>> donald trump is no stranger to being in the public eye. but sitting in the oval office instead of at board room, that could be a very different kind of job for mr. trump. >> what are you talking about, steve? well, the poll was conducted in new hampshire recently. here's one of the questions that they asked the people. what they thought about donald trump running for president in 2012. so will he actually make a run? real estate mogul and business guru donald trump joins us by phone. good morning to you. >> good morning. >> all right. so are you going to make the run? >> well, you know, for the first time in my life, i'm actually thinking about it. over the years, i've had many, many people talking to me and asking me and speaking to me and writing, but i see what's going on with this country and it's never been worse. what's happening is a disgrace. when you look at what's happening with opec, setting the price of oil and ripping the lifeblood out of the country. when you look at what's going on with china, with what they're

doing, i mean, china is just ripping this country like nobody has ever ripped us before. and we don't have our talented people. we don't use our great business people to negotiate. we use some diplomat and, you know, i do a lot of business with china. and i'm not knocking them. i mean, if you can get away with something, you do it but i do business and the chinese come over and they tell me they can't believe what they're getting away with. you try doing business in china, it's impossible. yet they come over here and make everything. we don't make anything anymore. we make it in china and other countries. >> yeah. >> we really have problems. >> you have a problem with free trade in particular, right? >> well, you know what? i like free trade. i love the concept of free trade but not unfair trade and that's unfair trade. what they do with us is unfair trade. you can't do business in china. you can't go there and open up even a store in china. and yet, they come here and they take over the place only because we're -- it's sort of an interesting thing. i was talking also the other day about what -- you remember what happened with kuwait where iraq

took over kuwait. we went in, lost lives, spent billions of dollars and handed it back to them. and now they don't want to invest in the united states because they don't like our country as an investment. it's really terrible what's happening. >> sure. >> so let me get this straight, donald trump, you are considering running for president of the united states. >> for the first time, i'm thinking about it. >> i understand you're thinking about it. do you have any idea what kind of a pay cut you'd take? >> it's a big pay cut. that's true. it's a big pay cut. >> yeah, but look, i love this country. we have a great country. but it's not really great like it used to be. let's face it. we're no longer respected the way we used to be respected and if we keep going like this within 10 to 12 years, china is going to overtake us easily. >> we know there would be so many more issues for china if you decide to run for president. what party would you align yourself with? back in 2000 when you were sort of talking about running it was

the reform party. what party? >> the reform party asked me to run. i did not do that. i didn't want to do that. on i'm a republican so if i did anything, i'd do it as a republican. >> are you totally being serious right now? >> i'm totally being serious. i can't stand what's happening to the country. first time i am being serious about it. i've been asked for years to do it. i had no interest. this is the first time i'm at least considering it. that doesn't say i'm going to do it, gretchen but i'm seriously considering it. >> what happened is they only ask 30 questions to those -- some new hampshire constituents, as you know, that's the first primary. are you encouraged by the results? >> i hear the results are amazing. i don't know what they were. i didn't take this poll. i didn't pay for this poll but i hear the results are amazing. i found out about this yesterday morning when i got a call from a "time" magazine reporter that found out about a poll and i didn't know about it. but, you know, somebody heard me speaking on a show, perhaps

yours where i've spoken about this very openly, and they said, you know, they like what i'm saying. >> sure. >> what i'm saying is almost -- hard to believe people don't pick it up. it's almost common sense. >> this is one way, donald, to not pay as high of taxes in new york. you have threatened about leaving new york so if you're like the president, you'd be in washington, d.c. >> it's very hard for me to psychologically leave new york. plenty of other people will leave new york if they don't do something. we have a governor that's not doing a good job and not getting taxes down. people will leave. >> can't get out soon enough. donald, the problem with politics, it's not like business. it's not cut and dry. you have to have finesse and you have to be able to squeeze hands and kiss babies. are you willing to do that? >> well, i think my whole life has sort of been about finesse when you get down to it. what running a country is is to a certain extent we have to bring principle back and we have to also bring common sense back. we have no common sense. we have no common sense. and we're losing this country.

mark my words, if we keep going this way, we're losing this country. it will no longer be great. it's not respected to anywhere near what it used to be. it will no longer be great. >> sure. it sure sounds like you're running for something. donald trump joining us on the phone where you heard it here first, folks. thank you, donald. >> thank you very much. >> a r