Donald Trump in Boone: We Need Energy, We Don’t Need Nice

(Boone, Iowa) Last Saturday real estate tycoon and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump spoke at a campaign rally during Boone’s Pufferbilly Days.  A large crowd gathered to hear Trump speak for over 20 minutes.

After throwing some campaign hats into the assembled crowd Trump went after the “stupid leadership” for allowing ISIS to have over 2000 armor-plated humvees. “We have people who don’t know what they are doing and we just can’t go on like this,” Trump said.

“For the last year I’ve been talking about $18 trillion in debt and now it is $19 trillion in debt, not it is going to start going up fast. Obamacare starts kicking off in ’16 because Obama didn’t want it to kick in while he is president. It is going to be a catastrophe. We are going to repeal Obamacare and replace it with something great, with something really good, we will do that too,” Trump added.

“We have so many other bad things happening that people are not talking about Obamacare that much, have you noticed it? Remember the five billion dollar website, because I’m not going to forget it. The five billion dollar website that doesn’t work, and I think we all know.  So we are going to take care of that.  We are going to take care of our military.  We are going to have a military and by the way we are going to take care of our vets and we have a lot of vets (pointing out into the crowd). We are really going to take care of our veterans. They are our greatest people.  We are going to take care of our vets like they should be,” Trump said.

“We are going to take care of our vets and we are going to build up our military so big and so strong that we are never going to have to use it perhaps and that would be great,” Trump stated.

Trump addressed concerns he has with career politicians.

“I hear these politicians, I can’t stand them anymore, and somebody said ‘you’re a politician.’  I said, ‘please for three months I’ve been a politician, do you believe it.’ All my life I’ve dealt with politicians. If you can’t make it with a politician you might as well give up. I help them, they do whatever…. I hope we don’t have too many politicians. We’ll exclude the people in this audience,” Trump noted.

“Politicians are all talk and no action.  They go to Washington, they tell you they are going to do all these things and they never get done. Then you have some people and you think, ‘oh these are my people, these are great, this guy or this woman is going to be fantastic.’ They go to Washington and they change. They see the beautiful ceilings, the vaulted ceilings, they see the beautiful marble columns and something happens. I say they become impotent. Is that a correct word to use? They become impotent. Something happens to them,” Trump stated.

“People are tired of incompetence, people are tired of people who don’t get it done,” Trump added later in his speech.

Trump went after former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and his support of Common Core, “Someone like Jeb Bush is in favor of Common Core meaning your children are educated from Washington, DC.  Who could want this? When you listen to these people like the Common Core people they can’t explain it. There is no justification. If I am in Iowa and I have my children in Iowa, I want local education. The local teachers and local administrators will do a better job.”

Trump earlier in his speech said he would end illegal immigration and build a wall on the U.S. southern border. He said he has a firm immigration position. “If you are illegal, if you are illegal, you have got to go back. You got to go back,” Trump said.  He indicated some support for flexibility.  “If you are great and you’ve been here a long time…. You can move it, you can move the process for those who have been here a long time, but they have got to go back.”

“We’ve got to get rid of the bad ones, we’ve got some real bad ones,” Trump described criminals among the illegal immigration population. “You know a lot of the gangs you’ve been reading about in different places…. They are illegals.  They are tough dudes, they are tough. They are out of here. Before I even get the wall started, they’re gone. On the first day, one of the first things, they’re gone.”

Shifting to the economy.  “I like free trade, but when you have free trade you need to have smart negotiators, we don’t have those people. Believe me, if I’m elected, I know the smartest, I know the toughest, I know the meanest (negotiators).”

Trump said that he wants those types of negotiators working on behalf of the United States.

“We are going to have people who are so good. We are going to have the greatest negotiators, I know them all. I know the good ones. I know the bad ones. I know the overrated ones. I know the ones who will really do a good job and keep friendly which I want.  We’ll have better relationships with China, Japan, Mexico, we’ll have better relationships than we do right now,” Trump promised.

Trump said his tax plan would come out in three or four weeks. “We are going to lower taxes, especially for the middle class. We are going to make sure that my friends in the hedge fund business who make a fortune and pay virtually no tax they are going to start paying taxes,” he shared.

Trump highlighted that he is self-funding his campaign, and said he turned down offers from prospective donors and criticized Bush for receiving campaign funding “from China, from the Wall Street guys.”

Trump noted he wasn’t worried about Hillary Clinton, but is focused on his Republican opponents.

Trump pointed out former Texas Governor Rick Perry who was once of his earliest critics who just dropped out of the race on Friday. “Perry, isn’t he a nice man? Mr. Perry, Governor Perry, he’s gone. Good luck.  Oh he was very nasty to me, but yesterday I put out a Tweet. I said he is a wonderful man and wish him well.  People couldn’t believe, but when you win everybody is wonderful right?  I actually think he’s a nice guy, but he dropped out.”

Trump complained about the media headlines focused on Carly Fiorina and Ben Carson when he’s leading the polls. “These headlines say, ‘Carly is surging,’ she’s got 3 percent. I hear Ben, who is a nice guy, he’s a very nice man. He’s surging, but he’s way behind me. I say, but what about me? I’m leading, but they don’t mention that.”

Trump also complained about Carson’s recent comment that Trump didn’t appear to have faith.  “Ben, he hit me on my faith,” Trump said. “You don’t hit a person on faith. I don’t know him.  He knows nothing about me. I’m Protestant. I’m Presbyterian. I believe strongly. I believe in the Bible strongly.”

Trump said Carson apologized and then mentioned he leads among evangelicals.

“The one thing we need in this country. We need energy. I see where the evangelicals are supporting Trump, largely, and I’m leading with evangelicals and you know part of the reason that they like me and I think strongly is that they want to see our country, they’re smart people, they know… I may not be perfect, and they know that. And maybe 10 years ago and four years ago they said ‘no, no he’s not perfect, he’s not perfect we can’t do it,'” Trump stated. “But do you know what I’m really good at?  I’m really good at making deals and making this country rich and bringing it back. I saw Pastor Jeffers and I saw a few of them on television the other night and they said ‘how do you explain the Donald Trump?’ and again I’m Protestant, ‘how do you explain that Donald Trump is leading substantially, by substantial numbers with the evangelicals?’ And they said, ‘because they are tired of losing. They are tired of getting these people who don’t do anything that have no energy.’

“And it is true, people don’t have energy. I don’t think Ben has the energy. Ben is a nice man, but when you are negotiating against China and you are negotiating against these Japanese guys who are going to come after you in waves, and they think we’re all a bunch of jerks because our leaders are so stupid and so incompetent and so inept; we need people who are really smart, that have tremendous deal making skills, and that have great, great energy,” Trump added.

Regarding complaints about his tone, Trump inferred that there are larger problems like Christian persecution at the hands of ISIS.

“We have Christians in Syria and other places, ISIS is chopping off their head. They are chopping off their head. They are drowning them. They’re killing them. If you are a Christian you have no chance. Do you know if you are a Christian from Syria it is almost impossible to come into the United States. If you are a Muslim from Syria it is the easiest thing to do to come into the United States. It is one of the easiest places to get in, but if you are a Christian, and they are the ones who need the help, you can’t get into the United States,” Trump said.

“We need that tone today. We need energy. We need strength, and we can’t be low-key and nice and beautiful,” he added.

Watch Trump’s full remarks below:

Trump also held a press avail after his remarks in Boone: