as promised, donald trump speaking now in portsmouth, new hampshire. >> are you ready? whenever you are ready, i am okay. >> he landed by helicopter. you can see it there behind him. let's listen. good morning, today, i am very proud of myself, because i have accomplished something that nobody else has been able to accomplish. i was just informed while on the helicopter that our president has finally released a birth certificate. i want to look at it but i hope it is true. so that we can get on to much more important matters, so the press can stop asking me questions.

he should have done it a long time ago. why he didn't do it when the clintons asked for it, why he didn't do it when everybody else was asking for it, i don't know. but i am really honored, frankly, to have played such a big role in hopefully, hopefully, getting rid of this issue. now, we have to look at it. we have to see, is it real, is it proper, what's on it? i hope it checks out beautifully. i am really proud, i am really honored. now, we can talk about oil. we can talk about gasoline prices. we can talk about china ripping off this country. we can talk about opec doing numbers on us like nobody has ever done before. we can get on to issues and hopefully whether i sit down with interviews, people don't start talking about birth certificate, birth certificate, like they have been doing.

so i feel i've accomplished something really, really important. i am honored by it. okay. >> you are taking credit for it. a lot of people say you caused a distraction? >> i am taking great credit. you have to ask the question, why didn't he do it a long time ago? when hillary clinton was asking, when everybody was asking, why didn't he do it? it is shocking. >> why is that relevant? >> it is very relevant. why is it that people ask me for my birth certificate. people ask me for my birth certificate and i gave it two days later. >> you said yesterday we hear that is missing. before that, you said you wouldn't believe what the investigators on the ground are saying. do the people in this country now need to doubt the information you are being given? were you making this up? where did this information come from? >> no. i think what you are going to see. first, we have to look at the

certificate. i am really happy this has finally taken place. we have some issues that are unbelievably important. >> you didn't answer my question. >> i think i did. >> what are your qualifications to assess this? you say, you have to look at it and you have to decide. what gives you the authority? >> well, i'm going to look at it and many other people are going to look at it. you are going to have many people looking at it and obviously, they are going to have to make a decision, because it is rather amazing that all of the sudden, it materializes. i hope it is the right deal. i hope it is the right deal. we have to look at it. a lot of people have to look at it. experts will look at it and i am really happy. honestly, i'm very proud that i was able to bring this to a point. nobody else was. the clintons during their campaign weren't. all of the other people that talked about it for years, they weren't. i am really honored by this.

okay. next question. >> if it is not true, for example, does it mean that the country is led by an illegal pez? >> let's hope it is true. i don't want to answer that question. honestly, the question is so negative. at this point, i don't want to answer that question. you are asking a very negative question. if it is no the true, if it is not really his birth certificate. i don't want to answer that. i hope it is true. the reason i hope it is true, because we have very big problems in this country. this country is suffering right now. i mean, i have people that can't get gasoline in their tank. they are topping out their tank, because they can't afford to do it properly. they have never had this before. you look at resorts around the country, they are not doing any business, because people don't drive. if you look at saudi arabia, what they did, it is unbelievable. they announced they are going to raise the price of oil by cutting back on production. we have nobody to speak to these people.

we have nobody that calls or talks and says, you are not going to do it, fellows. we are protecting you. you wouldn't be there, except for us. we have nobody. now, yesterday, our president said, that he has very little impact over the price of gasoline. i think he is 100% wrong, because opec is setting the price of fuel. we have oil all over the place, all over the place. every ship at sea is loaded up with oil. they don't know where to dump it. yet, every day, we are setting records. pretty soon, we are going to be at the $150 a barrel, the all-time record. when the president says he has no power over that, i mean, it is pretty sad. >> is it possible that the country is being led right now by an illegitimate president? i certainly hope it is not possible. i hope we have accomplished a lot by what i have been doing for the last couple of months. i hope we can start talking about opec and china taking our jobs and making everything for

us. i hope we can start doing that. >> what would you do different? >> what i would do differently is come down really hard on opec. if you look at these nations, they wouldn't be there except for us. you take a look at kuwait. we handed kuwait back to the people right now essentially own kuwait. it is really ownership more than anything else. we handed it back. they never paid us. you look at these nations, saudi arabia, we protect them and then they want to raise the price of fuel. it is not high enough. so it would be very easy and very quick to get gasoline prices down. gasoline prices are at $4, $5, they are going to $6 and $7 as sure as you are standing there. >> in terms of trade ability, you came here in a black helicopter in 1988 and you were running as a democrat. >> let me just tell you.

