wanted to be but i had an opportunity to affect the outcome. >> you can watch the entire interview with john price tomorrow that tom price tomorrow -- tom price tomorrow. this month is the 10th anniversary of the sunday primetime program "q1 a cargo we are featuring an encore presentation of one program from each year -- "you and a." a." & we are featuring an encore presentation of one program from each year. robert novak on his years of reporting. the value of higher education. from 2009, a conservative commentator. a decade of compelling conversations. atember 22 through the 26th some p.m. eastern on c-span -- 7:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. says he isrump seriously considering a presidential run in 2016 well speaking at washington, d.c. to talk about politics, his brand, and the business community as a whole. this is an hour. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] ok. -- >>. ok. can everybody be quiet. thank you very much. we are ever pleased this evening to have as our special guest donald trump. through elaborate introductions because i memorize them and i think i should do them. in this case, a do not know that he needs an introduction as some of because i have given introductions to. theink he is one of best-known businessmen, real estate developers, celebrities, andosts, promoters, voters, all around well known person in the united states. i thought it would be interesting for everyone to hear from donald trump. so i want to thank you, donald, for coming this evening. >> it is my pleasure. thank you very much. [applause] >> so, let me start by asking you this. it is rumored you may go to iowa soon to maybe do some exploratory work. i would ask you, why you -- why would you consider a home that has a smaller square footage and is much older? >> that's a very good question. first, i would like to say, it is such a privilege to be here. so many great friends. one is david blassi. he is heading up the dinner and the weekend in iowa. he said, would you do it? and i have great respect for david and what he represents, so i agreed to do it. and it is going to be a great event. like this is your biggest sellout crowd, and i think we'll have the biggest sellout crowd that they have ever had in iowa, too. the night before there is a real , estate dinner in iowa, done by a very big company, a terrific company, and they asked me to be the keynote speaker, so i'm there for two reasons, real estate and politics. >> ok, so, let me finish that up. are you considering getting into politics as a candidate, or are you not sure yet? >> well, you know, i have been building buildings all my life, and we have done a great job. one thing about david, if he didn't think we did a good job, i wouldn't be here tonight. that i can tell you. what we have done a good job. -- bought we have done a good job. i am considering it. a lot of people think i have fun with it, that i'm playing games, that i enjoy the process. i do enjoy the process to a certain extent. the country is in serious , serious trouble. we just broke $18 trillion in debt, largely in part to places like china and others. we are in serious trouble, so i am considering it very strongly. quite so when do you think you -- >> so when do you think you might make a decision? >> sometime after the beginning of the year, sometime in march, april, or may. >> so you wouldn't start below the top job, governor or something, just to get a little experience? [laughter] >> well, you know, i've dealt in politics all my life. all my life i've been in politics, usually as a supporter on the other side. and is supported a lot of different people, people i think will be good. i'm a republican, but i will support people that i think will be good. frankly, i just think we need something very good, very fast or we're going to be in very big trouble as a country. and a lot of it is common sense. for instance, the torture report. do we have to announce the torture report? which, by the way, costs $40 million. i'm trying to understand how it cost $40 million. they paid these guys $40 million. they paid $80 million to come up with the process. and there is so much, so many things that i see in the country, whether it is common sense or whatever. i have millions and millions of followers on twitter and facebook, and when i say something, some people don't like it, but most people do like it. whether it is jobs or the thing i like best, and the thing that i think i am best at is the economy and how to put people to work. that's what we need in this country. >> the campaign is typically a two-year process. and then, if you are elected, you have four or eight years of it. in the peak of your earning. , -- earning. back, you would say that is ok? -- earning period, you would say that is ok? >> i have a great company with tremendously talented people. i have some of those people sitting at the table right here. i also have children. three of my five children are in the company. they have done a fantastic job. four years ago i was leading in the polls. i was beating everybody in the polls. what happened is, i was loving what i do. i would rather do what i do than run for president, but i also love the country more. i just think unless i see someone that is outstanding, i would very much be inclined to do it. >> ok. well, i don't think you can make anymore news than you just made, so -- [laughter] >> all right, so let's go home. >> let's go back to the beginning, if we could. your father was a prominent real estate developer not in manhattan, but in -- >> brooklyn, queens. >> as a young boy you could say you were aggressive, and maybe you were sent to a military academy? >> i was. i was sent to military academy. my father said, you could use a little discipline. you are sort of tough to handle. and they sent me up to a military academy where we had some very tough people working