Piers Morgan taped his CNN show on Wednesday in front of a live audience for the first time. Donald Trump was his guest in the studio, and The Donald, sensing the historic nature of this moment, had a newsworthy nugget at the ready.
Via the transcript:
MORGAN: You're a straight talker. You don't take any crap. You tell it like it is. You've always been totally honest with me. What's the answer?
TRUMP: If I was honest I certainly was. I chose you as my "Celebrity Apprentice." The country is doing very poorly. It just can't do much worse. We're not respected anywhere in the world. I am seriously thinking about it. I won't make a decision until June. But I will make a decision and it may surprise people frankly, but I will make a decision sometime prior to June.
I love this country. I hate what's happened to this country. We're a laughingstock throughout the world. We're not respected. When you look at what's happening in various places that we've always supported and, frankly that we got along with the other places that are collapsing. You don't see the other places collapsing. A lot of that is a lack of respect for our country, Piers. And you know how I feel. You know very much how I feel. We just don't have it anymore as a country. You look at what China is doing to us. How they're just ripping us left and right. They're taking our jobs. We're rebuilding China.
Worse than China is OPEC. They wouldn't be there except for us. Twelve men sit around the table. They set the price of fuel. They set the price of $3.50 for your car right now, a gallon. Guess what? That's going to be $5, $6 and $7 very soon. Of course, there's nobody here that calls them and says, fellas, you better not do it.
MORGAN: So let me assume that you're a president for a moment and I've got a funny feeling you are going to run, because I think you think your time may have come and there's an opportunity for you, particularly with Republicans in certain disarray. You know you have Sarah Palin, and you have the moderates, and there may well be a middle ground to storm through if you wanted to do that. Assume you're president. What are the top priorities for President Trump?
TRUMP: Well, I think the first thing I'd do is announce very strongly that we're going to tax Chinese products, 25 percent tax on all Chinese products. They will come to the table immediately. They will stop manipulating their currency which they're doing.
