Donald Trump Predicted His Current Political Campaign — During the First Bush Administration

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump predicted a huge economic crash  — and his own 2016 political strategy — in a TV-interview during the first Bush administration, which left office in January 1993.

Trump, calling himself a cautious, “very conservative” investor, said that a financial catastrophe “is going to happen. It’s going to happen drastically. It’s going to be dramatic, and it’s going to be horrible.”

“I’d like to see the country wake up long before that,” he added.

He seemed to suggest that a future economic crisis would prompt a pro-American political movement. “I hope that somebody comes along who can be an advocate, and I think that somebody will be so popular. He or she,” Trump added. “But I don’t see it now. I wish that person were there. I don’t know how much longer we have.”

“I do know one thing. This country is losing hundreds of billions. It’s not a question ‘If.’ It’s a question when. [A crash] is going to happen… That’s when, unfortunately, we’re going to wake up,” Trump said at the time.

The video was highlighted by Daniel Scavino, an advisor to Trump.

On economics, Trump wondered how the American government can possibly finance low-income Section Eight rentals, build housing, or fund education when countries like Japan and walled-off West Germany “are ripping us dry.”

Trump said government can raise funds without raising taxes on Americans, but rather by cutting the trade deficit with foreign allies and implementing protectionist policies on foreign goods. “I want to tax Japan, I don’t want to tax you. I want to tax West Germany. I want to tax Saudi Arabia. We keep them alive,” Trump said. “I’m not looking to tax you.”

You’re going to tell the American people, Hey they make a wonderful product. But you’re going to have to pay a premium. You’re going to absolutely have to pay a premium if you want to buy a Mercedes-Benz. West Germany won’t even lose that much business and this country will take in billions and billions of dollars.

You’d be surprised at how little business they’re going to lose, and you’ll be amazed at how much money comes into our coffers. And you’ll also be surprised at another thing: Japan and West Germany and Saudi Arabia, they’ll start respecting us. Because right now they have absolutely no respect for the United States. They do not believe what they’re getting away with, and they’ve been getting away with it for years.

Trump said that then-President George H.W. Bush was not interested in solving the problem. “I believe that George Bush and a lot of other people, and George Bush is a friend. I believe that they just don’t want to make waves. They don’t want to broach the subject. They don’t want to become, as I said before, advocates. They just want to keep it the way it is,” Trump said, adding, “The problem that I have with that is that I don’t believe you can keep it the way it is. See, I don’t believe that a country can continue to lose perhaps two hundred billion a year. I really don’t.”

Then Trump predicted financial disaster:

I know from a common-sense financial standpoint, that something has to burst. When a country is losing billions and billions and billions of dollars a year, and when other countries are making hundreds of billions of dollars, something is going to burst. And it’s going to start here. I know it. It’s a question of when.” (10:50 Mark In Video Below)

“To me, it’s not a question ‘if.’ It’s a question of when,” he said.

And unless we’re going to solve our problem, and the problem is caused by our allies, unless we’re going to solve our problem, this country is in very, very big trouble. And I’m not talking recession kind of trouble. I’m talking depression kind of trouble. And that’s when we’ll get smart.

I’m a very conservative guy, I believe in having cash as opposed to a lot of other [investors] who don’t have cash, I have wonderful properties. I have wonderful everything. Donald Trump gets hurt. Everyone gets hurt. The whole country goes…essentially, the whole country goes somewhat down the tubes. (11:40 Mark In Video).

Trump is currently fighting to burnish his conservative credentials against opponent Ted Cruz and some in the conservative movement who object to his protectionist economic views.