up there. and, you know, i was supposed to be a smart person, but i was on the aggressive side. and they were terrific. these were drill sergeants. we had one major -- he used to be sergeant tobias. at the time. he got promoted to major and later he was a colonel, now he's retired, but he was tough. you could not talk back to him. today, you could not do this, this is a different world. you just didn't talk back to this guy or it was bad, bad trouble. harassment, david: -- today they call it harassment, it would be on the front page of every newspaper. but it was a good place, it was a tough place. i ended up graduating at the highest rank. so i acclimated. you have a climate. it wasn't my climate, but by the time i was there five years and by the time i finished, i graduated at the highest rank. i learned a lot about leadership, and i learned a lot about a lot of things. >> you were an athlete? >> you were captain of the baseball team? >> i was. >> did you ever think of being in professional baseball? >> i loved sports. i always did well at sports. i was on baseball. i was on the football team, the wrestling team. not a good wrestler, not a good basketball player. i did not have good jumping ability. i was not able to get up there. but i was a good baseball player. i was recruited, and they wanted me to go to major league. it was different. in those days, you made $3. there was no money, no anything. and ultimately my father had a business in brooklyn, mostly brooklyn, new york, as a real estate developer. and ultimately i did that for a lot of the right reasons. and it became a lot of fun. i wanted to make it more exciting. i always loved show business and i loved other things, but i think we put some show business into the real estate business. >> you went to warton after the military academy? >> right. >> you did pretty well there. well i majored in finance. , i liked finance, but i did well, and i loved the wharton school of finance. i thought it was a great school. >> i read at one point you went into the film business. >> yes. >> what took you away from that? >> it is sort of an interesting story. i went to -- i applied to u.s.c. where they said they had a great school of cinema. that was the one school of cinema. i applied, there was a man who was having troubles in real estate, and he came to me. smart guy. and he said, can you help me? and i gave him -- i was only 19 years old. i gave him a lot of advice. this guy was a top broadway producer. and i said, you know, i would love to go to usc and all of the stuff. i kept talking about movies. he said, i tell you what, you just saved my life. you really know about real estate. you have to be crazy to go into show business. and it really affected me. my first five years, i went into the business with my father. i did some really good deals with him. he was really happy with me. he was a tough guy. he had a great heart. he was a good man, but he was a tough man. and he would never let anyone sign checks, for example for any , reason. today they sign them by computer. but today you press a button and everybody gets paid. there is no negotiation. whatever it is, if it's a mistake, they never find it. he would sign every check and study it. he would call the people, you are getting too much money. this is a little different than what we have today. so i actually continued that practice. i sign many, many, many checks. the company has gotten so big it is hard, but i like signing checks because i see what's going on much better that way. >> you went to your father, and you said, daddy want to go out on my own. what did he say? >> he really respected it. you know, being in brooklyn and queens, and we would look across the east river and i would see those big tall buildings, and i said, pop, that's what i want to do. i want to build those buildings. that's what i have to do. i want to be there. he sort of said, that's not our territory. you don't know anything about that. that's not our territory. let's stay in brooklyn. my father started building family homes and then apartments. mostly middle-income apartments, almost all middle income apartments and some lower income using federal subsidies, the 236 program. a lot of different programs. section 8. we had a section 8 program. it was amazing. they gave you the money for nothing. it was a good program for a developer. but it also allowed people to live at a very low rent. my father did a lot of that and i did that with him and we did it while. i said, you know pop, i want to go in. i started with the grand hyatt. i took an option. i converted that to the grand. it was originally the old comdore hotel. interesting how my life progresses where we go from that to the o.p.o. >> you were 28, 29, and you bought a hotel near grand central station called the commodore and you put in almost no money? is that right? >> almost no money. >> how did you manage to do that? with no money? >> it was run by pen central railroad. it was run by very good people. verylly, it was interesting because he happens to be a very good man. it was victor palmari & company. one of the people was john coscanin. does anyone know him? he's the head of the i.r.s. he's a very good man. while i am a strong conservative and a strong republican, he did a very good job running victor palmari. i made deals with john and the people at victor paul larry -- ri, and took options to the building. after i took omingses, i went to the city. the city was in deep trouble. i was about 28 years old. i said, look, you are going to have to give me tax abatement or this won't happen. then i went to hyatt, i said you put up the money and i'll getthe approvals. i got the approvals. we built the hotel. we were 50-50 partners. it became very successful. then i did the convention center and lots of other jobs. >> let's talk about one of the other very famous buildings you did, trump