VIDEO Nº: 176
TITLE:176. FULL SPEECH Donald Trump Speaks At New York State Republican Gala [4142016] (1)
DATE OF EVENT:14/04/2016
RELEASE DATE:19/06/2016
DURATION:00.27.49 Mins.
MR. TRUMP’s FRACTION:Full
Nº OF WORDS:5065
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Ah, it's great to be back in New York, I will say that. [It’s] Great to be back! …–THE CROWD CHEERS. What a crowd!
You know, I thought I'd do something a little different. When I heard and they'd called, a few months ago, and he said, “we’d love to you to speak”.
And I said, “where you gonna have it?”.
He said, “at the Grand Hyatt”.
Well I said, “I love to speak at the Grand Hyatt”, because I built this hotel! And…–THE CROWD CHEERS AND APPLAUDS–…and…it was a very, very successful deal. You know, I built it, it was…uh…toward the end of the 70s, and the market was horrible, and this area, for those of you…like my very good friend, Delauter [Kirby], and…everybody, I mean…would…say that this was a crazy deal, and…I shouldn't have done it. And, I said, “I have to do it!”.
And my father who was…uh…in Brooklyn and Queens, said, “son, we don’t know anything about Manhattan. Don’t do it. Don’t do it. You’re making a mistake”.
I said, “I wanna do it! I wanna be in Manhattan. I agree, the location’s terrible…!”. You had to see the people! It was really…you know, it was…that was when…and I have to say, Republicans, but Gerald Ford said to New York, ‘drop dead!’, right? ‘Drop dead!’. That was a killer. That was a…not a good time for our city, right? That was a bad time for our city! But, it was…uh…something that was…we had to something, cause…we love New York! We love New York. And, that was probably…maybe…the worst of the worst.
And…but I just wanted to do it. I loved the building, I loved the potential of the building. It was called the Commodore hotel. It was built in 1909. And…it was a mess! And, they had a…spa, and the spa was called relaxation plus…–THE CROWD LAUGHS. And nobody ever got into what the plus meant…–THE CROWD LAUGHS. You don't wanna know…–THE CROWD LAUGHS.
And everybody in the building was failing. Every…retail tenant in the building was failing. And, I was able to get most of  ‘em up. But relaxation plus was making an absolute fortune! …–THE CROWD LAUGHS. And I couldn't get ‘em out. And…I asked about all sorts of things. I shouldn't say this too loud, because I will…be…really ridiculed by the…Conservatives of which I am one. I even said, “what about condemnation!?”, but…I didn't do that, okay? Is everybody happy [that] I didn't do that? But I ended up getting them out, and…brought the building down to its steel, except for…some of the details on a couple of the ceilings, because…they would have been very hard. This is one of the rooms, actually, right here, the detail of the ballroom. And, the details of the rooms outside.
And trying to save those details cost a fortune because…when the whole bill was, essentially, brought down to the steel, we had to put canvas over…all of areas we were saving and when it rained, that was not an easy situation.
But I got it built. And…what happened is, as we were opening, the market changed, cause the city was doing so badly. And that was the worst…that the city had ever been economically, also. Uhm…people leaving, companies were leaving in droves. And, it was just something of a miracle. Uh…the…area…; I opened the building to tremendous fan…fare and the area became…uh…just special! I mean, special! And I called it a Park Avenue address, even though it really fronted on 42nd Street. I called it Park Avenue! You know, it's on the Park Avenue ramp, in all fairness, right? …–THE CROWD LAUGHS. [It] Might not be pure park! I had a choice of Lexington Avenue, 42nd Street or Park Avenue and guess what? I chose Park Avenue…–THE CROWD LAUGHS. And…–THE CROWD LAUGHS–…that wasn't bad, right?
Well, I had that also in Columbus Circle. You know, I did the…big hotel, Trump International. And it's been a great success from the day it was built. And were in the circle! And Columbus Circle didn’t  have a good name, but it also was on Central Park West! But it was called 7th Columbus Circle. And…a little known fact, and in fact, you know, when we talk about government, we talk about rules and regulations, a little known fact is that…when you have an address, at least in New York, when you have an address in a building it's very, very hard…so hard to change! So, when you have a building that’s 7th Columbus Circle, you have to go through the whole United States government to get…because of the mail service, and because of the U.S. mail and all of the different problems.
