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Trump Sets 'Record' Straight at Town Hall, But Not Counting on Rival Support If He's the Nominee: 'Endorsements Don't Matter ... I'm a Realist'

'On the Record' Town Hall with Donald Trump: 2016 GOP front-runner admits he does not know whether Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, Carly Fiorina and Ted Cruz will get behind him if he wins the nomination, still believes he can get 1237 delegates if he loses Wisconsin.

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Trump doubles-down on allies paying more for US protection, vows to repeal ObamaCare


Published April 03, 2016 | FoxNews.com

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump doubled-down Sunday night on his comments that the US should “do a better deal” with Japan, South Korea and other allies, saying they should pay more for America’s protection while taking a greater role in their defense — including building their own nuclear weapons.

Responding to questions at a Fox News Channel “On the Record” town hall two days before the Wisconsin primary — where polls show he trails Ted Cruz — Trump also said that raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour wasn’t good for business or jobs creation.

"If you start raising that minimum wage, you're going to make a lot of our companies even more non-competitive," he said.

Trump also delved into his plans to change the nation's tax code by "simplifying" it.

"The very rich are probably going to end up paying more, but there's an incentive for them to invest and create jobs in the country," he said.

 

Read the full story at FoxNews.com

 

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HIGHLIGHTS AND TRANSCRIPT OF 'ON THE RECORD'S' TOWN HALL WITH DONALD TRUMP


GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, HOST:  Welcome to the great state of Wisconsin for ON THE RECORD'S one hour town hall with presidential candidate Donald Trump. First, a little political trivia.  Wisconsin is the birthplace of the Republican Party, 1854 in the small town of Ripon.  And as you all know, Wisconsin is a state of political passion and the site of hot political warfare.  Governor Walker's Act 10 public bargaining reform sparked protests at the state capital, a recall effort to unseat Governor Walker and even a Senate walkout, where state senators fled to the neighboring state of Illinois.

And now, all eyes are on this state.  Wisconsin's primary is Tuesday and it's a big deal.  It's a standalone primary.  And there's been none in two weeks and there will not be another for two weeks. Our guest tonight, and joining me here at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, is presidential candidate Donald Trump. Nice to see you, Donald.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE:  Hi, Greta.  Thank you very much.

VAN SUSTEREN:  It's nice to see you.

(APPLAUSE)

VAN SUSTEREN:  OK, Donald, the audience is going to ask you questions, but I'm going to take the first couple of questions. The first is you want to get rid of ObamaCare, right?

TRUMP:  I do.  I do.

VAN SUSTEREN:  OK.

TRUMP:  We will.

VAN SUSTEREN:  All right.

TRUMP:  We will repeal it.  We'll replace it with something so much less expensive and so much better.  It doesn't get worse, Greta.

VAN SUSTEREN:  All right, so tell me what, if you are -- let's say a woman had cancer 20 years ago, in her early 20s, she's now early 40s, she has two children, single and there's no more ObamaCare.  She's got breast cancer back again. Under TrumpCare, what will it look like?

TRUMP:  Well, we'll take care of her.  And, you know, we have so many options...

VAN SUSTEREN:  How?

16:12:25 TRUMP:  Well, let me explain something.  We have so many options.  We're getting rid of the lines between the states.  We're going to have competition among all of these insurance companies that want to compete, although actually, they also like the monopoly.  Right now, they mostly have monopolies in states. But we have, whether it's health care, I mean if you look at the health care, the savings accounts, if you look at -- there's probably nine different options.

The worst option is ObamaCare.  And I don't know if you know it, and I can tell you the audience understands, 35, 45, 55 percent increase this year in premiums.  The deductibles are so high, so outrageous, that unless you're just about ready to -- to go, you're never going to be able to use it.  I mean you're not going to be able to use it.  ObamaCare is a catastrophe. So we're going to take care of people.  We're going to take care of people just like you said.  We're going to have great health care for much less money.

VAN SUSTEREN:  Are you saying it's much less money because of competition?

I mean what drives down the costs...

TRUMP:  Really, competition.

VAN SUSTEREN:  -- because medical costs are going up?

16:13:18 TRUMP:  Well, it's competition.  Plus, in ObamaCare, you get things that you'll never use.  You know, you'll get things that you won't use, but you're paying for them, whereas what we want, you can tailor-make it. Now, you're going to have a lot of options this way.  You're going to have a lot of options. The insurance companies like the way it is, they're making a fortune, because one will have New York and one will have this -- you're going to have competition around.  They're probably going to fight it.  They've been fighting it. You know, when they approved ObamaCare, they almost got -- well, I call them the boundary lines of -- around each state.  They almost got rid of the boundary lines, but it didn't happen.  I said it's going to be unbelievable if they do it.

And at the last moment, the insur -- yes, look, the different companies, whether it's insurance or electric or lumber or what, they totally control the politicians.  I'm a self-funder.  I'm self-funding.  I'm going to do what's right for the people.  I'm the only one...

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP:  -- for years, I think, probably.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP:  Probably since Ross Perot.  I think I'm the only one since maybe Ross Perot.  It's been, you know, many, many years.  But I'm self-funding.  So I'm going to do the right thing.  And...

VAN SUSTEREN:  Will it be universal health care, everybody will have health care?

TRUMP:  It's going to be -- they're going to -- whoever wants it is going to have it...

VAN SUSTEREN:  But you're going to have states...

 



TRUMP:  -- whoever wants it.

VAN SUSTEREN:  But I mean like I mean it's a money problem.  I mean it's like, you know, people can't afford it.

