>> this is "piers morgan tonight." good evening! i've got to know donald trump pretty well over the last few years, and i can tell you he's a man who's used to being number one. now he's getting flak from members of the republican party who are saying he's dumbing down the political dialogue in this country. tonight i'll give him a chance to respond. his latest book, "it's time to get tough: making america number one again." and i'm delights to say donald trump joins me again now. donald, you're getting it in the neck a bit from your own people, really, the republican candidates, who seem to be cueing up to have a pop at you. why is that and do you care? >> well, i don't really care, but i don't think i'm getting it too much. i think most people are totally in favor. we've had a great response. i have millions and millions of people on my websites, and they all want me to do something. and they want me to have debates. and as you know, a very, very good group of people, newsmax, which is a big group and a powerful group, asked me if i'd moderate the debate, and i will, if they want me to do that, and they certainly have strongly suggested it. but it certainly has gotten press. there's no question about it. but i consider it a great honor. we have, as you know, newt has accepted and rick santorum has accepted. a couple we're waiting to see. i think there's a lot of pressure on a lot of people, frankly. i think they're under tremendous strain and tremendous pressure. i was disappointed that mitt romney, who's been up to see me at trump tower and called me, and, you know, we've had numerous calls, wants very much to have my endorsement. i was actually very disappointed that he didn't do the debate. i was actually surprised. he's a good guy, but i was actually surprised that he didn't do the debate. >> yeah, i was surprised about that. because i don't really understand what the big problem is, other than a bit of snobbery because you're not a conventional moderator. you're not a journalist or a tv host. but what you are is one of america's most successful business people. and i don't actually see any problem in you hosting a debate like this. i would imagine you would have some rather good questions for them. >> well, i know a lot of the moderators and some are wonderful, and some aren't, but i know the issues better than the moderators, that i can tell you. ever issue better than the moderators. and i think it would be interesting. and i'm someone that built a great book -- i mean, my book really explains it. i built a great business. and i actually, in my financial disclosure forms, i actually printed the summary sheets in the book. so people can see what a great company i've built. a tremendous net worth, tremendous cash and very little debt. and that's what the country needs, frankly, on a larger scale. so, you know, i think i know the whole deal, and it would be, and i assume it's going to in some form take place. i think it will be very successful and i think it will be very, very well viewed. >> did mitt romney call you himself to say he wasn't going to take part? >> yes, he did. >> what did he say? >> well, he couldn't have been nicer. i mean, he said, donald, i am so busy, and that day, i had roped off for something else. and you know, could not have been nicer. but, still, i was surprised. because i think it would have been, as you know, i get very good ratings. you're a good example of it, okay? you did so well on the "celebrity apprentice." and we got great ratings and i get great ratings. and frankly, this debate, with the right people in it, would be very, very successful. and you know, one of the things i've just been thinking to myself, i think he's a terrific guy, but he is now down in the polls. and i know one thing, if i were down in the polls, i'd want to do every debate i could. >> let's move to a couple of the others who really did say some extraordinary thing. jon huntsman said, we have declined to participate in the presidential apprentice debate with the donald. i won't kiss his ring or any other part of his anatomy. >> well, i think it's just a figure of speech. look, he's disappointed because he's having a hard time really getting numbers. and i think i think -- i'll be honest. i don't want know him at all, but he actually looks like a nice guy and he seems like a nice guy. as i was telling somebody before, he's been very good to the wharton school of finance, which is the school i went to, which i think is the best business school anywhere in the world. and the wharton school is great and he supports it, so i like that. but i don't know him at all. he just seems like a nice guy and i think he's under a lot of pressure. but he does seem good. >> so you're not going to miss him kissing any part of your anatomy? >> no, i won't miss that at all. believe me. >> ron paul called the debate beneath the office of the presidency. and because you host the apprentice and so on, that it makes it a form of a reality show. what do you say to those critics in particular? >> the reason i host "celebrity apprentice" and "the apprentice" and it's become one of the top shows on television, and as you know, many nights, in fact, for a period of time, it was a number one show on television and continues to get great ratings. the reason i host it and the reason i'm a so-called, as they say, reality star, is because of my success. and that has nothing to do with television. that has to do with real estate and business. and that's why i was chosen to do it. maybe there are some other reasons also. you know, whatever they may be. whatever it takes. but -- so i host this show, and it's a great show, because of my success in business. so i like to think of myself as a businessman. when you look at my numbers in the book that show over $7 billion in net worth, that hasn't taken too long to build, relative to other families and companies, et cetera, and you look at the kind of cash i have. almost $300 million in cash. and when you look at the low debt, which is really what the country should be striving for, is low debt, lots of cash, tremendous worth, instead of owing $15 trillion, which is where we are right now as a country. so i think when somebody says trump is a reality star and he shouldn't be hosting a debate, i'm only a reality star because i built a great company. >> i couldn't agree more. i'm going to play a clip from jon stewart from "the daily show" last night. he was in euphoric mood when you