Donald Trump May Still Run As Third Party; Raising Taxes For Wealthy Will Lead To ‘Mass Exodus’

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by Alex Alvarez | 9:17 am, August 17th, 2011

» 23 comments

Donald Trump (“The Donald”) managed to the the topic of a national (media) obsession earlier this year when he hinted that he might possibly perhaps consider running for president as a potential GOP candidate. Now, he’s got the rumor mill churning again with chatter that he may yet run — as a 3rd party candidate. In an interview with Good Morning America‘s George Stephanopoulos, Trump hinted (again) that he “might” run with a 3rd party should Republicans not choose the “right” candidate. Stephanopoulos wondered what that meant, and went down the list of front-runners to see how Trump felt about each. As it turned out, if Trump hasn’t met you in person, he can’t possibly consider voting for you (a common thread throughout the interview whenever Stephanopoulos mentions a politician’s name):

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: How about Mitt Romney?

DONALD TRUMP: Well, I don’t know him. And, you know, it’s interesting. Sarah Palin called, I have a lot of respect for her. Michele Bachmann called, she was here last week. The only one I really don’t know is Mitt Romney. Nobody seems to know him. So maybe I’ll get to know him, maybe I won’t, I don’t know. But I really don’t know him.

Nobody seems to know the man who won the Iowa straw poll in 2007.

Stephanopoulos went on to ask the reality show host and businessman about his position on various hot issues, eventually asking the man whose brand is essentially built on the image of him as a very wealthy person what he thought of recent statement Warren Buffett made about raising taxes for the super wealthy rather than “coddling” them:

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Let’s talk about taxes. Warren Buffet made another splash with his op-ed in the New York Times saying it’s just not right that he, a billionaire, pays 17 percent in taxes when his secretary and receptionist pay more. Isn’t he right about that?

DONALD TRUMP: Well, I’ll tell you something. I view it — there’s many different views on that. And I can also tell you that a lot of people will go elsewhere to do business if you start taxing them. Many, many people, and I know people and I deal with —

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: But 17 percent isn’t much for a billionaire.

DONALD TRUMP: Well, I deal with Wall Street all the time. I know all of them. And you’re going to have people– you’re going to have a mass exodus. You already have an exodus out of this country. But you’re going to have a mass exodus of business out of this country when you start taxing too high. Now, I will tell you —

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: That didn’t happen during the Clinton years. And the– if we just go back to that, those rates.

DONALD TRUMP: And times have also changed. But if you go back to certain companies, Exxon Mobil, the oil companies, for us to be subsidizing oil companies is absolutely insane. And frankly, the oil companies really facilitate OPEC. The worst abuser we have is OPEC. And the biggest problem this country has, China’s a big problem, but OPEC’s even worse.

So, will Trump run? For now, it seems his official answer is “I’m going to see.”

Have a look at video of the interview, courtesy of ABC:

3rd Party, abc, Donald Trump, George Stephanopoulos, GMA, Good Morning America, taxes, Trump 2012

The Real Royal Emperor

Palin/Trump 2012!

“Insuring a Single Payer Health Care System by 2013!”
Exgoper

Hmm. Who should I listen to about monetary issues — Warren Buffet or the bankruptcy-prone reality TV star? I wonder….
cdnhawk

I hope any exodus would include this blowhard and his hair.
Anonymous

Oh great! VANISH ALREADY
Anonymous

Exodus to where? I hear the tax rates in Somalia are quite low. Not too much business regulation in Western Africa. Papua New Guinea anyone? Although they abolished the sea-shell monetary standard in 1933. And there are only four countries in the world with higher fire arm death rates than the US, so you know they are safe.
The Real Royal Emperor

Is the question rhetorical?
TruDat

Anybody but Obama.
Anonymous

And now for the daily liberal “fantasy” article of the day….the latest news on Donald Trump’s impending candidacy.
The Real Royal Emperor

You have to remember, just like Tollbooth, he soared to the top of the Republican heap once. I think the fantasy is more rightist. I find him amusing, and I am gratified he is yours and not ours.
Epzw

The Atlantic city hooker resurfaces.
Epzw

The Atlantic city hooker resurfaces.
Epzw

The Atlantic city hooker resurfaces.
Exgoper

You’d rather have a bankruptcy-prone, blowhard reality star to Obama? I guess that tells us everything we need to know about your intelligence level.
Dan Abramswig

Palin/Trump 2012.

Two churls, one cup.
Anonymous

Trump was the preferred candidate of the Far Left — who kidded themselves that the 2012 presidential election would be a referendum on Obama’s birth certificate. How delusional can you get, huh? For two months, MSNBC and other liberal news outlets covered Trump at the expense of all other candidates. Mediaite ran more articles on Trump than all of the other candidates combined. Maddow and company ranted about Trump every night of the week. He was always talked about on CNN, etc. This gave Trump a brief boost in the polls — but not driven by conservative grassroots support, but by round-the-clock coverage in the mainstream media.

Of course, you could go look at more than 100 comment I posted here at Mediaite at the time, predicting — as it turns out, with 100% accuracy — that (1) Trump was not a serious candidate, (2) he would never get the nomination and (3) the birth certificate was not a real campaign issue. And if you look at them you will see that conservatives here never debated me on those issues, but hundreds of liberals posted angry rebuttals. They look pretty silly now, don’t they? Weren’t you one of them?
Anonymous

“Max exodus’ to where, may I ask?
http://twitter.com/runforfun54 Ilene K

Bah bye you racist pig. No one will miss you. Adios, don’t let the door hit you.
http://twitter.com/Kattyusa Katty

How about a Romney/Trump ticket…both proven businessmen.
Anonymous

The anti-Obamaites and you liked his ideas and pushed him to the top of the polls.
Sweetheart

Go Donald go! Trump’s a one man wrecking crew. Just when you think the Knownothings can’t get more ludicrous, up pops Donald once again, who if he actually runs as an independent, will put the final nail in the Republican coffin. What a great guy…!
Anonymous

Yawn…Nacho your lies aren’t even smart ones. The track record is the exact opposite of what you just said, as you yourself know. From day one, I consistently opposed Trump, and was attacked by you and your liberal cronies for doing so.

Yet I should thank you for giving me the opportunity to point out how deep the liberal denial runs. In more than 100 instances, I posted comments at Mediaite earlier this year asserting that (1) Trump was not a viable candidate, (2) he would not get the nomination, and (3) that the birth certificate was not an important campaign issue.

Although everything I’ve said about Trump has been proven true, I was frequently attacked for stating these opinions. And — this is the amusing part of the story — In every instance I was attacked by liberals, not conservatives.

Let me repeat this, so you can savor the irony. Nacho and his liberal buddies defended the importance of Donald Trump over and over and over again. In fact, they got irate and indignant if anyone said anything against the viability of Trump’s candidacy.

That’s right, Nacho and his liberal buddies were caught up in the delusional view that Obama would run against Trump and that he would silence all opposition to his presidency by proving he was born in the US.

Nacho is the one who looks foolish here. And he continues to prove what I just said. He still attacks me every time I dismiss Trump — because he still is caught up in the liberal denial and fantasy.

All this is amply documented in the archives of Mediaite, much to Nacho’s shame and embarrassment.
Anonymous

You’re saying you didn’t see any Rep/Cons
supporting Trump here or anywhere? Really? I’ll accept your position you didn’t
support him or believe in his viability. I didn’t either knowing he’s a
publicity whore. Many did swallow his excrement like candy and now they will deny
supporting him. You don’t have to be a Dem/Lib to be a hypocrite.
Anonymous

Seriously? Proven prone to bankruptcy!