16:14:30 TRUMP:  You know what I said, and I took a lot of heat from the Republicans.  I said nobody is going to be dying on the street if I'm president.  Nobody is dying on the street.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP:  And the Republicans said, oh, oh, that's terrible, that's terrible, because -- look, you know, every time I speak and I say that to big audiences, they're Republicans, mostly.  Although we're going to have a lot of Democrat turnovers, we're going to have a lot of -- we're going to have a lot of crossovers from Democrats because we have a very, very big election coming up right here in Wisconsin.

But every time I said we're not going to allow people that have no money to die on the streets, I get standing ovations from Republicans.  And some of the so-called conservative geniuses, you know, the people that write the -- the different letters that -- where they make money or the magazines, they say oh, that's terrible.  That's terrible.  We should -- I'll tell you what, people don't want to see that.  We're going to have unbelievable health care.  When people can't afford it, we're going to help them out, whether it's through Medicare or whatever.  We're going to help them out.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP:  We've got to.

VAN SUSTEREN:  Today -- today, uh, today on George Stephanopoulos "This Week," um, GOP Chairman Reince Priebus said to George that tone and tenor matters in this, uh, election.  You've gotten a lot of criticism for your tone and -- and tenor. Is it going to change or do you have no objection to it?

 



16:15:45 TRUMP:  I mean I -- I agree with him 100 percent.  Tone does matter.  I get criticized by Jeb Bush.  I was criticized -- the tone.  I don't like his tone.  In the meantime, he's gone.  I get criticized by...

(LAUGHTER)

16:16:00 TRUMP:  And I said, my tone is going to change as soon as I finish the victory.  I mean I have two left.  We had 17.  Now we have two left and I'm leading by a lot.  I'm leading by millions of votes.  You know, people don't talk about it.  They say I'm leading by almost 300 delegates but I'm leading Cruz, who would be a terrible candidate, by the way.  You talk about health care and other things...

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP:  -- he would be a terrible candidate.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP:  I'm leading by hundreds of delegates, almost 300 delegates.  But I'm leading by millions of votes, which nobody ever talks about.  And yes, tone, to me, matters.  Being presidential matters.  My wife...

VAN SUSTEREN:  What does that mean?

TRUMP:  Well, let me tell you, my wife said, please, be more presidential.  In other words, don't be so aggressive.  And in a way, we want an aggressive president.  I always sort of wanted it, but that's OK.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP:  And my daughter said, the last debate, she said -- Ivanka.  She just had a baby, by the way.  I'm very proud of that.  That sort of why I'm doing this.

(APPLAUSE)

16:16:47 TRUMP:  People say, why are you doing this? That's sort of maybe the reason we're doing it.  It's make America great again. But Ivanka said, dad, on the final debate, be very presidential.  I've done great in the debates.  I've won, according to "Drudge" and everybody else, I've won all of the debates, every single one of them -- be presidential. I said, look, if somebody hits me, I have to hit them back.  I have to.  I'm not going to stand there and be like, oh, I'm wonderful, I'm a president. I want to win.  And I'll be so presidential you won't believe it.  I will be the most boring...

VAN SUSTEREN:  What does that mean to be presidential to you?

TRUMP:  Well, it means maybe not be so aggressive, maybe not get so personal.  But when people get personal with me, I mean they say, oh, they don't like my hair, OK.

(LAUGHTER)

16:17:25 TRUMP:  Now, if I ever said I didn't like their hair, it would be a hardline -- he's so bad.  But they're allowed to say whatever they want about me. Look, we started out with people hitting -- and my hair is not that bad, is it? There's no way -- it's not that bad.  I mean -- and it is my hair.  But -- but you know what happens? What happens is they hit me and I hit them back harder.  And usually, I mean almost in all cases, they do it first.  But they hit me and I hit them back harder and they disappear. And that's what we want to lead the country.  But I promise you, let me finish it off.  I will be so presidential.  Greta, you will be so proud of me.  You know, I'm a smart guy.  Being presidential is easy.  But you may get very bored.

VAN SUSTEREN:  All right...

TRUMP:  You won't want to interview me anymore.

(LAUGHTER)

VAN SUSTEREN:  All right, what does that mean, uh, you're going to stop Tweeting?

16:18:10 TRUMP:  Well, I don't think so.  No, I'll -- I'll tell you what.  Look, this is a modern form.  It's like owning my own newspaper.  You know, I have now Twitter, seven and a half million people picking up hundreds of thousands of people in a short period of time, seven and a half.  With Facebook, I have like close to seven million or more than seven million people.  With Instagram, we have like two million.  So I have like 16, 17 million people.  That's my -- that's like owning "The New York Times" without the losses. Why should I give it up?

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP:  Why should I give it up, right?

VAN SUSTEREN:  Even as president, as president?



TRUMP:  As president, I would take it differently.  Yes, I would agree with that.  No, as president, I think I'd be very much different on that.  I wouldn't be doing it much. Now, Obama does it a little bit, but -- and not that I want to use him as an example.  That's some example.

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP:  But -- but as president, I would probably not be doing it, maybe not be doing it at all.  But I have -- I have millions and millions of people and they rely on it.  They love it.  And I think it's one of the reasons, frankly, I'm doing so well. You know, as you understand, when you introduced me, you said candidate, but I'm really by far the frontrunner, OK? By far.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP:  She didn't say that.  I was surprised.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP:  I was going to say let's do that introduction again, but I didn't want to do that.

But the truth is, I think some of it is because of social media.

VAN SUSTEREN:  Um, abortion...

TRUMP:  Yes?

VAN SUSTEREN:  In 1999 to Tim Russert you were very pro-choice, were your words, although you said you didn't like it.  And in the...

TRUMP:  And that's true.  That's a very important thing.

VAN SUSTEREN:  No, I...

