I’ve explained why Obamacare is a costly, ludicrous solution to our health care woes and one which must be repealed and replaced with a much better option. We need to fix the problem by creating competition in the private sector between insurance companies, and by allowing patients to choose the family doctors they want. This will be a much better plan, a much less costly plan—better doctors, better service. It will be something really special. And think of it: the United States will save a fortune as a country. People will be better served. A combination that cannot be beat.
Competition is a magic word in education as well. Parents should have the right to choose the schools where their kids can get the best education. The weaker schools will be closed, and ineffective teachers will be fired. One-size-fits-all education—Common Core—is bad. It’s not going to happen. We don’t want our children to be educated from Washington. We want local eduction. Education should be locally based.
Domestically, we need to undertake a massive rebuilding of our infrastructure. Too many bridges have become dangerous, our roads are decaying and full of potholes, while traffic jams are costing millions in lost income for drivers who have jobs in congested cities. Public transit is overcrowded and unreliable and our airports must be rebuilt. You go to countries like China and many others and you look at their train systems and their public transport. It’s so much better. We’re like a third-world country.
I could go on and on regarding many of the ideas I’ve written about in this book, and more that will be forthcoming. But let me add that while my critics are pushing their policy agendas, the last thing we need are more plans that evaporate after the elections.
What we need is leadership that can deal with our mess and begin to apply practical solutions to our problems. My goal is not to design hundreds of pages of government regulation and red tape like others propose. We need to outline commonsense policies and then knock some heads together if necessary to make them work. The fact is we are over-regulated. People can’t move. They’re stymied. Companies can’t be built. We’re over-regulated.
I know how to deal with complex issues and how to bring together all the various elements necessary for success. I’ve done it for years and have built a great company and a massive net worth.
This book is designed to give the reader a better understanding of me and my ideas for our future. I’m a really nice guy, believe me, I pride myself on being a nice guy but I’m also passionate and determined to make our country great again.
It’s time we turn America around from despair and anger to joy and accomplishment. It can happen, and it will happen.
Our best days still lie ahead. There is so much untapped greatness in our country. We’re rich in natural resources, and we’re rich in human talent.
Enjoy this book—and together, let’s make America great again!
1
WINNING AGAIN
AMERICA NEEDS TO START winning again.
Nobody likes a loser and nobody likes to be bullied. Yet, here we stand today, the greatest superpower on Earth, and everyone is eating our lunch. That’s not winning.
We have a president who tries to get tough and draw a line in the sand, but when that line gets crossed, there are no repercussions.
And when we try to negotiate with foreign countries? We don’t stand up. We don’t threaten to walk away. And, more important, we don’t walk away. We make concession after concession. That’s not winning.
If I ran my business that way, I’d fire myself.
Take one of the worst agreements in our history—the nuclear “treaty” with Iran—which John Kerry negotiated and President Obama rammed through and around Congress. (Or, rather, he convinced his party to support it and filibuster any debate or vote on it.) This is probably the most important treaty of our time, and our very stupid leaders in Washington, DC, couldn’t even bring themselves to hold a discussion and vote on it.
Ronald Reagan said, “Trust but verify”—but in this case we aren’t following either piece of advice. How can we trust a man like the Ayatollah Khamenei? Just a month before we approved the treaty, he reiterated that his country was pledged to destroy and eliminate Israel, our most important ally and longtime partner in preserving some semblance of stability in the region. And as for verification, we don’t even know what side-deals the International Atomic Energy Agency has struck with Iran. Or if we do know, they haven’t been made public.
That’s not winning—that’s criminal negligence, in my view.
Then when every Senate Republican criticized this deal (and some of the Democrats did as well), the president compared his critics to our adversaries.
In other words, he sells out his friends and allies, and then defends his treaty by comparing his critics to our enemies.
That’s what we call successful diplomacy?
Now we’re going to open the gates to refugees from places like Syria, which is like extending a personal invitation to ISIS members to come live here and try to destroy our country from within.
This is America today, the shining city on a hill, which other countries used to admire and try to be like.
So what can be done about it? How do we start winning again?
To start with, we need a government that is committed to winning and has experience in winning. This book is about how we do that.
In early September 2015, I spoke at a major rally in Washington, DC. I told them that we need a military that will be so strong that we won’t have to use it. And then I asked, “Are you listening, President Obama?” Almost everyone in the crowd cheered, but I understand why some of them were skeptical. Americans are used to hearing the same old promises from the same tired politicians who never produce any results, let alone any victories. I should know. For years I gave money—lots of money—to candidates from both parties who made personal pleas for my support for their campaigns. They promised to change things with new ideas and bring government back to its original, more limited purpose of protecting our country and putting our people first.
Candidate after candidate made all kinds of pledges like this, and very little, if anything, was done. How many of those problems have been solved? Nothing seemed to move forward in Washington.
Look at Congress, which has an understandably negative reputation among Americans.
And why not? They do nothing.
They can’t even pass an annual budget. They constantly bicker, which means that they just throw all our problems and our huge debt on to our children and possibly our grandchildren.
This has to stop.
Finally, I realized that America doesn’t need more “all-talk, no-action” politicians running things. It needs smart businesspeople who understand how to manage. We don’t need more political rhetoric—we need more common sense. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”—but if it is broke, let’s stop talking about it and fix it.
I know how to fix it.
A lot of people were encouraging me to speak out, and I realized that with my well-known success story and record of building residential and office buildings and developing public spaces—all the while accumulating personal wealth—I could inspire people to help create the most massive turnaround in American history.
Of course, there were doubters. Between journalists who sell newspapers by creating controversy, and established politicians eager to preserve the status quo that in turn preserves their jobs, there were many “experts” predicting my demise. They’ve been reading the “polls.” They’ve been listening to all the lobbyists and special interests saying “Trump is a threat to our well-being.” They’ve even been saying I was a bully or that I was prejudiced or that I hated women or hated Hispanics. Some of them even said—and this is the cardinal sin in politics—I was willing to take on even the richest people in America with all their tax benefits.