RUSH: How about this media tweak? In the spirit of Operation Chaos, I’d just like to remind all of you Donald Trump fans out there, the media’s out to destroy him. Well, it’s interesting. Some in the media are out to destroy, but Savannah Guthrie at NBC loves him. We got audio sound bites to show you all this.
George Stephanopoulos told Diane Sawyer that Trump said that he would go take the Iraqi oil fields by force. We go in there. We liberate Iraq. They’ve got a large supply of oil. Why should we not have it? To the victor goes the spoils. We should claim the Iraqi oil fields. We’ve spent a lot of money going in there. We’ve lost some lives, what the hell? So Stephanopoulos told Diane Sawyer Trump said this and Diane, (imitating Sawyer) “Really? He said that? By force?” (laughing) After Stephanopoulos’ report on Trump suggesting that we go in there and just take the Iraqi oil fields, we are owed this, why should anybody else bid on them? Why should we give that oil to anybody else, given our circumstances? So Stephanopoulos is explaining all this to Diane Sawyer on Good Morning America and she just can’t believe it.
SAWYER: So he’s going to do this by force?
STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, that’s what he says. That would of course take thousands and thousands of US troops for many, many years.
RUSH: (laughing) (imitating Sawyer) “He’s going to do this by force? Look, recycling.” I’ll betcha Trump could be convinced to recycle garbage while taking the Iraqi oil fields by force. Anyway, where was I? Where was I? Oh. Media tweak. Media tweak in the spirit of Operation Chaos. I’d just like to remind all of you Trump fans out there that if you really want a macho candidate with a big mouth, big hair, massive cojones, you could always support Hillary. You don’t have to go Trump.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Charles Krauthammer yesterday (I think also Friday) was on a local Washington public affairs show — Inside Washington, Outside Washington, I Am Washington, whatever the name of the show is — and he said that Trump is the equivalent of Al Sharpton in the Republican Party. He said that again last night as a member of the Fox All Stars on the six o’clock show with Bret Baier, Special Report with Bret Baier. Trump is the Republican version of Al Sharpton. Trump’s known to be many things, but that seems to be going a bit far. I mean, Krauthammer once said, don’t forget, that Obama was eloquent — uh, elegant! Elegant!
Well, he’s also incompetent. Trump pays his taxes, too, doesn’t he? I don’t think the IRS is chasing Trump around like he is Sharpton. Here, by the way, is Trump’s quote on Iraqi oil to Stephanopoulos. He says, “George, let me explain something to you.” We’ve probably got it here in the sound bite roster. I’ll play it when we get to all this stuff later. He says, “Let me explain something to you, George. We go into Iraq, we have spent thus far one and a half trillion dollars. We coulda rebuilt half the United States for that. One and a half trillion dollars, and we’re gonna then leave. So in the old days, when you had a war, to the victor belonged the spoils.
“You go in, you win the war, and you take it. So Stephanopoulos told that to Diane Sawyer, and she was.. (snorts) She was aghast. Appalled. “By force?” Yeah. You know, in historical perspective, of course, Trump is right, although that hasn’t really been us. We have liberated people. We don’t do a lot of conquering out there. And of course one of the problems that we have, I think the United States as now the lone superpower in the world (but we’re not long for that, the longer Obama stays in the Oval Office) is we handcuff ourselves in the interests of being “fair.” As the lone superpower we walk around with a perpetual state of guilt, and since we’re the lone superpower — and theoretically the richest nation on earth — we go and we save the Iraqis.
We save their oil, we save them, but we don’t keep the oil. We’ve got enough. We are the big, bad, mighty United States. The oil, let’s leave it to the lesser peoples of the world — because, of course, we have only achieved what we have and own what we have because we’ve stolen it from people in the first place. So I think we handcuff ourselves in this manner. In fact in the case of Iraq and its oil, we went out of our way… This was the Bush people that did this. We went out of our way to open up bidding to everybody but us. This, you know, you because you want to show magnanimity and you don’t want to be a bully, even though that’s what we’re accused of being.