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP:  -- really, just before that, they never play that.

VAN SUSTEREN:  I said it.

TRUMP:  I was...

VAN SUSTEREN:  I read it and I said it.

TRUMP:  I was pained.  I was pained (INAUDIBLE) but when they show it, because if they would go like 10 seconds before, I was pained when I said it.  I was like oh, I -- you know, I -- like I really don't like it.  Then I said very polite, but -- but -- but I am pro-life.

VAN SUSTEREN:  OK, so what -- OK...

TRUMP:  Very.

VAN SUSTEREN:  -- 2015, you made the public announcement that you're pro-life.

TRUMP:  And I said why.

VAN SUSTEREN:  And then this last week, we've been -- it's been all over the map.  At one point you said that you would punish women...

TRUMP:  Well, it wasn't all over the map.

VAN SUSTEREN:  Well, OK.

(CROSSTALK)

VAN SUSTEREN:  All right, then correct it for me.  Tell me what you're thinking.

16:20:07 TRUMP:  Look, I'm pro-life.  Uh, Ronald Reagan was pro-life, with the exceptions, OK? Life of the mother, as you know, rape, incest.  So with the -- the three exceptions.  That was Ronald Reagan.  And that's been me.  And it's been me for quite a period of time. Then when they ask questions about, you know, different things or they ask theoretical questions, in theory, in theory, if you did this and if you did that and if you did that, and interestingly, the question that we asked of me, I've had so many -- you talk about Twitter -- so many people on Twitter and so many -- Robert Jeffress, I -- who is a fantastic guy.  He was on your show, Pastor Jeffress, he was saying what a -- what an answer.  That was a good answer.  So many people said good answer.

But I wanted to -- frankly, look, nobody is going to do more than -- for women than me.  Nobody respects women more than me.  And I took that answer and I -- I -- I didn't like it, because I think a lot of people didn't understand it. Women go through a lot.  They go to through a tremendous punishment of themselves. And I didn't like it because I wasn't sure if people would understand it.  So I clarified it.  But it was just a clarification and I think it was well accepted.

VAN SUSTEREN:  All right, Donald, now that -- now a question from the audience.

We have a question from Amy.

AMY:  Hi, Mr. Trump.

TRUMP:  Hi, Amy.

How are you?

AMY:  Thank you  for taking my question.

TRUMP:  Thank you.

AMY:  Great.  Thank you.

TRUMP:  Thank you.

AMY:  My husband and I are hardworking middle class folks and every year at tax season, I'm always shocked to see how much we pay into taxes every year.

TRUMP:  Yes.

AMY:  I personally know people who have no jobs and no income who are getting $4,000 to $5,000 tax returns.

How can this happen and what are you going to do to create a tax system that is fair and balanced for everyone?

16:21:42 TRUMP:  That's such a great question. So Larry Kudlow, Dr. Kudlow, who is a fantastic economist and a great guy.  He loves my plan.  A lot of people love my plan.  We're giving the biggest tax crease (ph) of any -- a decrease -- a big decrease -- of any candidate running or has run like it's not even close.  In fact, the one criticism would be it's too much, because our middle class has been run out of town.  They've been run out of the country. I mean our jobs have been taken.  Everything has been taken.  And on top of it, our people are paying more tax than they've ever paid. We're the highest paid tax -- in terms of taxes, no -- no country in the world has higher taxes than the United States.  The highest in the world.

So we're going to change all of it.  I have a policy.  It's one donaldjtrump.com.  And it's a great tax plan.  Your taxes are going way, way down, especially the middle class, and business is going way, way down, the highest taxed in the world. I think you're going to love it.  And the other thing is we're simplifying it.  We're not only cutting it substantially, we're simplifying it.  You're not going to have to go out and hire these firms, H&R Block, and pay a fortune to hire H&R Block because it's so complicated, you can't figure it out. Very simple, very few brackets.

One of the things we're doing for business which I think is very important, we have companies that are leaving the country because they can't bring money into the country.  Not only are their taxes too high, but there are trillions of dollars outside of the country.

You look at Pfizer is leaving now.  And so many companies are leaving our country because they have money outside of the country.  Everybody wants to let them -- Democrats and Republicans, and they can't make a deal, because you have a president that's not a leader. We're going to have all of this money is going to be allowed to come back in and we're going to keep our companies in the United States.  So important.

VAN SUSTEREN:  But...

TRUMP:  But big, big tax reductions.

VAN SUSTEREN:  Does everybody get a tax break, even the very rich?

16:23:34 TRUMP:  The very rich are going to be paying -- well, first of all, on the very rich, let me explain.  When we have things in the very rich that are so unfair to the general public, especially the hedge funds guys, like carried interest and different provisions that are very complex, that a lot of people wouldn't understand, but I'm getting rid of carried interest and, frankly, the ones that I'm really concerned about -- you know, I like the -- I like people -- I like the workers.  I call them the workers of this country -- the best.  I don't necessarily like the very rich, even though I'm one of the very rich.

But the very rich are going to end up probably paying more, but there's an incentive for them to invest...

VAN SUSTEREN:  All right...

TRUMP:  -- in the country and to create jobs.

VAN SUSTEREN:  All right, let me ask you -- let me ask you about Washington.

(APPLAUSE)
VAN SUSTEREN:  (INAUDIBLE)

(APPLAUSE)

VAN SUSTEREN:  In order to change the tax code, to simplify it or to change it at all, you've got to get the House -- you've got to get Washington to work.  And there's so much special interests built into this whole tax code, every single one of the 3,300 ex -- exemptions, or however many there are...

TRUMP:  Right.

VAN SUSTEREN:  -- is a special interest of somebody.

How are you going to get this to happen?