tower. >> right. >> how did you get the rights to build that piece of land and how did you finance that? >> that was owned by a company named conseco. originally it was genesco. and i guess you know genesco was from nashville, tennessee. genesco was run by a father and son. it was a public company. and they were fighting like cats and dogs. unlike your children and my children, by the way, so far. we want to keep it that way. by the way. but they were fighting like cats and dogs. i loved reading the papers. i saw the trouble that they were having, that genesco was in deep trouble, and i knew they owned a department store. so i called the head of genesco, and i went to nashville, tennessee. where i have a warm spot in my heart for nashville. because i made an amazing deal there. i took an option on the site. as soon as that option was announced, every developer in the world went there. frank dubai. because it -- trying to buy. because it was the best site. 57th and fifth is the best site. but it was too late because i already had it signed. they tried to get out of it. they saw it was more valuable than what i paid. then i dealt with a great man, walter hogan, who was head of tiffany's. he took tiffany's to great levels, he took tiffany's from troubles to great levels. and i bought the rights to tiffany's and some other companies, and it turned out to be a tremendous success called trump tower. when i bought the rights to tiffany's, i had the right to call it tiffany tower. and i went to a friend of mine, a very street smart guy, stein, and i asked him. i said, i can use the name "tiffany," but i want to call it "from tower." -- trump tower." what do you think? he said, when your name is "tiffany," change it to tiffany. [laughter] i be rights but i called it trump tower and it was one of the better things i had done. >> when did you realize putting your name on something you would put a higher price on it. >> a lot of people think -- i had this brilliant strategy of naming. honestly, it just happened. it started with trump tower. i did the grand hyatt first. in manhattan. that was my first job. i did the convention center the , jacob javitz convention center. but no one knew much about me. then when i did trump tower -- i never thought at a young age, like 30, i would have the best piece of land in the world. it never changes. that piece of land was the best then and it's the best now. we signed a lease with gucci that's one of the greatest retail leases ever signed, as you understand. and so i never really knew. when i called it trump tower, a lot of things happened. because of the prominence of the location, the success of the building, i was able to get it zoned. a lot of people said, you'll never get it zoned. you will never be able to build a tall building, you will never be able to build an all glass building. an architectural critic gave it phenomenal reviews. later on, herbert vuchamp of the "new york times" gave it phenomenal reviews. then i ended up writing "the art of the deal" and that became a great thing. >> you live in new york? on the top three floors? >> i do. >> do you think there are enough millionaires to fill these big buildings being built in new york? park avenue? have you seen this? >> there are too many being built. >> park avenue? have you seen this? >> and friends of mine are doing it. they had the advantage early on. they are very good people. i think they are going to do ok because it is early. but the ones coming on line, i mean, there are so many of them. i look at the plans. i study them. i know every inch of manhattan. i know which store is available five years before the lease comes due. i look at all the plans in manhattan, and i don't see anyway. russia has been taken out of it, over the last year, as you know. a lot of russian that is were buying these apartments are no longer buying these apartments. they have bigger problems. frankly, i don't see anyway they are going to do it. now that's an opportunity for you and it is an opportunity for me. a man came to my office, and he is a well-known man, and he has a site to build a 100-story building on the site. i don't love the site, but it is good. the great always works. the good doesn't always work in real estate. he had a 90 story building, 100 story building. you could do sort of whatever you want. he wanted to sell it to me. i've been through great, great times, but i had to fight like crazy to keep everything going. and i said, you know, you do it because i don't have the guts any more to do it. he said, i promise i won't tell anybody you said that. but it is true. i see the market is, i think, will be over-saturated. >> let me ask you. you are having this success, you are building trump tower, other things. you bought an airline, the shuttle, and then you got involved in gaming in, i guess, atlantic city. then the economy collapsed, and many people thought you would not be able to survive. how did you end up getting ahead? >> i wanted to continue living my lifestyle. i liked planes and -- in those days i wasn't married, and i liked planes and beautiful women, i like my lifestyle, and i didn't want to lose my lifestyle. there was the shuttle going from new york to boston. in the airline business, that was sort of like the best asset. so the market had totally crashed, but the banks came to me and people came to me and i made a deal where it was a great deal to buy the shuttle, even in bad times. i made a great deal to buy the plaza. i made an unbelievable deal in getting out of the plaza. and it just worked out really well. other things i did -- actually david and i were speaking before, and i said, you know, the crazy thing about atlantic city, i was there during the boom time when it was -- then -- was a monopoly and did phenomenally in atlantic city. then atlantic city changed. i fought like hell. they built the civic center in the wrong