Donald Trump in CBS "Face the Nation" interviews during 2015


On Budget & Economy: Keep mortgage interest deduction; knock out carried interest

Q: What tax loopholes would you close?

TRUMP: I'm going to be bringing back jobs from China, from Japan, from India, from Brazil. This is going on at a level that you have never seen before. We now have corporate inversions, where companies are moving out of the United States. And they will be moving out in big numbers if we don't do something quickly. And my plan stops all of that.

Q: So, you want to close the loopholes for tax havens?

TRUMP: And I want to bring back trillions of dollars that is stuck in other countries that we won't let back in because we don't have intelligent people running our country.

Q: What about other loopholes on the personal side? Mortgage interest stays in there? Charitable giving?

TRUMP: That's right. Mortgage interest deduction would stay, absolutely. Carried interest, though, would not stay. One of the ways that the hedge fund guys who make a lot of money pay very little tax, the carried interest deduction. I'm knocking that out.

Source: CBS Face the Nation 2015 interview by Bob Schieffer Nov 8, 2015

On Budget & Economy: Use increasing debt ceiling as bargaining chip

Q: We're about to have a fight over the government's ability to borrow money, the debt limit. Do you think it's an economic problem if the debt limit is not raised? Will that hurt the economy?

TRUMP: Well, I think what they should do is use the debt limit as a strong negotiating tool to make other changes and to cut costs elsewhere. The Republicans don't know how to negotiate.

Q: But let me ask you about that question of the debt ceiling. Do you think that, if it's breached, that that is an economic problem, leaving aside the question of negotiation?

TRUMP: Well, I don't want to say. And I'll tell you why. We should use it as negotiation. And the problem we have in this country is that we're so predictable.

Source: CBS Face the Nation 2015 interview by Bob Schieffer Oct 25, 2015

On Government Reform: Candidates should disavow PACs

I have disavowed all PACs. I had many people setting up PACs for me and we sent letters last week saying we don't want their money. I mean, we respect them, we love them, assuming it's all on the up and up, because I don't know these people who run PACs, I don't know what they do with everything. We disavowed all PACs, every one of them.
Source: CBS Face the Nation 2015 interview by Bob Schieffer Oct 25, 2015

On Foreign Policy: Provide economic assistance to create a safe zone in Syria

Q: Where you are on the question of a safe zone or a no-fly zone in Syria?

TRUMP: I love a safe zone for people. I do not like the migration. I do not like the people coming. What they should do is, the countries should all get together, including the Gulf states, who have nothing but money, they should all get together and they should take a big swath of land in Syria and they do a safe zone for people, where they could to live, and then ultimately go back to their country, go back to where they came from.

Q: Does the U.S. get involved in making that safe zone?

TRUMP: I would help them economically, even though we owe $19 trillion.

Source: CBS Face the Nation 2015 interview on Syrian Refugee crisis Oct 11, 2015

On Gun Control: Gun ownership makes US safer, not more dangerous

Q: You have a concealed weapons permit. Why?

TRUMP: Because I like to have myself protected.

Q: In the context of current gun violence, would you advise people to get that?

TRUMP: Well, I'm a big Second Amendment person. As an example, for the horrible thing that just took place in Oregon had somebody in that room had a gun, the result would have been better.

Q: So, should people get armed the way you are?

TRUMP: Well, that's up to them.

Q: What about teachers?

TRUMP: I think that if you had the teacher, assuming they knew how use a weapon, which hopefully they would, you would have been a lot better wh

Source: CBS Face the Nation 2015 interview by Bob Schieffer Oct 11, 2015

On Immigration: Syrian refugees are a Trojan Horse

Q: Does the U.S. get involved in making a safe zone for Syrian refugees?

TRUMP: I would help them economically, even though we owe $19 trillion. What I won't do is take in 200,000 Syrians who could be ISIS. I have been watching this migration. They're mostly men, and they're strong men. They look like prime-time soldiers. Now, it's probably not true, but where are the women? You see some women. You see some children. But for the most part, I'm looking at these strong men. So, you ask two things. Number one, why aren't they fighting for their country? And, number two, I don't want these people coming over here. Two hundred thousand people? This could be the greatest Trojan horse. This could make the Trojan horse look like peanuts if these people turned out to be a lot of ISIS.

Source: CBS Face the Nation 2015 interview on Syrian Refugee crisis Oct 11, 2015

On War & Peace: Strengthen military, but act defensively

Q: You say, in personal relations, you're a counterpuncher. You don't hit until you are hit. Is that a good way to think about the way you would use military force as a president?

TRUMP: I'm the most militaristic person on your show. I want to have a much stronger military. I want it to be so strong that nobody is going to mess with us. I want to take care of our vets, who are treated terribly, like third-class citizens.

Q: Well, let's take an example of some case where you may or may not use military force. It turns out Assad apparently used chemical weapons on his own people.

TRUMP: Well, you know, the time to have done it would have been when he drew the line in the sand.

Q: So, you would have done it in that case?

TRUMP: I might have gone in. Now it's such a mess over there, with everybody involved, and the airspace is very limited. It's not that big of an area. The airspace is very limited. So are we going to start World War III over Syria?

Source: CBS Face the Nation 2015 interview by Bob Schieffer Oct 11, 2015

On Education: Opposes Common Core

Donald Trump doesn't think the GOP is demanding enough. "Republicans have to toughen up," Trump said in a speech at CPAC. "Toughen up on the IRS, toughen up on Benghazi, toughen up on everything."

Trump bashed Jeb Bush on education, who Trump said was "in favor of common core."

"I thought Romney could do it," Trump, who backed the candidate during the last election, said. "I don't want what happened to Mitt Romney to happen again."

Source: CBS News on 2015 Conservative Political Action Conf. Feb 27, 2015

On Immigration: We need strong borders; we need a wall

Trump knocked former Florida governor Jeb Bush, calling him "weak on immigration." Trump specifically mentioned a view Bush espoused in a 2014 Fox News interview that immigrants cross the U.S.-Mexico border as an "act of love."

"We need strong borders. We need a wall," Trump said, addressing his solutions to the immigration issue. "The king of building buildings, the king of building walls--none of them can build them like Donald Trump."

Source: CBS News on 2015 Conservative Political Action Conf. Feb 27, 2015

On War & Peace: Hit ISIS hard and fast

From the dispute over funding the Department of Homeland Security ("the answer is 'we're going to fund, we're going to keep doing it"), to repealing ObamaCare ("which is a total lie"), Trump just wants to see a more aggressive approach.

When asked about ISIS, Trump said he "would hit them so hard and so fast that they wouldn't know what happened." He later claimed his approach would be one that historical military figures General Douglas McArthur and General George Patton would approve of.

Source: CBS News on 2015 Conservative Political Action Conf. Feb 27, 2015

The above quotations are from CBS "Face the Nation" interviews during 2015
(Bob Schieffer interviewing candidates for 2015 and 2016 races).
Click here for other excerpts from CBS "Face the Nation" interviews during 2015
(Bob Schieffer interviewing candidates for 2015 and 2016 races)
.
Click here for other excerpts by Donald Trump.
Click here for a profile of Donald Trump.
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Page last updated: Dec 07, 2018