So, with 7th Columbus and I basically script that one down. We built a tremendous building, but I had to call it 7th Colombus Circle. I said, “I'm not doing it”. And I went out and I really put on a big campaign in Washington. and I got it changed to number One Central Park West. That was good too…–THE CROWD APPLAUDS. And…you know, I figured [that] the day I got that changed, the building was worth about seven times more than I paid for it, right? …–THE CROWD LAUGHS.
But this has been a…a…just a…an amazing…an amazing event, this building. And, I think of it because…when I did the building everybody said, “don't do it. It can't be done. It's never gonna happen. Bad area. Bad location. Uh…tremendous crime. The city's dying…”, and the city was dying! It wasn't just like…not doing well. The city was dead!
And I remember when…I said to a friend of mine who was in a different business, a very good business; and he was talking about what I did, [he] became a friend. I said, “well, I'm in the real estate business in New York”. And he looked at me [and] he said, “oh, that's too bad” …–THE CROWD LAUGHS. That's how bad it was.
But it turned out to be…a great business, number one; and it turned out to be a great, great success as a hotel. And…uh…it was built, and Hyatt was my partner, and we…uh…we…uh…did a good job, and…uh…it was from…from the time it opened, it was amazing. Because from the day it opened, the market changed!
And that's happened with a number of jobs. That happened with me with 40, Wall Street. I bought a building, the…tallest building in downtown Manhattan, [I] bought it during the depression, literally the depression, of the… early 90s. And, [I] paid very little for it. Again, nobody wanted it. And then, when I opened, it was like…the world had changed. And it became a tremendously successful…building, which I still have.
So, a lot of things happened. But with this one in particular, because when I did it, it was…people just didn't want it. Especially my father. And my father was…the man that taught me the most. And…he…loaned me a small amount of money and I built it into a great, great company. And, it was…you know, just something I love. But he was so against me coming into Manhattan! And then, uh…this became so successful. And he said, “wow!”. [I] paid him back the money. [I] did other things. We did the Convention Center, The Jacob Javits Convention Center. I got…uh…the state and the city to build, and today…to this day…–THE CROWD CHEERS AND APPLAUDS–…they were gonna build that one in the water and they had all sorts of environment approvals…; [do] you see? Even then…they had environmental improvals. And...they had the Pierhead bulkhead problem. They had tremendous problems, and they were in the wrong location.
I went to…governor Carey who…was a Democrat but I wanna tell you, he was a great, great problem solver. And, they were spending…so much money on…and wasting it, they couldn't get any approval. And I went to the governor. We had a man…I won't mention his name, but he's very well-known. And he was totally against what I was…doing, and he just wanted to build it in this one location which was a bad…you had to go through a Hell's Kitchen, and you had to go under the West Side highway…; you had to build ramps over the highway…you had no access; and on top of that, it was being built in the Hudson River and you couldn't get any approvals. Other than that, it was a wonderful sight…-THE CROWD LAUGHS.
And this guy…I won't mention his name, his name was Richard Ravitch was totally…-THE CROWD LAUGHS VIVIDLY–…New Yorkers know that name. He was so intent on building it! And I was arguing with him, and fighting. And I said. “look, I have the…an option to the West Side Railroad Yards, and…I had it for this purpose! I did it with the Penn Central Company which was in bankruptcy, and I said, “look, this, you don't have to go…it's on the proper side of the West Side Highway. The site is big, the site is great”.
We went up to Governor Carey, and governor Carey appointed Ravitch to head up this…commission to build the Convention Center! And they…were…just about starting! And I sat down…I'll never forget it. I sat down with…Governor Hugh Carey, and his staff. And he said, “Ravitch, you make the case…for your site”. And he made a case for…20 minutes. And every time he talked, it was just wrong, wrong, wrong.
He said, “Donald, would you make the case?”. I made the case, it took me five minutes…–THE CROWD LAUHGS TIMIDLY. At the end of five minutes he said, “it’s not even close”. [He] Totally changed gears, [I] built it. [I] got the approvals quickly. [I] got it built. It was called the Jacob Javits Convention Center and to this day it does…right. So, we're happy about it…–THE CROWD CHEERS AND APPLAUDS.
