Greece is being forced to do some very drastic things but they are not in control of themselves and they made a terrible mistake, as did other European countries did by going over to the euro, says Donald Trump, Trump Organization chairman/president. Trump says the euro has been a disaster for some countries like Greece and also weighs in on Rick Santorum’s recent popularity, saying he “flunked out of the Senate and now wants to be President.”
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maker this morning, donald trump who is the chairman andpresident of the trump organization joins us right now on the squawk news line. good morning to you. good morning. can you weigh in on what’s happening with greece this morning and what your reaction is? we got the deal. people had been anticipating a deal. is this going to be something that we can really hold on to? well, first of all, nice to see sallie on television. that’s great. great banker, great talent. it’s nice. i think they could use her over in greece. i think that greece has made a drastic and terrible mistake when they went to the euro.if they had their own currency, i’m not saying things would behuge, wouldn’t be much better, but at least they would be able to sort of solve their problem one way or the other. and, you know, they’re being forced to do some very drastic things and maybe that’s a good thing and maybe it’s not, but they’re not in control of themselves and i think they made a terrible, terrible mistake, as did a couple of other countries going over to the euro. the euro was set up to beat the united states. it hasn’t been working so well. it’s worked with china in terms of what they’ve done to the united states and works with opec and other nations, but asfar as the euro is concerned, other than germany, which isdoing, you know, a spectacular job, the euro has not been goodfor other countries and greece made a terrible mistake.germany’s been the beneficiary of all the weaker countries involved with it. it’s helped their exports. i think this was a move by fwermeny to take over europe and they didn’t do it with war, they did it with the euro. donald, i think you’re absolutely right on that. do you think the euro will last? i don’t think. i think one by one the countries will go out. it’s interesting to see, it’s one thing when you foreclose but how do you foreclose on acountry. when you get down to it what does germany have?what are they going to send in, the army to take over theirpossession? the fact is that the euro has been a disaster for certain countries and a total disaster for greece and i can’t imagine that greece continues on like this. i mean i’ve seen the riots in the street. i have many friends in greece and they can’t believe what’s happening. i can’t believe that from a social standpoint, that country can continue to go on like this. yeah.some of these austerity measures are going to really make things a lot worse before it gets better there. i think they go back to their own currency, that’s what i think. this morning, the betting is going against that, but over the long haul i can see how some of that plays out. donald, another issue that youhave been very outspoken on is opec and this morning we arelooking at oil prices, right near $105 a barrel as we we’ve seen in the middle east some of the issues that have beenhappening with iran saying it’s not going to be giving any moreof its product, oil product, to the european members. right. and you know, i’ve been saying this for three years on your show and i’ve been saying it all over, that we are going to have a crisis, a crisis on energy like you’ve never seen before and if you see gasoline is going to be at $4 and it already is at $4, the highest it’s ever been in history at this time of the year. and they think the summer is going to be a total disaster. any little kindling of economic upturn is going to be totally wiped out and shattered by that. and a lot of it is because of the fact that opec iscontrolling. i watch you and andrew and everybody talking about the speculators. the speculators only wish they had power.they don’t have power like opec. opec has the power. opec is taking in money like nobody’s ever taken in money before and believe me, folks, it’s opec, it’s not the — yes, the speculators, some of them are doing well and some of them bet wrong and all of that stuff, but the fact is, opec is the one that’s setting the prices and opec is laughing at us like nobody’s ever laughed before. so, the oil continues to go up, gasoline is going to be at 5 or 6 or maybe $7 you know, i give the analogy, like you flunk out of high school and then decide, i want to go to the wharton school of finance and be in. flunked out of the senate and now wants to be president. i think it’s inconceivable. the people that knew him best, threw him out by a record margin and now he wants to be president. now i give him a lot of credit because who else would even think that way. and he’s doing well. but it’s hard to believe. donald, this is scott, but isn’t he doing well at romney’s expense? maybe this says more about romney, in fact, and some of the issues that he has, than about santorum himself. what’s the problem with romney? why isn’t he catching on more than he is? he hasn’t seemed to get it over the line and we had — when i endorsed him, it was a day before the nevada — what took place in nevada and he won tremendously there and looked like it was over. the amazing thing, it alwayslooks like it’s over and then somebody else seems to emerge.we’ll see what happens, but santorum i think is the least likely candidate because of his past record and some of the things he’s done and frankly some of the social issues are — i mean he can never ever win the general election and interestingly, the obama people are just sitting down and hoping like they’ve never hoped before, that it’s santorum. because they can’t lose that election. impossible to lose that election. donald, this is sallie. hi, sallie. hi. given your view on energy prices, given your view on the euro, let’s go back to the economy. what’s your outlook for the economy? well, energy as you know is atremendous factor and when we had our last call at minidepression, that’s really what it was, you know, everybody wasblaming you, sallie, blaming the banks and the bankers. and certainly the banks had something to do with it, but i always felt that energy had more to do with it than the banks. that’s a big statement. i’ve never heard anyone else say it. energy, if you remember, oil went to $150. went to $150. and that was the highest ever in history. in fact, right now it’s at about 103 or $104. it went to $150. i always felt — i consider oil to be the blood of the nation and the blood of the world. and that blood was so high, and i really believed that had more to do with our slash depression major recession, whatever you want to call it, than interest rates or banks or problems or mortgages or home loans or anything. now, if you look, despite a bad economy, opec is raising it up constantly raising it, raising it and now it’s at $103 and almost like they toy with us because we have no leadership in washington. they toy with us. they keep raising it until something happens. they’re toying with us again, sallie.they will break the country because they cannot — they’re greedy and they cannot stop. but in my opinion, this is the biggest story today. this is bigger than the high ratin ratings the apprentice, bigger than anything, anything else, frankly. donald, i wanted to ask you about that. i read that if romney didn’t receive the republican nomination, that you would run for president. but i also read that the apprentice got the highest ratings in all of the key demos last night. right. it won every category which wasfantastic. which is great. you can’t give up the tv show, right?well, it’s — it’s, you know, it’s a wealth of riches. the apprentice has been great and won every key demographic and done great and it’s 12 seasons. it’s hard to believe. it’s 12 seasons. seven years and 12 seasons and we’re very proud of it. and i know you’re very happy because it’s nbc. but nbc has something that’s really great and celebrity apprentice and the apprentice.i’m honored to be involved with it. it’s a tremendous hit. we did, we won every key demographic the other night and that was a great thing. congratulations, donald. thank you very much.would you confirm, though, what becky said, if santorumsomehow gets the nomination, would you run for president?well, you know, the show ends on may 16th, so i’m a free agentafter may 16th. all right. and i would seriously, honestly if santorum got it, i would seriously, seriously consider it. we need somebody that’s really going to be great. this is the most important election — i mean, you know, i always say outside of the biggies like george washington, abraham lincoln, they’re pretty serious, right? this is the most important election in my opinion that this country has ever had. santorum is not the rightperson. so if something should happen and i hope mitt romney does and i think he’s going to do an excellent job, i’ve gotten toknow him very well, he talks properly on china and opec andlots of other issues that really interest me, and i think he’ll do fine. but it is amazing what’s happening. i mean there’s always — you talk about the surge. always a surge of somebody andnow it’s santorum’s turn. so let’s see how long that lasts. it’s inconceivable to me that he even has it. donald, i want to say thank you very much for joining us today. we appreciate your calling in. thank you, becky. so long, everybody. thank you, donald.
