donald trump? and then they only ask him trump questions. so i don't know. maybe people get burned out. i don't know what could happen.

i've been doing this for a long tim time. i've been in politics for a long time. now as a runner, they don't -- although i must say i think the republican national committee, i think they are really -- they have been very, very nice over the last few days. they see what is happening. they reached out. they have talked to me. they have talked to my people. they cannot be nicer than they've been over the last few -- >> that's different. >> they see what is happening, joe. >> let's talk about that really quickly. yesterday there were reports that you had threatened to run as an independent because they were not treating you well. will you run as an independent or is that changing? are they starting to treat you in a way that is more respectful. >> i want to run as a republican. i'm leading every poll. that may change. who knows. but i'm leading every poll. in cases i'm leading big. the nevada poll was unbelievable. leading by, you know, like 18

points. the north carolina poll came out. i'm leading that one big. all i can say is this. the best way to win is to win as a republican. i do not want to do independent at all. now if i'm treated poorly, that's one thing. if i'm treated well and with great respect and don't win, i would not do that. but if i'm treated poorly, i will do it. >> you're saying, donald, over the last couple of days you say they've been calling and have been treating you better. >> yeah, we've had great communication. they are treating me with tremendous respect. because they see what i'm doing, joe. i'm number one in the polls. and the republican -- >> you know how they held that? donald, do you know how they know that? do you know how they know that you're number one in the polls? they all watch "morning joe" every morning and hear us talk about you being number one. you're the only one that watch that's doesn't hear that. let's go to amy.

>> mr. trump, pleasure. just so you know, mika has been totally defending you on "morning joe." she said you are a force to be reckoned with. but i want to ask you about this. you said in the past that you probably identify more as a democrat and you said that in your view the economy does better under the democrats. so i want to ask you, why then are you running as a republican? >> i'll tell you what. first, over the years as a businessman, i've always helped everybody. helped everybody. i'm a businessman. and that's part of the problem with the system. i help everybody. i contribute to people. i -- when i want somebody, they are always there for me. i think most people understand. that's one of the reasons i put in a statement that i'm worth a lot of money. much, much more money than anybody even thought. >> but why did you say you identify more as a democrat and the economy does better under democrats? >> i identify with some things as a democrat but generally speaking -- if you look at what happened, i was never a bush

fan. i will tell you. in fact, i just say about this one, the last thing we need is another bush. when the economy crashed so horribly under george bush because of mistakes they made having to do with banking and lots of other things, i don't think the democrats would have done that. now i've seen it both ways. i hated what i was watching the last two years of george bush. it was a bubble waiting to explode. it was a bubble that with joe and mika i told them it was waiting to explode. i told a lot of people. i was right. i'm pretty good at that stuff. but what they were doing was a death wish. and i saw that. that was a republican thing. now would a democrat have done those same things? possibly. in all fairness to mccain, when he came in, i mean abraham lincoln could have run against obama at that time. you know, you just couldn't have won. so i have seen things over the years done by republicans that i

totally agree w i'm a republican. i'm actually quite conservative to put it mildly. but i have seen things done by republicans that are not good. >> gene robinson? >> i wouldn't do that. >> donald, after all the swash buckling rhetoric, after all you said about the other republican candidate and it's really entertaining and really effective in many ways given your standings in the polls, how you could support any of these guys? you have pointed out their deficiencies again and again and again. how you could support them if, you know, for some reason you didn't get the nomination? >> well, first of all, i assume that is gene robinson who i'm starting to love. i'm starting to love gene, okay? i'm falling madly in love with him. >> we're bonding. >> gene, it's really a good question. now if i'm a politician, you know, it always sickens me when two people are fighting and watching the shows after the election and horrible enemies and fighting and fighting.

and then one loses and they get up to the podium. i love so and so. he is so wonderful. i'll support him. that's politics. there may somebody people, look, some of these people that are running. i have a great respect for a number of the people. it's not like i'm enemies with everybody. you see that. some people, you know, give me a lot of credit for bringing up the illegal immigration. give me a lot of credit because of the vets. i'm the one that brought up the vets. i did it through john mccain because he's done such a poor job for the veterans. i bring up the vets. it's a major subject now. the vets love me. the fact is there are a couple people that if they won, i don't think they're going to win or close to winning, frankly, but if they would win, i may not -- if i don't do this, unlike other people, i'm going back to my life. i'm going have a good life and i'm sacrificing a tremendous amount to do this. you know, i'm taking a huge -- sort of a risk but sacrificing a

lot by doing this. including tens of millions of dollars and much more than that. probably -- i'm not talking about the cost of a campaign. that is the smallest cost. i think the campaign is probably the cheapest thing. but there could very well be, gene, you know people -- there are people that i do not think are very good. it's very hard for me to support somebody that is -- if somebody won, i may sort of, like, shift off into the moonlight. >> okay. >> i hope that won't be the case. i hope that won't be the case. it could very well be. >> all right. donald trump, thank you so much for working with us. i don't believe you're as thin skinned as you sound today. i think you're just pounding me in the head. >> no. no. the two of you are exactly alike. >> oh, sftop that. >> thank you, donald. always interesting and good luck. be safe out on the cam