heard that you were hosting a debate. let's watch this. >> holy [ bleep ]! this the guy is moderating a debate! uh! if the people in the debate he's moderating don't satisfy him, [ bleep ], he's jumping in himself! >> so he's chortling away at you there, donald. do you care? do you find him funny? >> i don't -- i think he's okay. to be honest, i don't get the humor. he's got something going, i guess, because he's got a little bit of an audience, not a big audience, but i don't get his humor too much. i think he's fine. i watch him on occasion. but i wouldn't say he's one of the funny men that i've ever heard. he's okay. >> let's turn to newt gingrich. newt gingrich has accepted the invitation to come to the debate. he is the front-runner. he is, right now, potentially the guy who will win the nomination. so you've got the main man. talk about newt gingrich for a moment. what do you think of him? >> well, first of all, the debate is a newsmax debate and they're a very powerful organization, they really are, and they've done an amazing job. it's not a trump debate, and it's newsmax, and they asked me if i would do it. i'm really impressed with newt. i'm impressed from where he came. even with his handling of the debate, he is decisive, he was quick. he said, this is a great opportunity to get some strong views on. he knows that china and the world are ripping us off. that's frankly a very big part of what i'm all about. i see this country, it's being eaten alive from the outside. and that is by opec and china and south korea and virtually any country you want to name, we're being just taken to the cleaners. you know, it used to be the other way, piers. it used to be that we were great, we were strong, we were powerful, and now, all of a sudden, it's a whole different thing. it's a whole big different thing. and it's not that way anymore. now everybody takes our lunch. we used to do it the opposite way, when we were strong and when we were great. so it's too bad, but that's the way it is. >> newt gingrich said an interesting thing this week. he went after this whole issue of child labor, saying lots of these kids in inner cities in particular aren't brought up to understand what an honest day's work is. that the only kind of work they experience when they're young tends to be of an illegal kind. and he got hammered for it. i thought he made a few good points. what is wrong, inherently, with young americans in these troubled areas learning the value of a dollar? what did you think of his point that he made? >> well, i don't think he said it the way you said it. i think he said something very different. he was talking about examples and people to look up to. and he was saying that, you know, many of these children don't have people to look up to. people that leave the house early in the morning and come back late because they've been working hard all day. and he took a little bit of heat from that from some people and a lot of people agree with him. i happen to agree with him. i mean, this is a society where you have to get out there and you have to work. i mean, one of the problems we have in this country is, as i told you before, other people taking advantage of us. but everybody has to get out there and work. and he was talking about examples. he was using examples. and people need examples. i had a great example. my father was a very, very hard worker. he really worked. and i watched that and you know, he enjoyed his life. he really liked his life. he was happy. but he was happiest working. and i would see that growing up. and it was like by osmosis, i would sort of say, hey, that's pretty cool, and i love working. so i don't think what he said was at all bad, and a lot of people agree with that, but some people disagree. >> just to clarify, he did talk about the role model thing, but he also said that the child labor laws are truly stupid. that children in poor neighborhoods don't have the habit of working, nor getting paid for their endeavors unless it's illegal. so they made that other point too, which has got him into hot water. but at least he's thinking, i guess, about the way to get people back to work. let's have a break, donald. when we come back, i want to talk to you about time to get tough. what you would do as one of america's top and most successful employers to get these employment figures right down. no more points - coupons now. coupons? 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[ female announcer ] the travelocity guarantee. from the price to the room to the trip you'll never roam alone. back with my special guest, donald trump. so barack obama this the week came out with a big speech, basically saying that the middle classes have been let down in this country, that it's time to tax the rich more and to extend tax breaks, effectively, tax cuts, for the middle classes. what do you think of that, as a principle? >> well, he's really playing the class warfare very hard. i've been watching -- i watched the speech, actually, and i guess from his standpoint, it's the way he's going to go, because not a lot of good things are happening with our country, in terms of the economy and what's going on. even if you look at the recent job numbers, where 315,000 people gave up, and therefore they don't include them as unemployed, which is ridiculous. but a lot of things aren't going really right for him. so they're going with class warfare. probably a very smart for him in terms of getting re-elected, but a really bad thing for the country. >> you know, little ceos have come out saying they don't disagree with what he's saying in people. maybe there should be a slight antagonization rate with the rich paying more, you said this yourself, in the book, but you don't like the tone, don't like the rhetoric because it does smack of class warfare. is there a better way for him to say the same thing? >> i think there are a lot of better ways. and as far as taxes are concerned, it's a very dangerous time to be raising taxes. frankly, the rich, and, you know, if you want to say the rich, but we already pay and corporations in this country are actually the heavily -- the most heavily taxed companies in the world, okay? we're literally number one or number two on every list. so a lot of taxes are being paid. the problem we have is spending. the money gets spent far faster than they can get it. when you owe $15 trillion when you're borrowing from other countries, all of a sudden this country is in a