The Donald Is Saying A Lot These Days

Trump: Things in US Could Get Worse, Buy Gold
Monday, 31 Jan 2011 12:11 PM

Billionaire developer and potential presidential candidate Donald Trump predicts the price of gold will continue to climb because Americans have no confidence in President Barack Obama.
In an exclusive interview with Newsmax.TV, he also warned that trouble looms for the U.S. economy. “If oil prices are allowed to inflate and keep inflating, if the dollar keeps going down in value, I think there’s a very distinct possibility that things could get worse.”But Trump said that he sees one bright spot in the still-struggling U.S. housing market — this is a great time for Americans to buy a house.

Real estate mogul Donald Trump tells Newsmax in an exclusive interview
why people will thank him in 10 years if they heed his advice to buy a house
now. But the New York billionaire also addressed the credit crisis, saying that
banks let us down and need to invest in people again.
“I can’t guarantee it, but I’m pretty sure this is right now a great time to go out and buy a house. And if you do, in 10 years you’re going to look back and say, ‘You know, I‘m glad I listened to that interview with Donald Trump,’” he said in his exclusive Newsmax interview.“The good news is you get a good price. The bad news, the banks aren’t there,” he said.
“The banks have really let us down. Number one, they did some bad things and caused some bad problems. Number two, if you have something that you want to buy, like a house, they’re generally not there for you,” he said. “So somebody has to get these banks moving.”Turning to gold prices, Trumps tells Newsmax: “I think gold will go up as long as people don’t have confidence in our president and our country. And they don’t have confidence in our president."Trump also was asked about his fellow billionaire George Soros’ warning that economic conditions in the United States are likely to deteriorate. “I would say that he possibly is right,” Trump says.
A weak dollar “is not good because you’re going to pay $25 for a loaf of bread pretty soon. Look at what’s happening with our food prices. They’re going through the roof. We could end up being another Egypt. You could have riots in our streets also.”Trump doesn’t think inflation poses the biggest threat to the economy. “I think the biggest threat is that our jobs are being stolen by other countries. We’re not going to have any jobs here pretty soon."Trump also tells Newsmax.TV that the United States has become a “whipping post” for other countries thanks to poor trade deals signed by our government. Currency and trade manipulation has drained the United States of its jobs, so it’s no surprise that the Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke believes it will take years for full employment to return after the recent recession, Trump said.“We are standing there and just being beaten by South Korea, by Mexico, by China, by India,” Trump says. “If you have a problem with your credit card and you call somebody up, that person is in India. And then they wonder why we’re not going to have jobs for another five or six years.”
Meanwhile, Trump expressed amazement at the politeness of the recent state dinner for Chinese President Hu Jintao. He said that Chinese business leaders literally laugh at the United States in disbelief when talking privately about U.S. currency policy.
Trump says China is winning not because it competes but because it cheats. “I’m a big buyer of products, and unfortunately a big buyer of Chinese products. If you’re buying glass and other things, it’s very hard not to buy Chinese products,” says Trump, a builder who also operates hotels and casinos around the world.U.S. companies win on quality over China, but because China keeps the yuan low, it’s “almost impossible” for a developer like himself to ignore Chinese prices. "The products are cheaper. They’re not as good, they’re cheaper. It’s not because of workers or anything else,” Trump says. “It’s because of the manipulation of the currency.”The U.S. and other Western governments have pressured China to allow the yuan to appreciate. That has been happening slowly, although likely due to external forces such as inflation more than a desire to help foreign economies at the expense of China’s development.Too late for the United States, say Trump. “All of our jobs are going to China. We’re rebuilding China and other places,” he says.Trump also advocates a “get tough” position on oil-exporting countries, which he says use monopoly power unfairly against the United States.Trump says he doesn’t necessarily expect oil prices to rise as a result of the unrest in Egypt and other capitols in recent weeks. In fact, he says, dislodging the powers in control of the oil-rich region might lead to a sharp decline in energy costs.“Frankly, the Middle East is a tinderbox and it’s going to explode. OPEC will probably be destroyed if it explodes and oil prices could go the other way,” Trumps says.Chaos in the region might lead to infighting and an end to OPEC, and that could have a positive outcome, in Trump’s view. “Oil right now is going soon to be $100 a barrel, far too high and it’s set by OPEC. I think OPEC would explode with the Middle East, and that wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world,” he says.Trump is shocked that we aren’t tougher with oil exporting nations, and says he finds current gasoline prices out of touch with the reality of the market, thanks to the monopoly power of OPEC. “We have so much oil, there’s so much oil out at sea. There’s ships loaded up oil and they don’t know where to dump it,” he says. “I see $3.50 for a gallon of gas for cars, and cars are lined up trying to get it and it’s $3.50. It’s a shame, a ridiculous shame.”The United States should concentrate on developing the energy it does control and stop letting foreign powers set our energy agenda, Trump argues. “We don’t use our natural gas. We have more natural gas than anybody. Why we’re not using it is amazing,” he says.He points out that even oil producers realize that oil is a limited resource and are switching away from it. “Abu Dhabi, which has plenty of oil, they just went to all natural gas for transportation. You know why? Because they want to sell us the oil at exorbitant prices.”Trump rejects the notion that the federal government might bail out financially strapped states. “The federal government has no money,” he tells Newsmax. “It’s being taken away between fighting wars and being the policeman for countries that in all fairness we shouldn’t have been in in the first place."