Donald Trump's "hurricane of words"
In this week's 60 Minutes season-opener, Scott Pelley interviews Donald Trump, a man, he says, known to "shoot from the lip." In the clip above, an unaired excerpt from the interview, Pelley pushes Trump to outline the specifics behind his plans.
"You know what makes people uncomfortable about you?" Pelley asks.
"Tell me," Trump says.
"You are a hurricane of words," Pelley says. "But the policies sound a bit like magic."
Trump insists that all will be revealed -- when the time is right. "I'm giving my tax plan next week, you watch. It's gonna reinvigorate the economy, it's gonna bring jobs back. We're taking in billions of dollars in corporate inversions, the money that's over in other countries, billions of dollars are gonna pour back in."
Trump made his own billions in real estate, so it's no surprise that his office in Trump Tower has a magnificent view of Central Park. But while showing it to Pelley in the clip below, Trump remembers a time during the recession of the early 1990s when his empire was in jeopardy. Once, walking with his wife, he compared himself to a destitute man on the street.
"'You see that man? What is he? He's a beggar,' Trump recalls telling his wife. 'Well, right now he's worth $900 million more than I am.' And she said, 'What do you mean, darling? He can't be worth $900 million.' I said, 'Well, let's assume he's worth nothing. But I'm worth minus $900 million.'"
Trump says he managed to turn it around. "I made my greatest deals and kept almost everything, fought like hell, fought the banks, fought everybody. And had great relationships with banks and with people," he says. "Many companies, as you know, were wiped out. And my company today is bigger, stronger, better than it's ever been before."
After seeing his office, Pelley also gets a tour of Trump's surprisingly understated campaign headquarters, a vast, unfinished space in Trump Tower. In the clip below, Pelley asks Trump to identify some big-name supporters.
"I actually have a lot of people that have joined us," he says. "We have generals coming in and joining us. They like what I say about national security. We have a tremendous group of people, but we keep the staff pretty lean."
Noting that the race is kicking into high gear, Pelley points out that Trump was "wringing wet" with sweat at a recent campaign event in New Hampshire. "This is about to become real hard work," Pelley says.
"Yes," Trump agrees. "I think it already is. But I love it. I love doing it. I love the response I'm getting from people."
That response was mixed when Trump introduced his immigration plan, which entails building a giant wall along the border to "keep illegals out" and deporting the roughly 11 million undocumented immigrants already living in the U.S. Trump would "round them up in a very humane way, in a very nice way," he says in the clip below.
Trump compared his deportation plan to one introduced by President Dwight Eisenhower in the 1950s. Trump says Eisenhower deported over a million people, though some research suggests the number may be lower.
While Trump keeps his cool during his interview with Pelley, he has lost it with other reporters, like Megyn Kelly of Fox News and Jorge Ramos of Univision. "I've met tremendous people in the media," he says in the clip below. "But much of it -- and I mean a pretty good percentage -- is really a terrible group of people. They write lies, they write false stories."
Pelley tells Trump that it seems as if the candidate likes to "dish it out, but can't take a punch." Trump insists that's not the case. "Oh, I think I can take it," he says. "I could take it if it's fair."
Throughout the interview, Pelley challenges Trump to disclose details of his platform. He asks Trump, for instance, to reveal his tax plan, which Trump says will include significant tax cuts for the middle class and exempt part of the population from income tax.
"This is 60 Minutes," Pelley presses. "It's time. People want some answers."
Trump assures him it will be worth the wait.
"Nobody knows the tax code better than I do," Trump says. "I'm like a student of the tax code." When it comes out, "I think you will be very proud of me," Trump tells Pelley. "You'll call me and say, 'I'm proud of you, Donald.' I hope."