This bothers me. It bothers me that we have to run around the world and have this attitude about ourselves. Why do we have to feel guilty? What do we have to feel guilty about? What did we ever do other than liberate, elevate and help out? We’ve got nothing, as far as I’m concerned, to feel guilty about as a country. That’s why it bothers so many of us when our president runs around the first year he’s elected and starts apologizing for us. So we handcuff ourselves. We punish ourselves. We make things more difficult for ourselves. But we need not do it. We do it because this is the characteristic of a superpower, and we go out of our way to prove that our critics are wrong.
But, as I say, we’re not conquerors. After World War II, we didn’t claim we owned it. We didn’t say, “Okay, Germany, our ours.” We didn’t say, “France, you’re ours.” We didn’t say any of that. What did we do? Marshall Plan! We gave them untold amounts of money and let them rebuild. That’s just who we are. “To the victor go the spoils business,” that’s true in the case of many countries and throughout a lot of history, but not us.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: In Fargo, North Dakota, Jason, hi. It’s great to have you on the EIB Network, sir, hello.
CALLER: Right on. Hey, thanks for letting me rant. I, too, demand tribute. Just like Mr. Trump, I demand tribute. You know, I want — at the port of Oman — a tanker filled every single day until about $3 trillion is paid off from Iraq. And from that point on, I’m gonna turn to the rest of the Middle East and say, “Look, you call us the great Satan huh? So you’re calling me the great Satan.” Well, we fly over Mecca, we drop some leaflets and say, “Guess what? If we were the great Satan, there would be none of you left. This coulda been a nuke.” So again I want tribute. Right now. Donald Trump is exactly right.
RUSH: You’re talking about how we were talking about Trump’s view on Iraqi oil is ours. We should just take it because we’re the ones that went in there and liberated the country. It’s ours. “To the victor goes the spoils,” is what he said. So you agree?
CALLER: Amen, amen, and amen.
RUSH: But it’s not what we do. We haven’t done that since World War I, and even limited basis after World War I. After World War II, we didn’t conquer anybody. We liberate ’em and then give them money to rebuild themselves.
CALLER: Couldn’t care less. I want this one back. This is beyond ridiculous. They’re not friends. They haven’t treated us cool. I don’t see anything but “Death to America!” Guess what? You hit ’em so hard they look to each other and they say, “Can we change it from ‘death to America’ to ‘death to Luxembourg’?” You know, it’s just tiring. Take it — or, better yet, we put a tanker in Oman and fill it up every day until we say enough. And then here in North Dakota, by the way, Mr. President we have a Saudi Arabia out in the Bakken. We rock the Bakken every day. This place is amazing. Rush, I’ll leave you with a funny. I’ll leave you with a funny. I’ll change notes here. A buddy of mine bought a Harley-Davidson, heard a great joke — I, too, am gonna have a Harley-Davidson when my four kids get out of the house — what is the only difference between a Harley-Davidson and a vacuum cleaner?
RUSH: The only difference a Harley-Davidson and a vacuum cleaner? I don’t know. Hillary doesn’t own a vacuum cleaner.
CALLER: Oh! Ding. Actually, “location of the dirt bag.”
RUSH: Oh. (chuckles)
CALLER: I take it back.
RUSH: All right.
CALLER: I’m gonna be a dirt bag, too, when I get one. But, yeah, Trump is right. I want tribute: A tanker a day until we say enough.
RUSH: We gotta go. I’m outta time. Busy broadcast segment comes to a screeching halt. I appreciate the call, Jason.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Here’s Tracy in Pittsburgh. Tracy, welcome to the EIB Network. Great to have you here.
CALLER: Mr. Limbaugh, it’s an honor to speak to you, sir.
RUSH: Thank you very much.
CALLER: I hate to keep bringing up Donald Trump, but I have a —
RUSH: Why do you hate to keep bringing up Donald Trump?
CALLER: Well, I’m gonna tell you why. I think he has an ulterior motive, and what I need to know from you, your opinion, is: What’s gonna happen if he does not get the Republican nomination and he decides — if he runs and he decides — to run as an independent?
RUSH: That’s the end of the Republican Party. If anybody does that, it’s the end of the Republican Party.