location. the did not do the airport properly. the politicians took over atlantic city and absolutely destroyed it. but atlantic city for me has been a great experience. and i got out seven years ago. and, again, i made a lot of money. but i do play the bankruptcy laws. not individually, but corporately. many other people do, too. many of your friends, we were talking about before. you look at cesar's is going to go bankrupt. i buy a building. the building is in turmoil. it's got a big mortgage, the bank is being vicious and ruthless. i buy the building. i call up the banks. they are not nice. so i throw it into a chapter, i beat the hell out of them, and then i get huge reductions, and then i make a lot of money out of the building. but when i buy the building, i very safe files bankruptcy. building, they say from files bankruptcy. files bankruptcy. i use it as a tool. the enemies -- i call them the losers and haters. i call them that on twitter. i call them the losers and the haters. i use that as a business tool. many of your friends, you look at who, whether it is sam dell, leon black or carl icahn with t.w.a. we use the same names, however when i do it to my advantage, they say trump went bankrupt. if david does it, they don't say that. so that makes you smarter than me. >> i doubt that. in a number of interviews i've read, you filed for bankruptcy. >> i never went bankrupt. >> one of the deals you did, i would say you stole the property, but legally. you bought moralogo. for about $8 million, more or less. today it is probably worth $200 million. i do not know. how did you buy that when it was pretty cheap? >> that was an interesting deal, because you know from florida that is one of the greatest pieces of land. the greatest house in america, i would say. we turned it into the moralargo club, which has been very successful. i went there and it was $38 million. i said, i don't want to pay that. that was a lot of money. 1986, $38 million. that was like $100 million today. the the margorie peast foundation, when she died, they sold the beach. the friend of mine was a great friend of mine. he founded kentucky fried chicken. he founded a couple of hospital corporations of america. >> massey. >> massey. he was unfortunately very sick. he had cancer. i went to him. i said, would you do me a favor? can i buy the beach? it is on 22 acres, a massive beach. they sold the beach for $2.5 million. he said donald, you are a friend of mine. i will sell you the beach. i overpaid for it. i paid $2 million for it. the whole beach in front of moralogo. then i announced i'm going to build the ugliest building ever. i didn't want anybody to buy moralogo. it was embarrassing. i put this thing it was almost a wall. the town got sick, they wanted to change the zoning. i did it for a reason. then people, many, many people , ross perot, wanted to buy moralargo, but they wanted access to the beach. i said no, no, no. i forgot about it. then a couple years later i got a call. they said we want to sell moralargo. i almost said, what is moralago. you move on to the next one. i said, what's your price snl they said $8 million. i didn't get along with them actually. i did not get along with dena at all because she was upset that i bought it. i said, why don't you buy it? she was the daughter of the great margorie who was married to the great e.f. huton. when she opposed everything i did in palm beach, i said a statement. which is never good. margorie was a great woman. a great beauty. i said she was born with her mother's beauty but not her mother's brains. this was not a good quote on the front page of "the palm beach post" in terms of a long-term relationship. but they sold it. this is something. you know david negotiates. , you say a company is worth a billion, he will say, i'll give you 500 million. when they said $8 million, i didn't negotiate. i was afraid they would change their mind. i bought it for $8 million plus $2 million for the beach. i turned it into a club. it is an amazing club. >> after you bought it, you realized the flight pattern was over it. >> yes. >> and you sued palm beach. or somebody. , to dropturn for that the law suit -- >> they gave me tremendous amount of land in west palm beach. i made a golf club which is one of the best in palm beach. >> is that how you got into golf? >> actually, i bought a foreclosure. in fact, i love foreclosures. [laughter] especially when it is somebody else's. i bought a big piece of land in westchester in foreclosure. i said, what am i going to do with it? i made it into a golf club and it was successful. i bought this one out of foreclosure, out of what i did. i ended up with a tremendous lawsuit. i had a good lawyer, and they ended up settling the lawsuit by making me a deal to buy 500 acres at a good piece of land in palm beach. i turned it into a club. it has become such a hot club. now moralago and that club, they work like sisters and they do a tremendous amount of business off each other. >> the food is great, you always go around and say hello to people. it is true. so let me ask you this. you own a lot of golf courses. and some people say golf is going this way because people are playing golf less. so why is golf a good business to have? >> i have been buying golf courses. since the depression, and i call of the depression, because for a lot of people it has been bad. for example, in loudon county, 6 hundred hookup acres right up the road. one of the gentleman i made the deal with is here, so i'm not going to talk too much about it. but they also made a good deal because they did not know what the hell they were doing. i am only getting. -- kidding. [laughter] but they are great people. we turned that into a tremendous success in washington. what i do like is this, first of all, golf is doing well all over the world. asia, china, all over the place. south america. they have just approached