Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump defended his prior liberal position in an interview with George Stephanopoulos.
When Stephanopoulos asked about Trump supporting single-payer health care and calling for a wealth tax, Trump said, “At he time I was willing to do it. I was wealthy even then. That was a long time ago. I was willing to do it. It was a suggestion. I would have loved to see the national debt be paid off. We’re close to $19 trillion. We’re going to be over $20 trillion. We should have paid off the national debt one way or another.”
He continued, “Ronald Reagan was a Democrat. He was on the liberal side of being a Democrat and he changed. He did a really good job. I worked with him. He was a terrific guy, but he was a Democrat and George, he was sort of a liberal Democrat and he changed. I have evolved. I have evolved very strongly. I’m a conservative. I have tremendous support. when you do your polls, if you look at your polls, I have support from all over the place and people are actually shocked by it. I’m leading in every poll.”
Stephanopoulos continued, “You have supported Democrats more recently, back in 2006, you and your son gave $77,000 to Democrats, that was the election that brought Nancy Pelosi to power, Harry Reid to power, they have since passed president Obama’s agenda, conservatives are against that. How can conservatives trust you?”
Trump countered, “Because, George, I made a net worth, I have net worth of over $10 billion. I have been a world-class businessman, which is by the way for this country to make good trade deals. We’re being ripped off by China and Japan. I was a businessman, I was a business person and I supported everyone when I needed something people were always there for me. If i supported somebody three years later I needed something there was always there for me.”
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