TRUMP:  I get them to do it...

VAN SUSTEREN:  How?

16:24:39 TRUMP:  I can just get them to do it.  I've been dealing with politicians all my life.  If you can't deal with a politician, there's something wrong with you, OK? I built a great company, and as you know, I filed all my papers.  They're all beautifully filed and the press -- all of your compatriots went down and they -- they said at the federal elections office, they've never seen it.  It's like a feeding frenzy.  Because they were hoping maybe it wouldn't be so good. And it turned out it's not only good, much bigger than anyone would have thought.  It's a phenomenal company, very low debt, very -- very big...

VAN SUSTEREN:  But you think...

TRUMP:  -- (INAUDIBLE).

VAN SUSTEREN:  -- you can get Washington to work?

16:25:11 TRUMP:  And I will tell you -- yes.  And I just want to say, and the reason I'm doing it is because that's the kind of thinking.  I'm not saying that in a bragging way, that's the kind of thinking our country needs. We have $19 trillion in debt, etc.  Etc. I deal with politicians.  I mean I was an establishment person, to be honest with you, nine months ago, before I decided to run.  Once I decided to run, all of a sudden Trump wasn't establishment. The fact is, I get politicians to do what they're going to do.  And it's not like they're bad people, but they have reasons for not doing it.  And they're fighting each other.  There's total gridlock in Washington. You have a president that has no control over his own party, let alone the Republicans.  You know, it's supposed to be -- you're supposed to get them in a room and you're supposed to make good deals, not bad deals, great deals. That's what I can do.

VAN SUSTEREN:  All right, a question from the audience from Jamie (ph).

JAMIE:  Hi, Mr. Trump.

TRUMP:  Hi.

JAMIE:  I'm just curious, what are your thoughts on minimum wage and the Fight for 15 movement?

16:26:02 TRUMP:  OK, you know, the minimum wage is a very, very complex situation, because we are a non-competitive country.  We -- if you look at what's going on throughout the world, we're considered -- and one of the big problems we have are wages. I am going to make our country so competitive that people at minimum wage are going to escape the minimum wage.  They're going to go up and they're going to make a lot of money and they're going to have companies and be involved with companies that are really successful, where they can be paid more and more money. But if you start raising that minimum wage, you're going to make a lot of our companies even more non-competitive.  And it would be a big, big problem.

But what I want to do is I want to bring jobs back.  We're going to bring jobs back from China.  We're going to bring jobs back from Mexico and Japan.  And all of these countries that are ripping us off, taking our money, taking our jobs, knocking our manufacturing. You know, in Wisconsin, you take a look, your manufacturing jobs in Wisconsin are way, way down.  You know, I used to think wonderful things about Wisconsin.  I was given a plaque by Governor Walker because I supported him.  I gave him a lot of money.  I supported him. But the truth is...

VAN SUSTEREN:  He's not supporting you?

TRUMP:  No, no, he's not. You know why? Because I knocked him out of the presidency in about two minutes.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP:  I mean that's the only reason why.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP:  And you know how I knocked him out? And I was actually surprised.  There was a story in "Time" magazine.  It was a very nice story.  It was a cover story on him.  And it was -- I've had many more than him lately.  I've done very well.

But I'll tell you, it was a story on him.  And there was one paragraph toward the end that was a very bad paragraph.  It talked about a deficit of $2.2 billion, an imbalance of the budget, $2.2 billion and all sorts of bad things -- the schools are in bad shape, the roads are in bad shape, the highways. I said, what is this all about? And when I looked at it, I said, wow, that's true.  When I got up and started hitting him with information about Wisconsin, your jobs, your loss of trade, your loss of so much, all of a sudden, he went from being the frontrunner to saying bye-bye, I'm getting out of the race.

(APPLAUSE)

VAN SUSTEREN:  We have another question...

TRUMP:  People don't know -- I mean people don't know the facts but those are the facts.  OK.

VAN SUSTEREN:  We have another question. First of all, are you supporting Donald Trump? I should ask or...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE:  I am currently an Independent voter.

VAN SUSTEREN:  There you go.

TRUMP:  But he will be.  He will be.

(CROSSTALK)

VAN SUSTEREN:  All right, we'll see.  Maybe how you answer his question.

TRUMP:  Answer (INAUDIBLE).  Go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE:   Hi, Mr. Trump.

TRUMP:  Hi.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE:  I'm an Iraq War veteran, and I've seen firsthand the devastation war has caused on our servicemen and women. Currently, the VA reports that 22 veterans commit suicide per day.  You have said you intend to repeal ObamaCare.  Specifically, how would you address the mental health needs that our veterans have in -- Oh, excuse me. Our health -- the mental health needs of veterans have been clearly ignored.

16:28:36 TRUMP:  Yes.  It's a huge question.  I get the question all the time, especially regarding mental health for the veterans, because they've gone under trauma like nobody has seen trauma. So here's what we're doing.  The veterans of our country have been treating hard -- treated horribly.  I have been endorsed by so many veterans groups.  Nobody gets the veterans' endorsements like I -- nobody close, as you know, because I'm sure most of your friends are endorsing me. We are going to change the VA.  The VA is -- is so badly run.

First of all, it's corrupt.  If you look at the Phoenix VA, that's one of the great of all time.  It is so corrupt, it is so bad, what's going on.  But it's all over the country. Number one, we're changing the VA and we're going to make it good.  But we're also going to give people, for instance, yourself, if people are waiting on line -- you know this better than anybody, five, six, seven days just to see a doctor. You know, there's suicides -- we have so many suicides and the Veterans Administration, or the -- from the veterans, so many suicides, Greta, nobody has seen anything like it.  It's almost like a -- nobody has -- nobody even wants to talk about it, it's such a bad problem. And you know about the problem.  And a lot of them takes place, they can't even get in to see their doctor.