it for the next olympics. golf is doing well if you have good places. but what i really like also is the real estate. when i have 600 acres on the potomac river. when i have 800 acres on the pacific ocean facing catalina island facing los angeles. i hate to sell property. >> you play golf. you are a handicapper of? >> 3 or 4. courts that is pretty good. -- >> that is pretty good. numerous must play two or three rounds a week. have you ever played with tiger woods? >> i have played with everybody. tiger, phil, everyone. it's great to play with them. that's when you realize you are not a very good golfer they are . -- golfer. they are amazingly talented people. like you in business and a couple of the other folks in the room in business. you look at this triangle, it is that tip of the triangle that you have. so they are tremendously talented people and really good people. one of the things i like about golf is that when i buy these courses, i'm buying tremendous amounts of land. i say, you know, i'm going to close a golf course some place, i'm going to own 600 acres on the potomac river or i'm going to own 600 acres on the pacific ocean. it's a statement i always make. i never lost money on a lake, river, or an ocean. i love that. in scotland i just bought turnberry, the great turnberry, probably the most important of the majors. it is just a great thing. that is 1,000 acres on the ocean. i don't want to sell it. but it is great real estate. the other minor thing, too. i have made tremendous deals because of my relationship to golf. play golf with people that love golf. i have become great friends with them. >> you make deals on the golf course? >> i make tremendous deals on the golf course. i have friends like terry linden. who was a fantastic guy, -- he is a fantastic, he has done a great job with macy's. we play golf together, and others. i could never have the relationship with these people if i said, let's go out to dinner, let's go out to lunch. i have made many, many deals -- actually, the trump tower site, which is one of the great real estate deals, i really started that with a round of golf with somebody that was very atuned to that whole situation in nashville with genesco. >> so you mentioned macy's. you go into macy's, there's a macy's not far from here. you can buy donald trump clothing. how do you pick the clothing? >> i have people that come to me and they show me. i don't spend huge amounts of time. and macy's does a fantastic job. ties, suits, cufflinks. >> you are wearing some no. -- now. >> the want to buy it? -- do you want to buy it? i used to spend a fortune. $500 on a tie. a little piece of water gets on the tie, it's ruined. these look better and they are like steel. >> you mentioned "the apprentice," so i was going to go there. how did that come about? >> mark burnett who did "survivor," a great guy. a friend of mine. but i did not know him. rink, i took it and fixed it, made it great. it is the number one rink in the world for ice skating. they wanted to do a "survivor" set live. they built an ice skating rink on the building behind. and mark burnett called me, he said i have a content for a -- concept for a show, and i'll only do it if you do it. i said what's -- what is it? he said, it is called "the apprentice," and you are hiring people and ultimately you are firing people. he didn't use that word. it was the first of its kind because it has been copied, 15 different times "the apprentice" has been copied. i'm happy to say every single one of them has been a failure. you know all the people that have done them. i could go into the -- anyway. i said, let's take a look, and we did it. i have an agent from william morris. a big agent actually. he said it will never work. don't do it. you will embarrass yourself. it will be horrible, horrible. i said i have a problem. i shook hands with mark burnett. he said don't do it. i demand, i will not let you embarrass yourself. problem. a two things people don't know, my hair, which it really is. you know that. i hope you know that. also i'm an honorable person. most people do not know that either. [laughter] but they assume i'm not. because i am in the real estate business in new york. but they assume i'm not. i shook hands. i shook hands with the head of nbc. i shook hands with mark brunett. he was very angry. anyway, the show goes on. it started at a 10, it went to 8. m is massive, you have hundreds of shows. -- 10 is massive, you have hundreds of shows. it wasn't expected to be successful. they thought to have a successful show you have to have women as a preponderance of the audience, and what one more to watch donald trump. -- whatry insulted woman will want to watch donald trump ? i was very insulted. it went to the number one show in the world. i was the number one show in the country, number one television show. and the agent called me up, and he said, donald, could i see you? i said, about what, jim? he said, your show just went to number one. congratulations. it is a fantastic tribute. i'd like to come over and say hello. i said, what do you want? he said, i think i'm entitled to a commission. i said, what do you think it you are entitled to? he said $4 million. i said, jim, you're fired. [laughter] and by the way, "the," it goes on again. best of the apprentice," it goes on again. via apprentice," it goes on again. sometimes in our business it takes years and years for a geal deal. with that business it's all about ratings. so we're going on january 4th with a new show. it was my idea. the concept was, we would let people go over a course of 16 weeks. the first show, the first season, there was one guy, and he was a nice guy, but he was really pathetic. so bad i got angry at him. and i said, i will not use his name, but it is easy to find out. i said so and so, you're fired. the whole place went crazy. the cameramen, everybody went crazy. that's