And then, I built…you know, many other buildings all over the city. I mean, I’m…I'm just…uh...listing some of them, and…because this one really was where I started! This was my first! This is my first, The Grand Hyatt Hotel.
And then little things! Like the Wolman Rink. [For] Seven years, the city couldn't fix an ice skating rinks. It’s probably…–THE CROWD CHEERS AND APPLAUDS–…I think I became more famous because of the Wolman Rink.
They had…for seven years, they couldn't build an ice skating rink. For seven years. And I had my daughter Ivanka. She was very…did anybody hear of Ivanka? …anybody? But she was a…very young girl. She kept saying, “daddy, daddy, can't we go ice skating?”. And year after year I said, “you can't! They're building the rink!”.
And finally, I went down. I looked. And I saw 400…men. In those case, it was all men, I have to say. Today you have men and women, as your construction people, which is great! But it was all men. They had 400 men…sitting in the rink, not working! And I came back a half hour later, they still weren’t working. They were taking lunch breaks many, many times a day. They’d…nobody was working…–THE CROWD LAUGHS.
And they went out and they got…from Miami Beach, a…expert on ice! …–THE CROWD MUTTERS. But they meant refrigerators, not…to make ice! …–THE CROWD LAUGHS. And I'll never forget! It’s sort of an interesting story. I hope it's interesting, but…I gotta tell it anyway! Cause who the hell wants to talk about politics all the time, right!? …–THE CROWD LAUGHS. This politics…[it] gets a little boring! …–THE CROWD CHEERS AND APPLAUDS
But…what happened is…I went to the mayor [and] I said, “listen Mr. mayor…”, Ed Koch. I said, “it's seven years now. It's gonna be eight, nine, ten…”. They have no idea. They use a thing called Freon, and that's a gass that goes through copper piping. Copper tubing. They had six miles of copper…it had a four inches apart, and it was laid…[on] this massive rank it's…almost 90,000 square feet. That's like big, big; office floors times…three. Big spots. [It’s] Still there. You see. And I run it. I've run it for many, many years. It's been such a semen…tremendous place.
But, they had the Freon and it was…laid four inches, miles of it! And every time they put this beautiful copper down, every single time, the next night people would steal it…–THE CROWD LAUGHS. So, they kept putting it down, kept getting stolen. Putting it down, kept getting stolen.
Then they put the police force around and it was fine, until the police force decided to go to lunch, and] it was all stolen…–THE CROWD LAUGHS TIMIDLY. So, they were losing millions of dollars! They were actually in for 22…million dollars and they had nothing! And I went to see Ed Koch. And…he said, “I'm not gonna let you do it”.
And then I went to see some of the newspapers. I went to the editorial boards! I said, “the mayor won't let us do it! I can fix this thing. I'll do it in…six months to a year. And you're gonna be years, and years. And they don't know what they're doing and they're spending a fortune”.
And I'll never forget. I went to two editorial boards: [The] New York Times and the other one I won't say…because I don't like the paper, but I do like the New York Post…–THE CROWD LAUGHS. I do like the New York Post…–THE CROWD LAUGHS. [MGF1] And they did…editorials that “you have to let him do it! You have to let him do it”.
Anyway, they let me do it. I took over the project, and a lot of people said, “well, it was…built”. It wasn't built. It was…the…the concrete was poured. It was 9 inches higher on one side than the other side. So, when you poured the water, you had a big swimming pool here and this one that no…nothing…it was just a mess. And the one was so deep, [that] you couldn't freeze it, because it was too much!
So I had to rip out the entire slab, and the slab was a foot and a half thick! It only had it be four inches. So we ripped it. And we did. And…I finished it in four months. And I said, “if it cost any more than two million dollars…”…­–THE CROWD CHEERS AND APPLAUDS. It’s true! Because, it's a great government! You know, they study this at the Wharton School; they study it at Harvard, because it's…the difference maybe between the public sector in the private sector.
I went in, big…it's really been…to this day, it's a great case study! ­–THE CROWD APPLAUDS TIMIDLY. I went in, and we did a job like you wouldn't…believe. We took out that horrible, big massive slab of concrete, we leveled it out…; but most importantly I said to the people, “what's with this Freon? I hear they're losing millions of dollars of copper tubing all the time. What is it?”. And I said, “who are the people?”.