different ball game from where it was. so it's a pretty tough situation, but it's a very fragile economy and it's a very, very dangerous time to be raising taxes. that i can tell you. >> there were two things that happened last week, which were significant. one is the stock market enjoyed its best week since barack obama became president in '09. and secondly, the employment figures fell to the lowest level since he became president. both of those things are clearly good news for him, because if it had gone the other way, it would be bad news. what do you read into that? is there any momentum building now even slowly in the american economy, or is this false hope, do you think? >> well, i hope there's momentum. it's been a long time and i hope there's some momentum. the employment numbers are very dangerous to look at because of the amount of people that quit. and under the new way of calculating, if you're looking for a job and you stop, they don't put you -- it's ridiculous, but they don't consider you to be unemployed. if you add those numbers back in, those numbers are much different than the numbers reported. look, i hope the economy's getting better. certainly, i mean, between interest rates being very low and other things. the problem we have is banks. banks don't loan money. if somebody wants to buy a house, it's virtually impossible to get the money from a bank. even if you have good credit. even when mortgages are coming due, people who have been paying a mortgage for 10 or 15 years, they can't get money or they can't get an extension from a bank. so the banks are really not behaving properly, that can i tell you. >> whenever you come on my show, donald, i'm always very grateful that you do, and you talk a lot of sense, i get more reaction to you than i do than any other guest. some of it is negative, most of it is positive from real people. the media give you a caricature image. but when i hear you talk like this, i hear somebody who has flirted with the idea of running with president many times, but who, you know, by your own admission, you said if you looked at the situation around this time and there was a still kind of lack of a real potential winner here against barack obama, you would be tempted, seriously, to run. aren't we in that situation? i mean, are you not genuinely tempted? >> first of all, i never flirted many times. people have always wanted me to run, i never wanted to, i never flirted at all. and then four years ago or eight years ago, i looked at it just briefly for a period of a few days, and just decided it wasn't -- i really like what i'm doing, as you know, probably better than most. so, you know, i'm going to see what happens. number one, let's look at the economy and let's see where the economy's going. i don't think the economy's going to get much better. and possibly, it's going to get much worse. we're going to have to see. but more importantly, right now, you have to see who is going to be the republican candidate. i'm going to endorse somebody, piers, fairly soon. and depending on how that person does, or if they pick somebody else, doesn't have to be endorsed by me that i think is good, i would not run. i'd be very happy not to run. if, on the other hand, they pick somebody that's not going to win or that's not going to do a good job, which is possible, that could happen, then i might very well look at running. but i never really looked at it before. this is the first time i looked at it very seriously. and as you know, i was leading in the polls when i got out. the only reason i got out is you have equal time provisions, where i'm not allowed to have this very successful show and run for president. it's sort of unfair, because the president can go on jay leno and he can go on your show and go on any other show and there's no equal time. but if i have a show or anybody has a show, and aeps very high-profile, successful show, you're not allowed to run, essentially, because of the equal time provision. so when i got out, i was leading in the polls. and i'm very honored by that. in fact, i was watching "meet the press" the day before the up-fronts from nbc and it had trump at the top of the polls, and i'm saying, what am i doing? but, you know, if the republicans choose somebody great, i have no interest in impeding them. that i can tell you. >> and would it be it be fair to say that right now, it would be pretty unthinkable that you would endorse anybody outside of romney or gingrich? >> well, i don't want to say that. i just don't really want to get into that. because over the next few weeks, i'm going to make an endorsement, and i don't want to give any clues. a lot of people are looking for who i'm going to be endorsing, and i don't want to get into that quite yet. but they do have some excellent people. i'm not saying all of them, but they have some excellent people running or trying to run, and we'll see what happens. i've gotten to know most of them. i respect many of them. and i'll make an endorsement some time over the next three or four weeks. >> would you consider being a vice president to any of these candidates? >> i don't think so. i mean, again, i love what i'm doing. my company has never done better, even though times are bad, i've sort of made some pretty wise decisions. and i just love what i'm doing. levee the real estate, i love all of the businesses i'm in. and i don't see it, but, you know, i would do anything that's good for this country. if somebody told me that whatever they wanted me to do, it was going to be great for the country or good for the country, i would do it. i think, frankly, they should have me or somebody like me negotiating with foreign countries our trade pacs. because whoever's negotiating our trade pacs is doing a horrible job. when china makes $350 billion this year, when colombia makes $400 billion, when all of these countries -- everybody makes. we can't have a great country unless we have a rich country. when you talk about social security, when you talk about medicare and medicaid, all of those problems go away -- i mean, you make adjustments and everything else, but they go away with a really strong country and a strong economy. so, you know, what they should have somebody like me doing is leading a negotiation of trade pacs. because we are being hurt badly by incompetent people. >> if one of these republican candidates came to you and they became president next november, for argument's sake, and they said, look, donald