CALLER: Well, it’s the end of the Republican Party, but it’s also gonna put Obama right back into office.
RUSH: Well, that’s the same thing. That’s what I mean. It’s the same thing. It’s the end of the Republican Party in this election cycle.
CALLER: I think he’s gotta have some kind of an ulterior motive here in what he’s doing. I mean, I actually —
RUSH: Well, what do you think it is?
CALLER: I’m not real sure.
RUSH: See, I know Trump. I know Trump; I played golf with him. He’s a fine guy. (stifling laughter)
CALLER: And you don’t think it has anything to do with, you know, when Obama got elected, he had a lot of good things to say about Obama? You know, he hoped he was gonna be a great president and this, that, and the other thing. I don’t —
RUSH: Look, I cannot let that go. Let me be honest here. “A fine guy,” that’s an audience tweak. Apparently when I tell people I play golf with somebody is a fine guy that just sends people into orbit, they just lose their sanity. Now, I know Donald Trump fairly well. I’ve not discussed (other than interviews on the program) his aspirations. I’ve had a hard time over the course of my years knowing exactly what he is politically. I know he donates to both parties because he’s primarily a real estate guy and if the Democrats run the show in Chicago, that’s to whom he’s gonna donate.
CALLER: I can understand all that.
RUSH: Okay. It’s the same… Microsoft got in trouble for not doing this. Microsoft did not have any lobbyists, they weren’t giving money to the Clinton regime, so guess what? They had a big time anti-trust suit brought against them, it’s the way of the world. Trump —
CALLER: But the other day when you had him on —
RUSH: Yeah?
CALLER: — his reason for running for president was that he felt he could do something for the country, he could bring the country back. But, you know, Rush, you’ve said yourself a million times: You could bring the country back but you would not take the pay cut. Why would Donald Trump take a pay cut and tie himself up with all the rhetoric that he’s gonna go through running — and, you know, his past is gonna be brought up?
RUSH: Let me answer your questions here. There is an answer to that. You may not like it, but it’s an answer that is applicable to everybody who runs — and I said this yesterday. Trump just happens to differ from these other people in that he says it. He says, “The country needs me.” They all think it. There’s nobody that would put themselves through any of this without that kind of an ego. They all think it. You think Clinton doesn’t have a Trump ego? He’s got that and more.
CALLER: Oh, I agree with you.
RUSH: You think Obama doesn’t have it? They’ve all got it. It’s just Trump says it. He just happens to articulate it. Look, I remember playing golf with him maybe a year and a half ago, a short time into the regime, and we’re in the same cart. We’re playing at Trump International here, and he said, “Tell me the truth about Obama.” I said, “Donald, he’s a bad guy.” “You think he’s a bad guy?” I said, “Yeah,” and he started echoing my sentiments in his own way, but he wasn’t nearly as committed in his comments that he is today, and when we finished playing a round of golf (we didn’t talk about politics the whole round) I still wasn’t sure what he really thought. I don’t know that anybody has the magic answer to: What’s he really up to?
CALLER: Okay.
RUSH: You know, I have all the theories that you do. That he’s a Democrat plant? I’ve heard that. That he’s out there just promoting The Apprentice, that he’s bored with whatever else he’s doing, that he’s trying to stir things up, just trying to have a little fun, who knows? There’s all kinds of answers to this.
CALLER: If he’s promoting his program that’s fine with me I don’t care. You know, he’s out to make money, that’s good. My problem is… I guess that let’s get down to nuts and bolts: If he decides to run, and he does not get the Republican nomination, if he feels so — I don’t know what word I want to use — passionate about this country, he would be a fool to run as an independent. Do you agree with me?
RUSH: (sigh)
CALLER: Because he would know that that would put Obama right back into office.
RUSH: You’re forgetting something.
CALLER: That would destroy…
RUSH: No, you’re forgetting something here that’s crucial.
CALLER: Okay.