how that came about. it wasn't scripted. there is no script. we don't have any script at all. >> where do you shoot that? >> we shoot it in trump tower. we actually have a special board room that's made. people say why don't you use a real board room? well, it is real a studio. behind the board room they have at least 32 cameras in the board room during the shooting. >> has anybody that you are hired worked out ok? >> yes. bill rancic did a good job. numerous people were on the show. but when i was going to hire them, i would never -- if i thought somebody was really great and i thought i wanted to hire them, i would never let them win because then the price goes up. [laughter] i would always make sure i fired them sometime prior to the end. but i fired a number of them. >> we are in the washington area. let's talk about two things you have done in the washington area. first one, you bought the fuji estate. you did not pay that much for that. how did that come about? >> john is a friend of mine. i was much younger than him, but he and i always liked each other. and he used to go around saying, donald trump is a really smart guy. i don't want to brag, he used to say donald trump is the smartest of the young people. i used to like john, metromedia. he got married. that marriage was a disaster. he had this piece of property, and you give it, intelligently, it,er, and that he gave -- and hetly, to her, do it, intelligently, to her he , said, you should build a winery with the money i gave you. she did. it went bust. i bought it from the bank. they had hundreds of millions of dollars in it. it is now the largest winery on the east coast. it is called trump wine and champagne and everything. my son eric trump runs it. it has become fantastic. it is so beautiful. people are getting married there. he had a car collection where he had these massive buildings and i turned them into ball rooms. and people are getting married there. it is right next to the university of virginia. right next to the home of thomas jefferson. touches the property. it is a beautiful area. we are very proud of it. and the winery is beautiful. they built a magnificent winery. it is sad, they never really got to use it. w, closer to here you worn the right to build a hotel at the old post office building. how did you win that one? did you pay the highest price? >> i think we had the best concept, and i had one of the great financial statements. they wanted to make sure it was built. i have to tell you, the head of the g.s.a. was so professional. i would say it anyway. have you people in government, some of them are phenomenal people. i mean, they are phenomenal people. and these people were very professional. it was a request for proposal. it was really about concept almost more than price. we wanted to make sure that a lot of jobs were provided. -- lafayette wanted to make sure that a lot of jobs were provided. some people had it as an office building. it was the highest, most sought-after piece of property in the history of the g.s.a. we put in a proposal. our architect was here. we put a fantastic proposal to do one of the great hotels of the world. because we had the location. we had the bones. the building is magnificent. the exterior walls. some people think it is their favorite building in washington. it has been a very controversial thing. ago,se, as you know, years ago3 years ago, -- 30 years , people wanted to rip it down. people were marching in the streets to stop it. they chose us because we have a great track record, and importantly, because the concept of the hotel puts more people to work. >> how many rooms will there be? >> we will have 300 rooms. we will have the largest luxury ball room in the tri-state area. meeting rooms, spas. it is a big project. we will spend over $200 million on the renovation. i had a choice today. when i arrived, i arrived a couple minutes early. i said we can go over to the building now, it is other demolition now, and massive, we have 1000 people working. i said, do i go over to the building and get dusty, my shoes everything dusty or do i sit around in a corner somewhere in the hotel here and wait for david and say ok dave, i'm ready in two hours. right? i said you know what? i'm going to go to the hotel. because that is an entrepreneur. we have to do it. so my shoes are a little dusty, but that's ok. so is my suit, but these are minor details. i am very proud of it. it will be one of the great hotels. and, you know, i shouldn't say this, certainly we are in a very nice hotel, but washington doesn't have the great luxury hotel that it should have, and everybody knows that. and this will be one of the great hotels. the hotel i have in chicago was rated the best hotel in north america by conde nast traveler. i think that this hotel is going to be rated one of the best hotels in the world. and that will be a great thing for washington, and that is why they chose us, the gsa. >> will it have trump on the outside? >> yes, but very, very little. [laughter] >> because i was in chicago the other day, and the trump name -- very big. >> well, that's a 94 story building. but that was very controversial. i got the approval to put it up. but when i put the letters went up, and they are 48 feet high right on the side of the river. and so they said, this is terrible. we're going to pass a law that nobody ever can do it again. never can anybody do what trump did again. and i said i agree 100%. [laughter] by the way, the law just passed, and i'm very happy about it. i agree. >> it is difficult for wealthy parents to raise kids that are not spoiled or rebelling. how did you raise kids that are not spoiled or rebelling against their father? >> well, you know, it is such a great question. i hope i will be urine deniers saying the same thing with you -- i it will be here in 10 years seeing same thing with you because you have great