And they said, “well, it's a…an air-conditioning firm from Miami”.
I said, “from Miami!? What do we…? I don't want…ice from Miami!”. So, I called up a friend of mine who is a part owner of the Montreal Canadiens. Now we're talking, right? Ice! ­–THE CROWD LAUGHS. I said, “would you do me a favor? Do you have anybody that knows how to make ice…for an ice skating rink!?”.
He said, “I have the greatest guy in the world!”.
I said, “could I talk to him, please?”.
And he came to New York and he saw me, [and] he said, “this is crazy!”. He said, “Mr. Trump, they're gonna have five miles of this piping…if there's a little pin hole…”, because it's gas, Freon gas; “…if there's a little pinhole, in five miles, it's…it's dead!”. He said, “you don't want that. You want rubber hose, and you want water, and in the water you put salt so it doesn't…freeze!”.
I said, “boy, that sounds good!” ­–THE LAUGHS. And I went out, and we bought it for just a tiny amount of money. And it was rubber hose every four inches, but it's rubber hose. We got the equipment. It's called brine. They call it brine. And…we did the rubber hose nobody stole the rubber hose…nobody stole the rubber hose! ­–THE CROWD LAUGHS. Nobody wanted it! We didn't even…we didn't need security! Nobody saw the rubber hose.
And we…opened it up, and we…it was the most amazing thing. We put the rubber hose down, we tested it, there wasn't a leak in the whole thing! 6.2 miles of rubber hose, can you believe it? That's a lot! That's om…; [there] wasn’t a leak!
Now what happened is…we put the concrete over. We had concrete up tracks lined up…to Harlem. Now, my…all of my construction friends in that corner…in fact, they all have the worst seats. I don't know why! ­–THE CROWD LAUGHS TIMIDL. Construction guys usually have the best seats. But, they understand what I'm talking about. Because we wanted a contiguous port. Because the city used to pour ten feet, come back a week later for another 10 feet. And yet, all these blocks got…; you want a contiguous port. We had…all the way back to Harlem we had…trucks, and the most amazing thing. And they poured…! It took two days to pour the slab. We actually made it six inches, because that's better. And we turned on, and we put two inches of water on top of this slab, and they made lasers! It was such a perfect slab. To this day it's perfect.
They then put the water on top. I said, “try it!”. Cause this they hadn't had ice in nine years! I should try it! And in…two hours, we had the most…beautiful…ice, just like the Montreal Canadiens. And we had our way. And we had our way­–THE CROWD CHEERS AND APPLAUDS

 
So…so, I've had a lot of fun with New York, and we did another job recently in the Bronx, where it was the same thing; where they had­–THE CROWD CHEERS–…you know, Ferry Point. There they are! You know what I'm talking about.
Ferry point was under construction for 26 years. I mean, people said, “give me a break!”. 26! The only reason I don't say 32 is because I can't be proven. 26 years. It ended up costing hundreds of millions of dollars. Nobody knows what the price is. And…Michael Bloomberg said, “could you do me a favor? Could you look at this? It's a disaster. It's been under construction for so many years…”, and he was embarrassed. And…it's a very big golf project, designed by Jack Nicklaus. And, you know, many, many iterations. But I got it built in one year. And it's open today, and greatly successful. So­–THE CROWD CHEERS AND APPLAUDS–…so…and by way, and for peanuts! When I say open…am I right!? That's the woman right there! She's probably on different…; am I right!? …–THE WOMAN YELLS ‘YOU’RE RIGHT!’. Thank you, darling! I appreciate it. Very nice. I don’t know who the hell she is! I know she’s not a protester if she’s on my side! ­–THE CROWD LAUGHS.
And she’s certainly not a pay…I’ll tell you what! You take a look outside! These are paid protesters folks! They've got the most beautiful signs made from a factory! They're all printed out! They handed! They said, “if you want any information”…on the sign, “please call this number”. What kind of crap!? We want…if they're real protesters, we want those signs made in the basement! Anyway!
So, then we've done many job since then. And it's just a great city. It's a vibrant city. An amazing city. We have to be careful! Our mayor has to be careful! Because he can blow it very quickly if he keeps going the way he's going! [He’s] Not doing good! We’d better be careful, Mr. mayor!
