Donald Trump on $700 Billion Bailout Plan

This is a rush transcript from "Your World With Neil Cavuto," September 26, 2008. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

NEIL CAVUTO, HOST: Well, Donald Trump saying, anything close to that $700 billion bailout would be a black eye for an economy he says rushing into one big depression.

Real estate mogul Donald Trump joins me now on the phone.

Donald, you could take care of this issue quite quickly by writing a check yourself, but I guess that is out. What do you make of this?

DONALD TRUMP, CHAIRMAN & CEO, TRUMP HOTELS & CASINO RESORTS: Well, I think this it's a very, very sad period of time for this country, Neil.

• Video: Watch Neil Cavuto's interview

It's probably — we have not seen anything like this since probably 1929. And, you know, people are not discussing two very big issues, the war and the price of oil.

If you did not spend hundreds of billions of dollars on a yearly basis on the war, and if we got oil down, or if somebody knew how to speak to OPEC the proper way, the hard way, the tough way, so that oil would be down to $50, instead of $150, and now it is dropping — and, as I always say, all over the world, you have ships, tankers loaded up with oil.

There's so much oil, people don't know what to do with it. And, yet, because of OPEC, that is the story. It is very sad. But, if we got rid of this war, and if we got oil down, this country would be unbelievable. You wouldn't even need this.

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: To be fair, Donald, a lot of that is a lot easier said than done. I know where you are coming from.

But you mentioned depression. That is a bit over the top, don't you think?

TRUMP: Well, I don't think so. In fact, on your show two years ago...

CAVUTO: Why? What would happen? What would happen? What would happen?

TRUMP: On your show two years ago, I really — I mentioned the word depression then.

Now, I did not know about a $700 billion bailout, in all fairness. And I think probably, it is something — it's sad, but, probably, it's something that has to get done, because your financial system is most likely going to come to a halt if it does not. So, it is a pretty sad day for this country.

CAVUTO: But what would $700 billion or this kind of money do to stop it? All I have seen, Donald, is, every time we shored up AIG, or done this money with Freddie and Fannie, or rescue Bear Stearns, and on and on, you know, we have a brief pop in the markets, a brief economic sort of lift, and then we sell off, and then people get depressed all over again.

So, wouldn't this be a more expensive version of that?

TRUMP: It could very well be.

The fact is, nobody knows what is going to happen. The day it is passed, maybe things go to hell anyway. Nobody really knows what is going to happen. But, psychologically, people want it to happen. And, if you have the right people running it — and that is the big question, but, if you have the right people running it, you can make a lot of money. You can take over companies, and, frankly, take big chunks of companies. If you loan this money the way Goldman Sachs perhaps used to loan money, or whatever, you would have — I think you could make some phenomenal deals.

CAVUTO: Well, you have done some phenomenal deals in down — in soft times. There is talk here about getting some sort of an economic czar in either a Republican or Democratic administration. Would you ever be interested in that?

TRUMP: Well, it is not something I exactly have thought of. I love the real estate business. I love what I'm doing.

But, if you got the right person in there, they would take that money, and you would double it, triple it, quadruple it. And then you would sell those companies back in good times. But, when they go into this fund, you have got to take a very, very big pound of flesh.

CAVUTO: Yes, very good point. I would immediately start buying brass if you got — if you got that job, right away.

TRUMP: Well, that would be very interesting. I will tell you, you would have a lot of fun.

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP: You would make a lot of money. I can tell you that.

CAVUTO: There you go.

Donald Trump, always good. Thank you very much.

TRUMP: Thank you very much, Neil.

CAVUTO: All right.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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