When a person is waiting on line for a certain period of time, they're going to have the right to go out, see a private doctor or go to a hospital, private or public, that's in their community already. You know, some of the people have to travel for a day just to get to a veterans hospital.  And it's a horrible situation.  I know it so well.  In New Hampshire, it really started.  They endorsed me in New Hampshire.  They have a tremendous veterans population in New Hampshire.

It was -- I learned so much about the veterans and the veterans' problems from the people of New Hampshire.  And I said, let me tell you, you put me in and we're going to solve the problem.  And we're solving the problem. You're going to be able to go out and see a private doctor or go to a hospital, public or private, and get yourselves taken care of.  And we're going to pay the bill, because we have to.  We have to. And, you know, in the end, it's going to be less expensive.  But we're going to take care of it.  You will see. OK? Thank you.

VAN SUSTEREN:  Is that the answer you wanted?

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP:  You'll be happy.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP:  Believe me.  They should have done that a long time ago, Greta.

VAN SUSTEREN:  All right, well...

TRUMP:  They'd have done it a long time ago.

VAN SUSTEREN:  And we're going to be right back.

We'll bring you much more from our ON THE RECORD'S 2016 town hall with candidate, frontrunner, Donald Trump.

That's next.

TRUMP:  Thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAN SUSTEREN:  Welcome back.

(APPLAUSE)

VAN SUSTEREN:  Welcome back to ON THE RECORD'S one hour town hall with presidential candidate Donald Trump. And we are coming to you from Milwaukee, where, on Tuesday, Wisconsin voters will hit the polls. Let's get right back to the questions. Donald, um, you talked a moment ago about how important competition is.

TRUMP:  Right.

VAN SUSTEREN:  In a President Trump administration, um, what would you do about the fact, for instance, Alaska Airlines is looking to purchase Virgin America and we've had, since the 1980s, many fewer air carriers and we've seen less and less competition? What would your anti-trust division be like?

16:33:51 TRUMP:  Well, I don't like a lot of the mergers that I'm seeing because you're going to end up with one big fat airline.  And you know that some of these airlines are not exactly running well. So I'd look at it very carefully. I'd look at a lot of that.  You know, and that might be not the Republican thing to say.  But if we don't have competition and keep some competition, we're going to have a lot of problems in the country.

And I see mergers of different things.  I won't say it because what do I need certain industries against me for? But the fact is that you've got to have competition to be great.  And when you see these big fat mergers and the companies get bigger, they get bloated and they don't do well.  They don't do well.  They don't even do well for their stockholders. But all of a sudden, they have -- they don't have the competition.  And in the airline business, they have all these gates and nobody else can get in, nobody else can break the system. So I'd be very, very careful about that.  I want to see competition at all levels.

VAN SUSTEREN:  Donald, we have a question from an audience member, Ashley. First of all, who are you voting for on Tuesday? Will you tell us?

ASHLEY:  Well, let's see how he answers my question.

VAN SUSTEREN:  Very well.  Sure.  Go ahead.

(LAUGHTER)

ASHLEY:  Well, I don't know how much you know about Wisconsin, but we have a lot to be proud of here -- the beer, the cheese, the Packers.

TRUMP:  Right.

ASHLEY:  For me, the thing I'm most proud of is our university system.  We are incredibly blessed to have amazing public universities.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP:  (INAUDIBLE).  I've heard that from many people.

(LAUGHTER)

ASHLEY:  In fact, we have to give our university a shout-out.  We were just awarded R1 or Research 1 status this year, which is a big deal.

TRUMP:  Good.

ASHLEY:  Yes.

(APPLAUSE)

ASHLEY:  My question, um, as a doctoral student and as someone who teaches undergraduates is, we're, of course, very worried about the rising cost of education...

TRUMP:  Right.

ASHLEY:  -- the ability of our students to be able to afford college tuition.

TRUMP:  Right.

ASHLEY:  Several other candidates have come out with their plans for lowering or even free education at the public university level. Um, do you have a plan? And if so, do you have a way of paying for that plan?

16:35:39 TRUMP:  Well, there's no such thing as free education, because you know that ultimately somebody else is going to be paying for that education.  And so...

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP:  -- the taxpayers.

(APPLAUSE)

16:35:50 TRUMP:  As a -- as a -- I can't believe I'm saying this as a politician.  I'm not a politician, but as somebody that's now in politics and the political world.  I'd love to say free education, but again, if somebody gets free education, all of the people paying, their rates are going to go up. I watch Bernie and Bernie, if you paid -- if you took 100 percent of everybody, you know, if their taxes were literally -- if everything was paid in taxes, they made nothing, you wouldn't be able to pay for it.  So it's just words, OK? It's just words.

But I get that question more than any single question, especially because I've gotten to know so many young people, and they're so incredible.  And I go to colleges.  We have packed houses.  And the first question I get always is student debt, and also, why is it so expensive? Two things are happening.  The students become a conduit to the United States government and the colleges are not watching their costs.  They don't care, because basically the students are here, the government gives them the money, and the college is here and the -- and you take a look at the way college costs are rising and there's no reason for it.

They are letting them go up.  And the problem is the students are getting crushed, because, again, the government just keeps giving them more and more money, and the students give them to the college.  So it's not fair. We're going to really look into that, because we have to keep it down.  We have to keep it down. Some of the colleges do a good job.  Many of them, I don't think they even care what the costs are, because they get so much money.

We are going to do something for the students.  We've got to have something with extensions and lower interest rates and a lot of good things, because if we don't do that -- and Greta, it's unbelievable, I get this question so much and constantly, not even from students, from people that got crushed.  Because the students are getting crushed. But I'll tell you the best answer of all, I'm going to create jobs. And people say, what does that have to do with it?

16:37:31 The biggest problem is you have student debt and you're a good student and you went to a wonderful college, everything is great, and then you look for a job and you can't get a job. We're going to bring jobs back to this country.  We're not going to let China, Japan, Mexico, all these countries -- and I could name -- and -- 40 of them.  They take our jobs, they take our money.  We're going to bring the jobs back here.  We're going to keep our companies here.  We're not going to let Pfizer and all these companies go. So when you do have -- when you go through and you do well, now, you're going to look for a job and you're going to get a great job, the kind of job you want.  That's the most important. But we're going to do something with extensions and low interest rates, OK? Thank you.

VAN SUSTEREN:  And we have more questions for Donald Trump.

(APPLAUSE)

VAN SUSTEREN:  We're going to take a short break.

We'll be right back with our ON THE RECORD 2016 town hall.

(APPLAUSE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(APPLAUSE)

VAN SUSTEREN:  And we're back in Milwaukee with our special "On the Record" 2016 town hall with GOP presidential candidate, Donald Trump.  Donald Trump is hoping for another big day this coming Tuesday.  Of course, that's the day that the voters in the great state of Wisconsin will hit the polls.

Donald, I want to ask you about North Korea and nuclear weapons.  And I heard you the other day say that you would not -- when asked about South Korea and Japan having the possibility of nuclear weapons as a deterrent to North Korea, I wonder if that might not spark a large nuclear arms race, number one. And number two, do you worry that the odds of a terrorist group then getting access to nuclear arms is greatly enhanced unless we prevent South Korea and Japan from getting nuclear weapons. 

16:41:23 TRUMP:  Well, I worry about that anyway.  And the best thing you can do is knock the hell out of ISIS really fast and really furious, and get rid of it, because this is a threat.   Can you imagine our great generals like General George Patton and General MacArthur not being able to handle ISIS?  I mean, this is -- the whole thing is ridiculous. So we've got to knock out ISIS.  We're going to make our military bigger, better, stronger than ever before.  It's the cheapest thing we can do.  And nobody is going to mess with us. But let me tell you, Greta, I was -- you know, they take little segments.  I gave an answer to a show.  And it was -- they were talking about NATO.  I gave a great answer, it turned out to be a great answer. You know, for two days I took it, and then all of a sudden all of the great analysts said, you know, Trump is right about that.  I said it's obsolete and I said it's too expensive for the United States. 

VAN SUSTEREN:  So nuclear weapons in Japan and South Korea or not? 

16:42:10 TRUMP:  No -- but this whole thing.  I said, it's obsolete.  And all of a sudden the experts say, you know, we never thought of it that way, because it's not really focused on terrorism, which is a big problem that we have now. We have to go to Japan and to Germany and to South Korea and to Saudi Arabia where they have money like nobody has ever seen money before.  We defend all of these countries. We're not properly reimbursed for the kind of money that we're spending.  We're spending so much money.  We're defending the world.  We're like the policeman to the world.  We're defending Japan, as an example. And I said, and I said it very strongly…

VAN SUSTEREN:  And they pay 2 billion for it a year. 

16:42:42 TRUMP:  Yes, but that's peanuts compared to what we're doing.  You know, it's wonderful they're paying 2 billion, but what difference does that make?  It's peanuts compared to what they're doing. So I said, I used Japan as an example.  They're sending us cars by the millions.  They're making a fortune off us.  I mean, like everybody else.  Who doesn't?  Everybody makes a fortune because we have the worst trade deals ever negotiated ever in the world, OK? So we go to Japan.  We go to the others also.  But we go to Japan and say, listen, you've got to pay more, we want to defend you.  I don't really want them to have nukes.  I don't want them to defend themselves. 

But, look, at some point we can't continue to do this.  We can't continue.  We have 19 trillion in debt, because of the horrible omnibus budget that was just approved it's going to be 21 trillion very soon. We go to Japan.  We go to these countries.  And we make better deals.  But, you have to be prepared to walk.  It's possible they'll have to defend themselves.  But we cannot spend billions and billions and billions of dollars on defending all of these countries that have plenty of money to defend themselves. They view us as…

VAN SUSTEREN:  All right.  Well, let's get…

16:43:43 TRUMP:  … people that are not very smart. No, but they never put that in.  They always say, Trump wants Japan to, you know, go nuclear.  I don't.  I really don't. But listen, when you have North Korea and you have Japan, and they're very close to each other, and, frankly, we're sort of semi-involved, we don't want to be involved, at some point it could happen anyway. But I want them to pay.  And this is true for all countries.  Saudi Arabia was making a billion dollars a day, a billion dollars a day, now they make a little bit less because the oil prices are down. Don't worry about them, they have more money than -- I mean, you've never seen money like this. If something goes wrong, we're defending Saudi Arabia.  I want to be reimbursed.  I'm going to Saudi Arabia, I want to be reimbursed.  Nobody in the media ever says that.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP:  They never say that. 

VAN SUSTEREN:  All right.  Well, Patrick (ph) has a question for you. 

Patrick, first of all, have you decided who you're voting for on Tuesday? 

QUESTION:  I'm swayed (ph) Trump but I'm here today to figure that out. 

TRUMP:  Good.  All right.  Well…

VAN SUSTEREN:  Your question.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION:  One, I'm a criminal justice major here at UW-M. 

TRUMP:  Good. 

QUESTION:  And I'm a proud brother of a police officer in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, (INAUDIBLE).   

TRUMP:  Good. 

