Full Word Salad On Display In ’60 Minutes’ Donald Trump Interview

On Sunday night’s season premiere of 60 Minutes, correspondent Scott Pelley sat down with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump for an in-depth interview to get to the bottom of Trump’s popularity and how exactly he plans to accomplish what he says he will.

In essence, Trump thinks that because he’s Donald Trump and only because of that, he’ll be able to fix the country’s problems. He doesn’t seem to think that his contentious rhetoric might anger other world leaders, or that, for instance, if he breaks the North American Free Trade Agreement (whether you believe in it or not, it’s still the law), that won’t anger some people out there or, ya know, be in violation of the Constitution or anything. He thinks he can build a “good looking” wall on the southern border that won’t cost billions. He believes that when he’s president, China will suddenly stop under-valuing their currency.

What we learned, or at least should have come to realize by now, is that Donald Trump has no plan. He has no specifics. When pressed on details, his canned response is, “Trust me, it’ll be great.” Every. Single. Time. Yes, like any armchair politician, you can sit there and say, “I see what the problem is and I believe this is how to fix it.” But just because you believe it doesn’t mean it will happen.

You’d think that with such a prominent venue Trump might have come more prepared with hard facts and cost estimates for his proposed ideas, but he didn’t, and that should be a telling sign that there are none. There is no plan but for Trump to eventually quietly fade into the sunset with a few more magazine covers to show for it.

Here’s a few choice quotes from Mr. Trump.

On taxes:

Pelley: Who are you going to raise taxes on?

Trump: If you look at actual raise, some very wealthy are going to be raised; some people that are getting unfair deductions are going to be raised.

Pelley; But Republicans don’t raise taxes.

Trump: We’re not raising taxes.

What?

Trump, on illegal immigrants:

Trump: We’re rounding them up in a very humane way, very nice way, and they’re going to be happy because THEY want to be legalized.”

Pelley: What does that number look like to you? (How much it will cost to accomplish rounding up 11 million immigrants.)

Trump: It’s going to work.

Pelley: How does that work?

Trump: Because they’re going to come back. It’s called, “management.” … We’re gonna build a wall. We’re going to create a border and it’s going to be a great wall and it’s not going to be very expensive.

Pelley: How are you going to build a wall that is cheap and impenetrable?

Trump: It’ll be a real wall. It’ll be a wall that works. It’ll actually be a wall that will look good, believe it or not. Cause what they have now is a joke. They’re ugly, little, and don’t work.

So a gold-plated, impenetrable wall that is cheap?

On the economy:

Donald Trump: That’s right. We’re gonna grow the economy so much–

Scott Pelley: You can’t afford to do those things–

Donald Trump: –no, no, but if the economy grows the way it should grow, if I bring jobs back from China, from Japan, from Mexico, from so many countries, everybody’s taking our jobs.

Scott Pelley: How do you get ’em back?

Donald Trump: You get ’em back–

Scott Pelley: Those $20 an hour jobs that this country was built on.

Donald Trump: Right. Exactly. You get ’em back by taking them away from other countries. I mean, if you look at China, we have–

Scott Pelley: How does the president do that?

Donald Trump: Well, the president does it by not allowing places like China to devaluate, you know, they devalue their currency, Scott, to such an extent that it’s impossible for our companies to compete every time they do that, they suck the blood right out of our country.

Scott Pelley: You’re not running for president of China.

Donald Trump: No, I’m running–

Scott Pelley: You’re not going to be able to prevent the devaluation of the currency.

Donald Trump: Oh absolutely. Sure you are, sure you are. Look, they don’t respect our president. They don’t respect our country. They will respect me. They won’t be doing it. But here’s what we have to do. If they don’t come to the table, they’re going to have a tax when they put their products into this country. And they’re going to behave.

On breaking trade laws:

Scott Pelley: How do you keep them from exporting American jobs to Mexico?

Donald Trump: Let’s say Ford– let’s say Ford moves to Mexico. If they want to sell that car in the United States they pay a tax. Here’s what’s gonna happen, they’re not going to build their plant there. They’re going to build it in the United States.

Scott Pelley: But there is a North American Free Trade Agreement.

Donald Trump: And there shouldn’t be. It’s a disaster.

Scott Pelley: But it is there.

Donald Trump: OK, yeah, but–

Scott Pelley: If you’re president, you’re going to have to live with it.

Donald Trump: Excuse me, we will either renegotiate it or we will break it. Because, you know, every agreement has an end.

Scott Pelley: You can’t just break the law.

Donald Trump: Excuse me, every agreement has an end. Every agreement has to be fair. Every agreement has a defraud clause. We’re being defrauded by all these countries.

Scott Pelley: It’s called free trade—

On being famous:

Scott Pelley: I was in your office, all the magazines on your desk–

Donald Trump: Well, I have a lot of covers.

Scott Pelley: –are covers of you.

Donald Trump: I think I have more covers–

Scott Pelley: All the pictures on the wall are pictures of you.

Donald Trump: –well, it’s cheaper than wallpaper.

Scott Pelley: What are we supposed to take from that?

“I don’t like lies. I don’t mind a bad story. If you did a bad story on me for 60 Minutes, if it were a fair story I wouldn’t be thin-skinned at all.”

Donald Trump: You know, look, I’m on a lot of covers. I think maybe more than almost any supermodel. I think more than any supermodel. But in a way that is a sign of respect, people are respecting what you are doing.

Maybe this is all just to get on more magazine covers so he can wallpaper is home on the cheap? We hope so and that he’s not seriously considering being president.

Thanks to CBS for the quotes. Head on over to CBS News for the full video and transcript of last night’s hilarious interview.