RUSH: Just using your hypothetical: If he runs as an independent, given his ego, I would think he’d do it to win. Now, he may be fooling himself into thinking he can win, but he’s not going to do this purposely to lose to screw somebody. If that’s what’s going on, then there’s stuff going on that nobody’s gonna ever find out. Like if he’s got an animus about somebody. Like when Perot was out, we knew that Perot had it in for the Bush family, for whatever reason.
CALLER: Exactly.
RUSH: We knew that now. We don’t know stuff like that about Trump and whether or not he would go independent, third party, Reform Party. We don’t know that. We don’t know it yet. If I were to talk to Trump again I’d say, “Donald, you’re saying things here that make me think you don’t understand the conservative base. The conservative base does not want a 25% tariff on Chinese goods. Somebody has told you that the conservative base is a bunch of extreme wackos, and they’re not. You’re talking to a fringe group thinking they’re the conservative base. They’re not.” Now, I may still tell him this at some point, but he’s been all over the political spectrum politically.
He’s come out for abortion, he’s against abortion. He’s thought Obama was a great guy and thought Bush was an idiot. Now, “Where is it written that people can’t change their minds and can’t grow?” Well, where it’s written in core beliefs. Somebody really has a core belief, the core beliefs don’t fluctuate. This is what people are trying to figure out with Trump. When you get down to brass tacks, the best thing you could say is, I think — forget the independent run or whatever — the real question: Is he conservative? He says he is but is he really? You have to balance what he’s saying now by itself and then come back and compare to what he said in the past. You won’t find… Like, I’m a committed conservative. I don’t have a past like Trump does why I have disagreed with myself so many times.
CALLER: Well, I agree with you a hundred percent. I feel exactly the same way. I know what I feel and I’ve never changed my mind about it. I’m definitely as conservative as they get, but what you’re saying… If you get back to the presidency and if he would… You can’t go by what he says now because of what he said in the past. The only thing we can do is if he would get elected, all we can do is hope that he lives by —
RUSH: No, you’re gonna have to —
CALLER: — conservative values.
RUSH: No. No. You’re gonna have to go on what he says now and then compare that to things he said in the past. If you’re gonna assume that what he’s saying now he’s not being sincere about then you write him off. I mean, you don’t even give him the time of day.
CALLER: Okay, but my point is… I guess I should have explained it a little bit more, you didn’t understand what I meant. If he would get the Republican nomination, okay?
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: We’re not gonna — I’m not gonna — sit out. I’m not like that. I’m gonna vote, and if he is the conservative candidate, I’m gonna vote for him. I’m gonna vote for him and I’m gonna hope that he does live by conservative values and governs by conservative values.
RUSH: Well, if he gets the Republican nomination… Look, if Elmer Fudd gets the Republican nomination I’m voting Elmer Fudd! This is where our party, I think, is a little bit screwed up here. I’ve gotta take a break here because I’m getting way long in my next segment, but we’re gonna have this conversation many, many more times down the road so just be patient, folks. It will all become clear.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: You know, this Trump business, in person, he’s much like he’s behaving here in this campaign. I don’t know if you saw the episode of The Haney Project that Al Michaels was with me, but we were sharing mutual stories about Trump. Trump has a course out in Palos Verdes, California. It’s a public course, beautiful, just overlooking the Pacific Ocean, on a great day you can see Catalina Island. It’s just a stunning, stunning golf course. And, you know, when you play golf with Trump, wherever you play it’s the best course in the world. His course, never been to a place like it, there’s no better piece of property anywhere. He said, “Everybody talks about Pebble Beach. The hell with Pebble Beach. What they got in Pebble Beach? What’s the body of water in Pebble Beach?” “Well,” I said, “It’s the bay. They call it Carmel Bay.” “That’s right. They have a bay. I have an ocean. My course is on an ocean. They’re in a little piddly bay.” Well, you have to go a long way to get a better course than Pebble Beach. It’s just the way he is. He’s constantly selling. But it’s funny. The way he is does not rub people the wrong way. Well, it rubs some women the wrong way, but I have experience with that, too. So I understand it, the braggadocio, all that kind of stuff. Some don’t dig it.
END TRANSCRIPT
*Note: Links to content outside RushLimbaugh.com usually become inactive over time.