But…we have…a city…that outlasts the mayors. It outlasts everybody's. It’s gonna outlast us. It's one of the great, great cities of the world, and it's called New York City­–THE CROWD CHEERS AND APPLAUDS. All right!?
And I think while I am at it…and, you now, I’m so proud of so many of the jobs…especially, I think, my job on the West Side of Manhattan, which is…almost 6,000 units. [It] Goes from 72nd street to 50 mile…59th street. A tremendous success. And…just so many…great, great experiences from New York.
And we can do the same thing with our country! We can…bring these jobs in, under budget instead of 20 times budget! ­–THE CROWD CHEERS AND APPLAUDS.
You know, we need infrastructure. We need…uh…more military, our military's being decimated. We've gotta take care of our vets. We've gotta do so many things! But we can do it. [It’s the] Same thing…! Large scale version: ice skating rinks, and Ferry Point, and all…it’s all the same thing!  
We're doing the hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue. The GSA who I…total professionals, by the way. [IT] Was…the…was…I think, the most competitively bid job in the history of the GSA. Everybody wanted it! Pennsylvania…the Old Post Office. And…we got it! Ivanka was working on it. We got it cause our concept was great, and our financial statement is great, cause they wanted to make sure it got built! And it's now under budget, ahead of schedule. It's gonna open in September. Uh…more than a year, substantially more than a year ahead of schedule. And we'll have it open in September of this year, as opposed to…almost two years from then! And it's gonna be great! It'll be open…–THE CROWD CHEERS AND APPLAUDS–…it will be opening for our fantastic prayer, you'll all join me! You guys can stay in the hotel! I'll be in the White House! And you'll stay in the hotel! Okay!? …–THE CROWD CHEERS AND APPLAUDS.
One of the reporters recently asked me, they said, “Mr. Trump, let me ask you if you win the presidency, Sir, will you be staying in your beautiful new hotel or the White House?”.
I said, “I'll take the White House”…–THE CROWD LAUGHS.
I wanna just talk…just for a second, about New York…values! …-THE CROWD CHEERS AND APPLAUDS. Because it's become a big, big subject. And I wrote a…I wrote a few things down. But…it's just one of those things. I said…you know, I talk…tonight about New York values, that we all…many of us, that we all…know so well.
The values that make us love this state, which has been a symbol of American strength throughout the world! No matter where you go, they love New York. You know, you can be from lots of other places, and if you wanna see somebody, you just say, “when are you coming to New York?”. They always come!  Everybody comes to New York eventually. There's nothing like it.
So, when we talk about values, what do we see in New York values!? We see our really, really incredible…when you look at September 11th, especially. New York police, and New York firefighters. Incredible…–THE CROWD CHEERS AND APPLAUDS. We see our…unbelievable! And they keep those trains going, and those buses, and…everything else. But we see our transit workers, and what they went through, on September 11th was incredible! We see families playing in Central Park! Thousands and thousands of families, with their children. Some without children! Some together. Some not together. But we see people in Central Park, and people playing in Central Park. We see restaurant workers. All over the city! In delis, and factory workers, in upstate New York! Unfortunately, I've spent a lot of time in upstate New York. And those factory workers are rapidly, rapidly leaving our state! And we can't let that happen! And we have a whole fabric of our community!
So, what are New York values? Because…you know, people are disputing…I'm not disputing! And the New Yorkers aren't disputing. And most people…that know New York and have watched what we've done…! When you look at what happened with September 11th; the job that this city has done, and the people of the city has…have done is…beyond what anyone's…ever seen. And…you say, what are they your values?
Number one: honesty and straight up talking[MGF2] . Honesty…–THE CROWD CHEERS AND APPLAUDS–…you’d better believe it…–THE CROWD CHEERS AND APPLAUDS. It's a work ethic! Hard-working people! It's about family! New York, believe it, is about family! [It’s] So important! It's the energy…to get things done! Big energy! If Jeb Bush came here, I'm telling you, he'd have much more energy that he has right now. [I’m] Telling [you]! …–THE CROWD LAUGHS AND CHEERS. He should move to New York, right!?[MGF3] 
We're builders! We make things happen! It’s so important! We make things happen. And it’s courage and community service, because there’s tremendous…community service. New York values were display for all the sea in the aftermath of 9/11, a strike at the heart of our city, and our nation. In our darkest moments, as a city, we show the world…the very, very best…in terms of bravery, and heart, and soul that we have in America…–THE CROWD CHEERS AND APPLAUDS.