it is sort of interesting, because new hampshire has been a very special place. i came up in 1988 or 1989, a long time ago, as a favor to a friend of mine. i made a speech but it is a place that i have always liked. i have been to many times, new hampshire. in making the speech, everyone thought i was running for president. as you know, i wasn't running for president. i never said i was running for president. i make a speech on success for a friend of mine around 1988. the buzz was unbelievable, because it happened to be new hampshire. it was sometime prior to primary season. in a way, in you hampshire sort of got me started. i did come up in 1988. i ma i had a speech. it was really a speech on success, much more so than politics. i done know if politics played a role in the speech. it was great. it really did, sort of got me

started. i did that speech actually for a friend. i didn't do it because i was running. i wasn't running. >> when are you going to release your -- >> why should people think you are a real republican? >> well, i am a republican. i am a very strong republican. i have been a republican for a long while. i am proud of it. i think i am quite conservative as a republican. if you look at the polls, i just saw two more polls today where i am leading the polls. i this i the fa i think the fact that i was able to get him finally to come out and aissue a birth certificate could only help. one of the big pollsters that came out where i was leading, if you announced, your poll numbers would go substantially up. a lot of people think i am having a good time. i am not having a good time. >> are you an intelligent man? are you intelligent? have you been listening? i don't know. are you intelligent? here is the problem.

i hate saying it because it sounds trivial. i have a very, very successful show on television. a show that "the new york times" yesterday said is a very successful show. i have a show called "celebrity apprentice." i can't announce until that show is over. i would have lo to do it for you. when the show is over and the finale will be on may 22nd, when the show is over, i will then be free to announce. i think you will be surprised at a number of things but i think you will be surprised at what my announcement is. >> another thing about the president. you want to raise these questions about his education credentials. are you prepared to say today that all these issues should be put to the side and that you accept that mr. obama is who he said he is? >> no. >> or do you still think there are legitimate issues? >> everything is legitimate.

you ask me questions. nobody gets angry. the press doesn't get angry. the press is very protective of president obama. very protective. they are not protective of me but they are protective of president obama and they are not protective of most other people either in all fairness. the word is, according to what i read, was that he was a terrible student and he then gets to columbia and harvard. i heard at columbia, he wasn't a very good student and then gets to harvard. how do you get into harvard if you are not a good student? maybe that is right or maybe that is wrong. i don't know why he doesn't release his records. why doesn't he release his oxidental records. everyone says he was this great student. if he was, that's great. if he wasn't, that's great. >> why do you continue to -- >> i think academics, education has always meant a lot to me.

i think education is good. i think if he wants to release it, that's fine. if he doesn't want to release it, that's fine too. i would think he would want to release it, actually. the word is, he wasn't a good student and he ended up getting into columbia and harvard. i would like to know, well, this is what i read written by some of the people in this room. i would like to know, how does he get into harvard? how does he get into columbia if he isn't a good student. it is an interesting thing. >> is that ere some danger putt innuendo. >> i am just reporting what i read. you read what you write. what's worse innuendo than what i go through? i have the ultimate innuendo. i promise you one thing, nobody will protect me like they protect our president. just in finishing, i'm really honored and i'm really proud that i was able to do something that nobody else could do.

i'm really happy about it. now, experts will check in and everybody will go over it. i hope everything is going to be perfect. by the way, if you remember, from day one, i said, i hope he gives his certificate. because i don't want this issue clouding a campaign. okay? >> do you need to see the birth certificate to feel like it is true? >> that is not up to me. that is up to experts. i am sure there are plenty of experts that will look at it. >> why have you made over $1 million in helping to get democrats -- >> well, i have had a lot of friends that are democrats and a lot of friends that are republicans. over the years, if you know, new york is a largely democratic place. it is very rare that you see in new york city as an ex many ama example to get elected. the numbers are staggering. a democrat will get 94% of the vote if a republican is doing a

good job. it is a very interesting fact that it happens to be almost all democratic. over the years, i have supported many republicans, many democrats. i think there is something nice about that. when i watch washington and look at washington and i see the way they fight, like cats and dogs, just fight like nobody has ever fought before. people in the senate that are friends of mine for a long time, they said, we've never seen hatred. they used to be friends. they would go to dinner together, the republican and democrat. they would get things done. we are at a stalemate. i think it would be great if somebody got in there that could get along with both sides. i know many of the people on the democratic side. in some cases, they are friends. get along with them great. i think it is time for people to sit down, get together and get this mess that we are in solved. i view that as an asset, not a