children, and i know your daughter, and she's so amazing. it is very complicated. i tell this to everybody. from the time they were 2 years old, old enough to think an old enough to speak, i would say listen, no drugs, no alcohol, no cigarettes. i don't want drugs -- they didn't know what it was. and i would say it and then they would be 15. no drugs, no alcohol, no cigarettes. i have seen people like you, like me, very substantial people where they have children and they become alcoholics, they become drug addicts. they become other things. i mean, i add the cigarettes because if you can stay away from cigarettes, it is good. i don't smoke. i have no intention of smoking. but i have friends of mine, they are very strong. they can't stop. they can't stop drinking. i went to the wharton school. i had a friend. he hated the taste of scotch. hated it. but he tried to develop a taste for scotch. i saw him recently. he's a total alcoholic. he developed a taste for scotch. and all you had to do was stay away from it. -- he had to do was stay away from it. i see many, many people very smart and successful that have children that are very, very smart. as smart as you are going to find. children that could go to harvard, yale, wharton, any of the schools, but they are addicted to drugs and alcohol. and again, i'd throw the cigarettes and. i also say no tattoos, by the -- cigarettes in. i also say no tattoos, by the way. but that seems to be failing. i think the tattoo thing i'm going to have to just stop. i was always very strong on that because you are put at such a tremendous disadvantage as a child. that you are never going to make it. you see how competitive it is because you hire all these young geniuses. if somebody is a drinker, if somebody is on drugs, it's not going to work. i just say, you can't do that. you have to drum it into their heads, no matter what you do. >> so, what would you like -- not that you are going to slow down, not let's suppose you -- but let's suppose you don't get to be president of the united states. the chance of getting elected is relatively small for anybody, right? too admit it, but you're right. >> i hate to admit it, but you're right. >> so if you don't get to be president, you will do this for another 20 years or so? >> the interesting thing about real estate, everybody in real estate is old. they never retire. they really do it instead of plastic surgery. it is true. they fix the building. like i can fix the old post office instead of getting a facelift. because i can make that post office so beautiful, and that's my baby, that's me. real estate people they don't retire. other businesses they retire. i have friends -- you know, my father used to have an expression, "to retire is to expire." it's a tough expression. i had a friend, a big banker. a tremendously powerful banker, a friend of mine. he had to retire at 65. he was a vibrant guy, great guy. you would know him. and very powerful. he could approve a $500 million mortgage or loan without even going to committee. that's not bad. ok? and he was forced to retire at 65. i saw that man get old within a period of one year. it was like the most incredible thing. i also saw him say to me, i have -- to me, when i retire i have a , lot of friends. i said you have friends, but a lot of people won't call you back. he said to me about three weeks ago, you know, you are the only one that calls me back. all those other guys, they don't -- guys, new york developers, mostly, they don't return my calls. they used to return my call before i made it, and now they don't return my calls. that's a sad thing, but it's life. >> you will keep doing this for quite a while. >> i will. i love doing this more than running and getting abused by chris matthews. mrs. matthews is in the audience. i love her, actually. and i love her husband. he has always been great, but boy did he turn liberal over the last 10 years. years ago, he was not that way, but that's ok. >> people are fascinated by your lifestyle and so forth. your plane has your name on it. is that a advertising device? by putting your name on it? >> i guess. it is a boeing 757. e. is a great plan it can only go through the major airports. it is probably a form of branding that i don't think about. i was going to say before, it was a little by osmosis. i would get higher rents and higher numbers than other people. and all of a sudden, i started all over theps place and the brand became very valuable. >> people are fascinated by your hair. why is that? >> i don't know. that could be the hardest question of the evening. it is mine. it is legitimately my hair. i get abused. i heard a story the other day. it was one of the best stories i have ever had. but in the second paragraph he said "he wears the worst hair piece of any human being." show the story. but it is my hair. i have always combed it the same way more or less. i do get abused about the hair, but i've actually become somewhat immune to it. when you know it is yours, you don't care. it may not be beautiful, it may not be pretty, but it is mine. >> what about the economy? what we grow at 3% or so? >> a lot of things are happening. i love the fact that oil is dropping. i always said oil should never be up at those levels. it's a fixed level. i read that saudi arabia is purposefully keeping the price down to destroy it. look, you do business with saudi arabia. and so do i. i have a lot of friends. they buy a lot of apartments, this and that, and they have space in buildings i own. i don't really believe that. there is a theory that they are keeping the price low to destroy all these new people coming out -- who knows. i love low oil prices. a lot of people are saying that it is low because there is no demand. obviously russia is getting killed right now. so many things going on. they are so strongly based with oil. the unemployment rate is not 5.8 or 5.3, the real