(APPLAUSE)

QUESTION:  My question today for you Mr. Trump.  America seems to be caught in the middle of a political storm with passions flaring from coast-to-coast.  But I think one thing we can all agree on is the safety of every American, both abroad and at home. On August 19th, 2014, an American journalist named James Foley, a Marquette grad, in town, lost his life to the hand of evil. If you were to become president, what would you do to ensure the safety of everyone at home, everyone abroad, and those still missing, like Robert Levinson, who has been missing since 2007, with little known whereabouts? 

16:45:30 TRUMP:  He should come back with the Iran deal, I mean, assuming that he's alive, and I'm sure they know where he is.

QUESTION:  I would have made that deal too.

TRUMP:  Right.  It's one of the worst deals every negotiated.  And did you see Obama yesterday said he's very disappointed in Iran, you know, or something to the effect. I said, where has he been?  I could have told him that long before they signed the deal. 

(APPLAUSE)

16:45:48 TRUMP:  One of the dumbest deals I've ever seen.  And he should have been a part of the deal when they brought the prisoners back.  They paid $150 billion.  Those prisoners should have been back years ago before we ever started negotiating that very dumb deal. Let me just tell you, James Foley, I know his parents very well.  I made a major contribution to the foundation in honor of James Foley.  I know exactly what happened.  And it's a disgrace that a thing like that is allowed to happen.

We have to stop that.  We have to stop it with ferocity.  And it has to go back.  We're dealing like in the medieval times.  You know, when I was going to history class, when I was going to grade schools like this, we'd study medieval times, and they would talk about chopping off heads. Nobody has seen this before, this is like a new thing.  James Foley seems to be the first in terms of so public where it was so horribly done and people saw it.  We're going to get it stopped. 

Now remember this, the Border Patrol, the -- if you look at Sheriff Joe from Arizona, the toughest, smartest people are supporting and endorsing Donald Trump.  The toughest and the smartest. We've got to create strong borders.  We've also got to fight them over there before they come over here, just so you understand. But coming over, number one, we're going to have strong borders.  But we're going to have a very important thing, the Syrians coming in, the migration coming in, we have to stop it, because we don't know who these people are. They're not documented.  There's no documentation from any of them whatsoever.  We don't know, are they ISIS-related?  And thousands of them are coming in. And I predicted that.  Thousands and thousands are coming in.  We have no idea who many of these people are.  So we've got to get strong.  We've got to get smart.  And we've got to be vigilant. And in honor of James Foley, and others, we have to be very tough and wipe out what's happening, OK? 

(APPLAUSE)   

VAN SUSTEREN:  And we're going to take a quick break.  We'll be right back with more questions for presidential candidate Donald Trump, the "On the Record" 2016 town hall continues next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(APPLAUSE)

VAN SUSTEREN:  Welcome back to Milwaukee for our "On the Record" 2016 town hall with Donald Trump. And right now, let's get right back to the questions from our audience.  Donald a question from Eric (ph). Eric, first of all, have you decided who you're going to vote for? 

QUESTION:  I'm leaning towards the Ohio governor, John Kasich. 

TRUMP:  That's a mistake.

(LAUGHTER)

QUESTION:  But according to one of your opponents, that's like voting for you, so.

16:51:17 TRUMP:  No, I actually think he hurts me more than he hurts Cruz, if you want to know the truth.  And, you know, frankly, Kasich right now is -- he has got one win and 29 losses.  And he shouldn't even be in it. But that's OK.  Go ahead, ask your question.

(APPLAUSE)

QUESTION:  Welcome back to Milwaukee.  When you were here Tuesday evening, you attracted protesters who claimed that you were anti-immigration. 

TRUMP:  Yes.

QUESTION:  I have not heard you say anything that could be interpreted as such.  Instead I think what you're saying…

TRUMP:  You're right.

QUESTION:  … is that you would like the immigration laws that are currently in place to be enforced. So if you could please articulate what you would do as president to ensure American citizens are getting the jobs that are currently going to people who are in this country illegally.

16:51:54 TRUMP:  Right.  OK, good.  That's a great question, actually. Look, I am totally in favor of immigration.  But people that come in have to come in legally.  Right now they're pouring across the border…

(APPLAUSE)  

TRUMP:  It's like Swiss cheese.  We're going to build a wall.  Mexico is going to pay for the wall.  We have a trade deficit of $58 billion a year with Mexico.  The wall is going to cost $10 billion or something right around that number.  And when I give numbers, I come in, believe me, like I'm building the Old Post Office, where you were, under budget, ahead of schedule. The wall will cost, let's say, $10 billion.  When you have a deficit with a country, Mexico in this case, of $58 billion a year, it's very easy to say -- you know, the politicians always say, oh, you can't get Mexico to pay. It will be so easy.  But more importantly I will tell you, I love the question, I want people to come into the country, but they have to come in legally.  OK?  Thank you. 

QUESTION:  Well, and as a follow-up, could you -- I mean, you talked about tax plan earlier, could you make sure that those incentives for the businesses don't go to them if they are employing people who should not be here in the first place?   

16:53:02 TRUMP:  Well, and not only that, right now the incentives go to other countries because what -- as you know, what happens is Mexico, you look at Carrier is going there, so many companies, they're all going out to Mexico. We have nobody in our country to stop them.  I just wonder, does anybody even call when they hear that Carrier or Nabisco or Ford or so many other companies are going to Mexico, do we have anybody in our country that says, hey, I want to speak to you, I want to come down with a delegation, we want to keep you here. Believe me, when I get involved, they're not leaving.  They're not leaving. 

VAN SUSTEREN:  All right.  We'll take a quick break.  Our conversation with 2016 GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump continues in just moments.