liability. [ inaudible question ] >> well, when i talk, i do a lot of speaking about success. i tell people, you have to remain flexible. the world changes. the world will always change. you know, you can't just have like an idea and then this idea, go through a wall. sometimes you have to be able to go under the wall, around the wall, over the wall. i have always said, have a goal, work hard. you have to have a certain flexibility. if you look at virtually every candidate that runs for office or currently running for office, they have had views that are much different ten years ago than they have now. so my view has changed and virtually all of the candidate's interview has changed. that's not a very common thing. >> when will you release your tax returns? >> are you playing with us or are we playing with you? >> i think you are playing with

me but i accept that. >> are you playing with us more or will it end when you make the announcement? >> i think you are going to be very surprised. >> she said you are not running for president. she compared you to charlie sheen. >> ann coulter. we have three weeks. you are going to see. i think you will be very surprised. i think, if i do run, i will do very well. i am already leading the polls and i am not running. am i leading the polls? thank you. excuse me. cnn did a poll recently where obama and i are statistically tied. if you would like, i can send it to you. call up cnn. >> i think i would beat obama. if i look at this economy and how bad it is doing, if i look at this economy, it is doing so poorly. i think ultimately, it is going

to be largely about that. you look at what he is doing in libya, we is a total disaster. nobody even knows what's going on in libya. if you look at what's happening with gasoline prices where he said he has no control over prices, which he does if he gets on the phone or gets off his basketball court or whatever he is doing at the time, he should be focused on opec and getting those prices down. that's what he should be focused on. >> yes. >> i would have handled libya much differently. first of all, i know who the rebels are. i have said it many times. i hear they are controlled by iran and al qaeda. we make them sound like they are out of gone with the wind. it's wonderful, the beautiful rebels, it is so romantic. you could end up with worse than gadhafi, perhaps. i have a real problem having our straight military people lose their lives in libya and we don't know what we are getting into. i have always said, i would go

for libya but i want the oil. in the old days, when you win a war, you win a war. nowadays, you win a war. we lose lives, we spend billions of dollars and then we come out and go back home. we have all of our wounded to take care of, we have all of the dead soldiers and dead military. what do we get? nothing. this is interesting. libya, the arab league, which is saw dudi arabia and many of the wealthy nations in the world told us to go in and take out gadhafi. if they would have said that to me, i would have said $5 billion right now. just for the question, they would have given you all of that money and paid it in two second. the other question i ask is this. we get no oil from libya. china, which has taken over the world economically, because they are smart, meaning, their leaders are much smarter. china, taking over the world, gets a big portion of its oil from libya. they are libya's biggest

customers. why isn't china involved? why are we involved with libya and china is not involved and china, by the way, the imf came out two days ago. they said by 2016, china is bigger than we are. you know why they are bigger? because they are making our products. if they didn't make our products, they wouldn't be at all bigger. [ inaudible question ] >> it is so easy. china is taking unfair advantage of the united states and other countries by a total manipulation of their currency. if they continue to manipulate their currency, if i am in office and i decide to run and win, within one day, they are going to be told, you keep manipulating your currency, we are going to tax you 25%. now, that's going to do two things, first of all, this he will stop manipulating at the mere thought of it, if they believed it. they don't believe this administration, because when the

president of china comes to the united states, we hold a state dinner for him in the white house. now, here is a guy that's been screwing our country for years. they are going to make $300 billion profit, call it profit, this year, $300 billion more than that and we hold a state dinner and the reason is because they manipulate their currency brilliantly. i have no anger at china. if you can get away with it. if i was from china, i would be very proud of my leaders. i am from this country and i am proud of this country but i am not proud of our leaders, because they are allowing the world to take advantage of us. they are allowing the world to rip us off like never before. by the way, when you talk about budget deficits, the deficits, because our economy, how can our economy ever get good? how can our economy ever be strong, ever, when we have other countries making our product? it can't happen.

i watched ben bernanke not long ago say unemployment is going to be bad for a long time. you know why? because india has taken so many jobs throughout sourcing. china is making our products. i look at places like newton, iowa, where maytag moved out and moved into mexico and devastated the town. if you put a tax on chinese