The firefighters and first responders, and the Police officers and the Port Authority workers, who ran up those stairs…those are New York values and those are New Yorker values! …–SOMEBODY IN THE CROWD YELLS SOMETHING INAUDIBLE. I'm not sure if she serious or what…–THE CROWD LAUGHS.
For the Michael Judge Chaplain to the New York City Fire Department, who you know died and an amazing guy who I knew a little bit, who a lot of people do very well, who Rudy Giuliani really knew very well, but you look at…father Judge, and I'll tell you what: that was some guy. And he ran up there to pray, and he knew what was going to happen and he died! And he died praying, and taking care of people, and…he was an amazing guy.
The people in the towers who helped rescue each other, those are those of New York values! The restaurants and local businesses, who kept their shops open…to help everybody during this incredible…time. Those of New Yorkers values! Everyone who helped…clear the rubble, and the rescue the injured, those are New York values! Every…small…act of kindness. Every…great…act of courage, of which there were so many. There’s never been anything like this. This was the greatest attack, and the worst and most horrific attack in the history of our country. Far greater than Pearl Harbor, because…the attack was on civilians. It wasn't on the military. It was on civilians. But those are New York values.
And these are the values that we need to make America great again! We need…these values! To bring America together again, and to heal Americans wounds again. So, I just wanna tell you that I am so proud to…be with you tonight. I am so proud to be discussing…all sorts of topics, but most importantly New…York…values.
Because no matter where you go, anywhere in the world, they talk in the most positive…tones about what all of us have done. So, ladies and gentlemen have a great dinner. We're gonna have an amazing election coming up. We're having some…really great primaries. It's been a lot of fun for me! You know, it wasn’t to be supposed to be this way for me! A lot of people said, “well, what do you know!?”. I've been dealing with politicians all my life, so I think I know something. But it's been…a…a great, great experience.
I’m…right now millions of votes ahead of…my…closest rival. Million of votes! You know, people don't talk about votes anymore! They talk [about] delegates! And by the way, I happen to be hundreds of delegates ahead too! But I’m…you know, to me, [it’s] so important! I’m millions of votes ahead of my next nearest rival. And we have…–SOMEBODY IN THE CROWD YELLS SOMETHING INAUDIBLE–…thank you. Thank you, darling. And we have…millions of votes! We have 22 states. 22 states! And it started, by the way, with New Hampshire. We went down to South Carolina…states that I wasn't supposed to win! And I ended up winning…in a landslide.
Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky…the south! I may move to the south of New Yorkers and treat as well, because I'll tell you, the South has been so…great to me! And then we went to Florida, where…you know, that's my…second home! This is my first home. It's my second home. And we did so unbelievably! [I/We] Won in a landslide, by 20 points! And it was an absolute landslide. And now, we have…something happening that's gonna be very exciting.
The next four or five weeks are gonna be very excited. And we start…–SOMEBODY IN THE CROWD YELLS ‘BRING IT HOME, DONALD!’–…we'll bring it home. Thank you! Thank you, man! …–THE CROWD CHEERS AND APPLAUDS. And we start…on Tuesday! So big…! And you know, the interesting thing is…with all the primers that we've been through, years and years and years of primary…it’s sort of either over, or not very important by the time they get to New York, right? New York is so important. It's so important. Like New York should be so important!
And I see what's happening, and I see the polls coming in, and I'm so honored, because the people that know me best…are the people from your New York! They’re the ones that really know me. So, when I’m up 42 points…–THE CROWD APPLAUDS TIMIDLY–…I said “ 42 points, that's a lot!”. But, when I'm up 42 and 44 points in the newest polls, that's such an honor, because those are the people that know me best.
So, I think we're gonna have a really exciting next four or five weeks. I think we're gonna have a great time in Cleveland, hopefully not too good a time, because by that time…it should be solved, by the time we get there, okay? …–THE CROWD CHEERS AND APPLAUDS.
And…enjoy the hotel! Enjoy this great, great city, and it’s an honor…to be with you tonight. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
