GOP frontrunner Donald J. Trump spoke to a sold-out audience in Michigan on Tuesday night just one hour from the Motor City. He brought up Ford building new plants overseas, vowing that if he was president, the plants would be built in America.
“I want that plant to be built in the United States – preferably, here in all fairness, right?”
The crowd cheered.
Trump used his ability to negotiate throughout his speech, essentially saying his ability to manage and negotiate is how he plans to “Make America Great Again” if he is elected president.
“We need tone,” he said, adding that America needs energy right now. His statement was a jab at Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton and fellow GOP candidate Jeb Bush who both criticized Trump’s “tone.”
“The two guys that hit me the hardest, were Perry… and Graham – they hit me harder than anyone else. Now, it’s Rand Paul, do you believe it – he’s the new one. I said, ‘Rand I’ve had you up to here,’” Trump joked as he pointed toward his chest, joking about Paul’s height.
“Where the hell did this guy come from all of a sudden… but you know, what’s a great honor – they hit me really hard and they went down,” Trump stated, recalling the spats between the candidates before and during the first GOP primary debate with Paul.
Trump then went from commenting on his fellow GOP candidates who attacked him to criticizing President Obama and his administration.
“The country wasn’t based on executive orders – you got to get deals,” Trump said as he called the deal made with Iran “incompetent.”
“It’s going to lead to nuclear proliferation,” Trump predicted.
A woman in the audience was holding up Trump’s book The Art of the Deal; he pointed her out and said, “Hold that book up, please – one of the greatest.”
“That’s my second favorite book of all time – you know what my first is? The Bible,” Trump said. “Nothing beats the Bible – not even The Art of the Deal.”
On the topic of Trump’s deal making, he said other countries need the U.S. so America can get them to cooperate and increase the sanctions on Iran until a good deal is reached – including the return of American hostages.
“Literally in two minutes I would have had them out… I would have had them out,” Trump vowed.
“We have a guy named Kerry… he’s 73-years-old, he goes into a bicycle race and he breaks his leg – I promise you that I will never enter a bicycle race during a major negotiation,” he joked.
“You’ll be able to make a better deal,” Trump said of what he would have told Iran to get the hostages out first. “Let them out and let them out now,” adding that if Iran didn’t, then America wouldn’t negotiate because that’s a sign of bad faith in negotiations.
“We have tremendous potential,” he said, addressing America’s position in the world, saying strength must be returned now or else it will be too far gone.
Trump said he would “build up the military so strong and so powerful” so that “we’ll never have to use it” because no one will mess with the United States.
“Putin – who I would get along with very well… he can’t stand Obama,” Trump said, commenting on his ability to get along very well with people.
Trump criticized the Obama administration’s handing of military plans.
“They were saying we’re going in in two weeks and we’re going to be attacking… you know what I’m talking about,” Trump recalled.
“This is the way we’re doing it,” he mocked.
“Can you imagine the great General Douglas MacArthur or George Patton – any of these great guys… listening to a president say exactly what we’re going to be doing?”
“I said you know what – that’s smart because they’ll do the opposite – they didn’t! It was exactly as he said,” Trump said in disbelief.
The crowd laughed in agreement about the stupidity to broadcast military plans of a planned attack.
Trump told the crowd a woman asked if he was nice enough to be president.
“I think I am… I really think this is going to be an election – people are fed up… this is going to be an election based on competence,” he said as the crowd erupted in agreement.
“I really think I’m going to win cause you know, I’m an optimist,” Trump said, adding that politicians in Washington are “all talk, no action.”
Trump said his top priorities as president would be the military, the veterans, and jobs – “and believe me, I know how to do it. I know how to manage – because it’s management.”
“You’re going to be so proud to be a citizen of the United States,” Trump promised.
The crowd erupted, chanting, “U-S-A, U-S-A.”
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