(APPLAUSE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(APPLAUSE)

VAN SUSTEREN:  Welcome back to Milwaukee.  And we're coming to you with the "On the Record" 2016 town hall with Donald Trump. And now let's get right back to the audience questions with Andrew.  Andrew, you have a question, but first of all, do you know who you're going to vote for Tuesday? 

QUESTION:  I'm leaning towards Mr. Trump.

TRUMP:  Oh, I love Andrew.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP:  And the young man talking about the policeman, he just said he's voting for Trump.  So nice. 

VAN SUSTEREN:  All right.  Your question.

QUESTION:  OK.  So my question involves the drug problem in America today. 

TRUMP:  Right. 

QUESTION:  In particular the heroin epidemic.  I'm a criminal defense attorney and I do a lot of work with the state public defender's office, so I see every day people who have huge problems, their lives are ruined by drugs, in particular heroin. I see people that are on a long waiting list to even get into treatment.  What would you do to help this drug epidemic in America? 

16:56:09 TRUMP:  I just love the question.  So what happened is, I'm in New Hampshire.  And I see these beautiful fields and trees and roadways and country.  And I fell in love with the place.  And I won in a landslide.  What happened is I go to these town meetings and I talk to the people.  And I would say, what's your biggest problem?  And they would always say heroin.  And I would say, heroin? You know, it didn't seem to work with New Hampshire.  It's an unbelievable problem that we have all over this country.  And in New Hampshire it seems to be worse than anyplace. 

VAN SUSTEREN:  And you'll do what? 

16:56:40 TRUMP:  And we are going to stop it.  It's coming through the southern border.  We're going to stop it.  That's part of the reason for the wall.  That's part of the reason where the Border Patrol is going to be given back their authority. You know why they endorsed me?  Because they want to do their job.  They don't want -- they've never endorsed a presidential candidate before.  They want to do their job.  I'm going to let them do their job.  They can stop it. The other thing I'm going to do is I'm going to call the leaders of Mexico, in particular one person.  I'm going to say, don't let this happen anymore, folks.  Don't let this happen.  Because Mexico could stop it also.  They could stop at the border. You know, you want to become a citizen of Mexico, it's impossible.  You want to become a citizen of the United States, have your baby on the ground.  I mean, give me a break. What's going on -- what's going on with our country…

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP:  … and the stupidity of our leadership, I'm going to tell Mexico, you had better not let it happen. You know, they're very good at defending themselves, they're not good at defending our border, because they don't want to defend our border.  So we're going to do that. But we're going to have a wall.  We're going to let the Border Patrol, who are unbelievable, 16,500 people endorsed me.  That's a lot.  And we're going to let these people do their job. Greta, they want to do their job so badly and they're told to stand back, don't do anything, let everybody come in.  And I'm doing it for all over, but the people of New Hampshire, I said to them, if I win -- and I owe them so much because that was my first real victory. I said, if I win, I'm going to stop it.  You watch what happens, OK?  Great question.

VAN SUSTEREN:  And coming up, some closing thoughts from the "On the Record" town hall with Donald Trump in Milwaukee.  That's straight ahead.

(APPLAUSE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(APPLAUSE)

VAN SUSTEREN:  And we're in Milwaukee for our "On the Record" town hall with presidential candidate Donald Trump. 

Donald, in the event that you win the nomination, you get the 1,237 delegates, do you think you're going to get Governor Jeb Bush, Carly Fiorina, and Senator Marco Rubio to actively go on the trail and campaign for you? 

16:59:54 TRUMP:  I don't know.  I mean, I'm a realist, I understand.  I'm not a huge believer in endorsements, although I've had some that had a huge impact.  You look at Massachusetts and other places, I got some great endorsements and some great statements.  And I did like 50 percent and there are some, but generally speaking, I don't know.  Look, I hit them very hard.  They hit me very hard, honestly.  I hit them really hard.  I don't know that they're going to endorse me.  And you know what, honestly?  I don't want to put any pressure on them.  If they don't feel like it, they don't have to. 

I told -- frankly, I told Ted Cruz, I think Ted Cruz would be a terrible president.  I told Ted Cruz the other day, I said, he doesn't have to endorse me.  I don't want him to be under any pressure.  Don't endorse me.  It's not going to have any impact.  The people know what's going on.  You know, I've been watching the politicians.  They said, if we get the House, it's going to be different.  We got the House, nothing happened. If we get the Senate, it's going to be different.  Now we have the House and the Senate, nothing is different.  I know politicians.  The endorsements don't mean anything.  The only thing that means anything are the people. 

(APPLAUSE)

VAN SUSTEREN:  Is Wisconsin -- if you don't win Wisconsin, can you get to 1,237 delegates? 

17:00:59 TRUMP:  Yes, I think I can, because the polls just came out in New York, where they really know me best.  I mean, the nice thing about it, you saw the New York polls, I'm through the roof, the people that know me best are giving me these fantastic -- I mean, they deal with me. They've had to live with me, unfortunately for them.  But the truth is, the people that know me best have me -- Pennsylvania has been great.  New York has been great.  New Jersey has been great. 

VAN SUSTEREN:  And I've got to thank you for coming to my home state of Wisconsin. 

TRUMP:  Thank you.

VAN SUSTEREN:  Thank you, Donald. 

TRUMP:  I love Wisconsin.  Thank you. 

VAN SUSTEREN:  Very nice to see you. 

Anyway, thank you very much, Donald Trump, for joining us for a 2016 town hall. 

(APPLAUSE)

VAN SUSTEREN:  And thank you for joining us.  We'll see you again tomorrow night right here at 7:00 p.m. Eastern.  Good night from Milwaukee.

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