rate is probably 20%. because people stopped looking for jobs. and they consider them employed. you stop looking for a job. there are so many people up there that gave up looking for jobs or they are part time or they are something else. the fact is, i think your economy is obviously not doing so well. now, the stock market is the one ray of hope. so i've never been a stock market person. but about three years ago, 2 1/2 years ago, i bought a tremendous amount of stock. first time ever. i never believed in letting other people run my money. i would see some of these guys make tremendous amounts of money to run some company that is frankly easy to run. and i always -- i never liked it. i bought stock, because i thought, i'm getting free money. you are getting free money. because the interest rate is so low. also in my c.d.'s, they were offering me one quarter of one percent. so i bought stocks and they went up everyday. i feel like such a genius every day, up, up, up. and i sold my stocks a few weeks ago, everything. because i'm not a great believer in the leadership of the country and i'm not a great believer in decisions that are being made with respect to the country, and usually that would lead somebody that's intelligent to go and do something. so i sold all of the stocks that i bought. but i'm not a stock market guy. but the reason i did it was because the interest rates are so low. at some point those rates are going to be pretty high, and that's going to be a difficult time, i think, for the country. >> so would it be fair to say you don't suffer from a lot of self-doubt? i'm more like woody allen. i don't really know what i should be doing, i'm not sure if i made a mistake. you don't have that issue so much? >> i probably do have that issue. i think a lot about different things. you know, alan greenberg -- ace. >> ace. you were friendly with ace, he was a great guy. one time i'd bought a stock, it went up a lot, and i sold it. and a week later, somebody announced it was going to be bought. i would have made double the money if i would have kept it. i said, ace, you did a horrible thing. i should have kept it in other week. i should have looked. -- another week. i should have looked. what did you do? he said, and that's the first time he ever got angry at me. he said never, ever talk about a deal that's been made. cross that deal off your head -- because he's a trader. he's a great trader, right? he said never, ever talk about it. he said it with anger. he's never been angry at me before. it was sort of interesting. it was a lesson that i learned. i am happy. i sold the stock. they have gone up a little since, but they have been having some pretty bad times the last week or so, so it will be interesting to see what happens. i like to be invested in things that i run. i have confidence in myself. i don't run these companies, and i've seen too many people that do. in your case, i have tremendous respect for this man. in a lot of cases, i do not have great respect for the people running these companies. >> let me ask you a final question. what is the most fun about being donald trump? and what is the biggest downside of being donald trump? >> i have to be very careful with that answer. i could get into a lot of trouble. i could say, i have had a lot of fun in my life. i have a wonderful family, a wonderful wife. my children are great. i think the best part is that i love what i do. i really enjoy what i do. i think the hardest part is the fact that i can't go anywhere. i used to -- like, in the real estate business, it used to be i could walk the streets of manhattan, i could see signs that something is for sale. i can't do that anymore. a lot of that started with "the art of the deal" when that became the number one book, then it went to "the apprentice," even more so when "the apprentice" became successful. it is very hard to do that now. but i will tell you, i have a great time with my life. i have a lot of incredible friends, including you. it was a great honor to be asked by you. i don't know how many people -- this is truly one of the great men and great success stories. it is an honor to be up there. -- up here. >> pleasure to have you here. thank you very much. let me give you a gift. it is a gift from columbia, the motto of it. >> wow. thank you. >> thank you very much. [inaudible conversation] on the next "washington journal," jim examines what needs to be done to make the economy work for everyone. aaron miller talks about his book "the end of brightness." and we will take your calls. washington journal, live at 7:00 c-span.tern on >>. as a look at some of the programs you will find christmas day on the c-span networks. 10:00 a.m. start at eastern with the lighting of the national christmas tree, following by the white house christmas decorations. p.m.,fter all: 30 celebrity activists -- 12:30 p.m., celebrity activist talk about their caucus. and bush on the bill of rights and the founding fathers. eastern, do 10:00 a.m. steven pinker. ad then the feminists out of superhero as gerald storch is searches the secret history of wonder woman -- side of a superhero as jill searches the secret history of wonder woman. c-span3 at 8:00 a.m. eastern, the fall of the berlin wall with footage of george bush and bob dole and speeches from john kennedy and ronald reagan. experts onshion first lady fashion choices and how they represented the styles of the times. at 10:00, tom brokaw on his reporting. is christmas day on the c-span networks. for a complete schedule, go to c-span.org. >> next a forum examining political messages in movies. then act are set of broken talks about political humor in movies. n seth rogen talks about political humor in movies. >> adam guillette of the moving picture institute on political messages in pop culture. the presentation includes several clips. filmmakers like james cameron, promote liberis