The Washington Post has published the entire transcript of a meeting between its editorial board and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. In an hour-long conversation ranging (often erratically on Trump’s part) over a variety of issues, it emerged that while there are some areas he is reluctant to discuss in detail – his foreign policy, for one, which he says he wants to keep “unpredictable” – there is another on which he is keen to talk and talk and talk: the size of his “slightly large, actually” hands.
The Washington Post’s post-match verdict? “An empty policy basket makes almost impossible the kind of substantive debate on which democracies depend.”
Trump is going to knock out Isis
Washington Post: If you could substantially reduce the risk of harm to [American] ground troops, would you use a battlefield nuclear weapon to take out Isis?
Trump: I don’t want to use, I don’t want to start the process of nuclear. Remember the one thing that everybody has said, I’m a counterpuncher. Rubio hit me. Bush hit me. When I said low energy, he’s a low-energy individual, he hit me first. I spent, by the way he spent $18m worth of negative ads on me. That’s putting …
WP: This is about Isis. You would not use a tactical nuclear weapon against Isis?
Trump: I’ll tell you one thing, this is a very good-looking group of people here. Could I just go around so I know who the hell I’m talking to?
He thinks protesters at Trump rallies are ‘very bad people’ …
Trump: You know I get these massive crowds of people, and we’ll get protesters. And these protesters are honestly, they’re very bad people. In many cases, they’re professionals. Highly trained professionals …
We’ve had some very bad people come in. We had one guy – and I said it, he had the voice, and this was what I was referring to – and I said: “Boy, I’d like to smash him.” You know, I said that. I’d like to punch him. This guy was unbelievably loud. He had a voice like Pavarotti.
WP: Rip him out of his seat, punch him in the face, isn’t that violent?
Trump: Well, he punched other people.
WP: I guess the question is, when you then offer to pay the guy’s legal fees, isn’t that …
Trump: I didn’t offer.
WP: Isn’t that condoning?
Trump: No, I didn’t offer.
WP: You said you would consider it …
Trump: I said I want to look into it. I said I want to look into it. I didn’t say that.
WP: Isn’t that condoning?
Trump: No, I don’t think so.
WP: Doesn’t that convey a message of approval?
Trump: Don’t think so.
He has ‘no opinion’ on race and policing
WP: In general, do you believe there are disparities in law enforcement?
Trump: I’ve read where there are and I’ve read where there aren’t. I mean, I’ve read both. And, you know, I have no opinion on that.
He’s still not very happy with the media
WP: You’ve mentioned that you want to “open up” the libel laws …
Trump: I might not have to, based on Gawker. Right? … OK, look, I’ve had stories written about me – by your newspaper and by others – that are so false, that are written with such hatred … I’m not a bad person. I’m just doing my thing … I’m, you know, running, I want to do something that’s good. It’s not an easy thing to do. I had a nice life until I did this, you know. …
I don’t want to impede free press, by the way. The last thing I would want to do is that. But I mean I can only speak for – I probably get more – do I, I mean, you would know, do I get more publicity than any human being on the earth? OK? I mean [points at columnist Ruth Marcus], she kills me, this one – that’s OK, nice woman.
He understands what is going on
Trump: Right now, look, you know, I went to a great school, I was a good student and all. I am an intelligent person. My uncle, I would say my uncle was one of the brilliant people. He was at MIT for 35 years. As a great scientist and engineer, actually more than anything else. Dr John Trump, a great guy. I’m an intelligent person. I understand what is going on.
He’s still talking about ‘the Muslim thing’
Trump: With the Muslim thing, I think it’s a serious problem. I’ve had Muslims call and tell me you’re right with the Muslim thing, I think it’s a serious problem. And it’s a problem that has to be addressed. I mean, there’s tremendous hatred. Even the, even the guy they caught in Paris. He was being hid out by other Muslims, and everybody is after him, and he’s living right next to where he grew up. There’s a serious, serious problem with the Muslims and it’s got to be addressed. It’s temporary, and it’s got to be addressed. And you know, you may think of it as negative. Many people think it’s very positive.
He’s really bothered by what people say about his hands
Trump: Here’s my hands. Now I have my hands, I hear, on the New Yorker, a picture of my hands … A hand with little fingers coming out of a stem. Like, little. Look at my hands. They’re fine. Nobody other than Graydon Carter years ago used to use that. My hands are normal hands. During a debate, he [Marco Rubio] was losing, and he said, “Oh, he has small hands and therefore, you know what that means.” This was not me. This was Rubio that said, “He has small hands and you know what that means.” OK? So, he started it. So, what I said a couple of days later … and what happened is I was on line shaking hands with supporters, and one of supporters got up and he said: “Mr Trump, you have strong hands. You have good-sized hands.” And then another one would say: “You have great hands, Mr Trump, I had no idea.” I said: “What do you mean?” He said: “I thought you were like deformed, and I thought you had small hands.” I had 50 people … Is that a correct statement? I mean people were writing: “How are Mr Trump’s hands?”
My hands are fine. You know, my hands are normal. Slightly large, actually. In fact, I buy a slightly smaller than large glove, OK? No, but I did this because everybody was saying to me: “Oh, your hands are very nice. They are normal.” So Rubio, in a debate, said, because he had nothing else to say … Obviously, it didn’t work too well. But one of the things he said was: “He has small hands and therefore, you know what that means, he has small something else.”
And not just a little bothered …
Trump: I don’t want people to go around thinking that I have a problem. I’m telling you, I had so many people. I would say 25, 30 people would tell me … every time I’d shake people’s hand: “Oh, you have nice hands.” Why shouldn’t I? And, by the way, by saying that I solved the problem. Nobody questions … I even held up my hands, and said: “Look, take a look at that hand” … And by saying that, I solved the problem. Nobody questions. Everyone held my hand. I said: look. Take a look at that hand.
… Really quite bothered indeed
Trump: He [Rubio] said: “Donald Trump has small hands and therefore he has small something else.” I didn’t say that. And all I did is when he failed, when he was failing, when he was, when [Chris] Christie made him look bad, I gave him the … a little recap and I said, and I said, and I had this big strong powerful hand ready to grab him, because I thought he was going to faint. And everybody took it fine. Whether it was presidential or not, I can’t tell you. I can just say that what he said was a lie. And everybody, they wanted to do stories on my hands; after I said that, they never did. And then I held up the hand, I showed people the hand.
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