I don’t mind being attacked. I use the media the way the media uses me—to attract attention. Once I have that attention, it’s up to me to use it to my advantage. I learned a long time ago that if you’re not afraid to be outspoken, the media will write about you or beg you to come on their shows. If you do things a little differently, if you say outrageous things and fight back, they love you. So sometimes I make outrageous comments and give them what they want—viewers and readers—in order to make a point. I’m a businessman with a brand to sell. When was the last time you saw a sign hanging outside a pizzeria claiming “The fourth best pizza in the world”?! But now I am using those talents, honed through years of tremendous success, to inspire people to think that our country can get better and be great again and that we can turn things around.
The cost of a full-page ad in the New York Times can be more than $100,000. But when they write a story about one of my deals, it doesn’t cost me a cent, and I get more important publicity. I have a mutually profitable two-way relationship with the media—we give each other what we need. And now I am using that relationship to talk about the future of America.
Many people believe I do well with the press. Maybe I do, sometimes, but anyone who believes I can use the media is absolutely wrong. Nobody can use the press. It’s too big, too widespread. For me, it has been absolutely necessary to try to build relationships with reporters. There are many journalists I respect. Some of the finest people I know are journalists. They are honest, decent, and hardworking; they bring honor to their profession. If I do something wrong or make a mistake, they report it accurately. I’ve got no problem with that. The mistake bothers me, not the reporting.
But there also are a lot of times I believe that the media is abusive, both to people like me and to the process. The key word is “accurately.” Like in every other profession, there are people who are not good. There is no question that considering all the press I’ve had, both good and bad, I’ve definitely met people at both the very top as well as the lowest end of the food chain. I mean, the very bottom: They are horrible human beings, they are dishonest. I’ve seen these so-called journalists flat-out lie. I say that because incompetence doesn’t begin to explain the inaccurate stories they have written. There is no other explanation.
The image I created through the media enabled me to build one of the greatest luxury brands in the world. People buy my apartments, buy my label, and play on my golf courses, because they know if I put my name on it, it has to be top quality. Why do you think NBC gave me my own show, The Apprentice? They did it because I set myself apart to be a target, the big, tough employer. The result was one of the most successful shows in television history. I’m the only boss in the world who boosts a person’s future status by firing them.
Sometimes the truth hurts, but sometimes that is the only way to get better. And a lot of the viewers told me that by watching my show they learned how to be more effective in their jobs so they wouldn’t get fired.
I don’t mind criticism. People call me thin-skinned, but I have thick skin. I have a wonderful and beautiful wife. I’ve got billions of dollars. My children are highly intelligent and accomplished executives who work with me. I’ve got a pile of potentially huge projects sitting on my desk. I can’t walk into a room or down a street without people racing toward me and telling me that they are excited for our country to win again. So criticism doesn’t bother me, and it can’t hurt me. I’ve had power and I’ve had profits, but now it’s time to help the people have a voice and to make sure the people are heard. I am doing this to make our country great again.
Not too long ago, a lot of the pundits kept asking me if I was serious. I thought they were asking the wrong question. What they should have been asking was if I was serious about the future of our country. I have never been more serious about anything in my life.
In the quest for ratings, every show is trying to make news. The problem is that they aren’t doing their job. They aren’t interested in informing the public. Instead, they play their own game, the “gotcha” game. As I’ve said, some of the political media are very dishonest. They don’t care about printing the truth, they don’t want to repeat my entire remarks, and they don’t want to be bothered explaining what I meant. They know what I said, they know what I meant, and they edit it or interpret it to have a different meaning.
I was reminded of this behavior when I announced that I was running for president on June 16 in New York. I spoke at great length about a lot of different topics. I listed a lot of the problems we were facing: illegal immigration, underemployment, a shrinking gross domestic product, an aging nuclear arsenal, and Islamic terrorism. I went through them all. What did the media focus on? They concentrated on the fact that I said Mexico was sending its worst people over our southern border. “They’re sending people that have lots of problems,” I said. “And they’re bringing those problems to us.”
The next thing you heard was that Trump said all immigrants were criminals. That wasn’t what I said at all, but it made a better story for the media. It gave them some headlines. What I said was that among all the illegal immigrants coming from Mexico were some pretty bad people, some of them are rapists, some of them are drug dealers, some of them are coming here to live off the system, and we’d better take immediate and tough measures to close our borders to “illegals.”
People who know me know I would never insult Hispanics or any group of people. I’ve done business with many Hispanics. I’ve lived in New York all my life. I know how wonderful the Latino culture can be. I know the contributions they make to our country. I’ve employed many hardworking Hispanic people through the years. I have great respect for Hispanic people, but that’s not what the media reported.
Here’s what the media reported: TRUMP CALLS ALL IMMIGRANTS CRIMINALS and TRUMP CALLS ALL MEXICANS RAPISTS!
Completely ridiculous.
One of the problems the political media has with me is that I’m not afraid of them. Others run around practically begging for attention. I don’t. People respond to my ideas. These media types sell more magazines when my face is on the cover, or when I bring a bigger audience to their television show than they normally attract, and by far. And what’s funny is that it turns out the best way for them to get that attention is to criticize me.
But the American people are beginning to understand that. They have finally figured out that a lot of the political media aren’t trying to give the people a fair representation of the important issues. Instead, they are trying to manipulate the people—and the election—in favor of the candidates they want to see elected. These media companies are owned by billionaires. These are smart people who know which candidates are going to be best for them, and they find a way to support the person they want.
It would be impossible for me to even estimate how many times I’ve been interviewed by how many reporters. I couldn’t even tell you how many magazine covers I’ve been on.
Recently, I was interviewed by conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt. “Best interview in America,” he called me. Here’s what happened:
During the show, he started asking me a series of questions about an Iranian general and various terrorist leaders. “I’m looking for the next commander in chief to know who Hassan Nasrallah is, and Zawahiri, and al-Julani, and al-Baghdadi. Do you know the players without a scorecard yet?”