Hardballer

I had the opportunity last night while flipping through several channels to catch Chris Matthews interviewing Donald Trump. It was quite an eyeopener. First I must admit when first arriving on MSNBC I though it was actually a Saturday Night Live skit. They do a real good job of portraying him on SNL. Anyway, what was really amazing was how disappointed Matthews was with each of Donald Trump's answers. I'm not the biggest fan of Trump, nor do I think Matthews is that stupid. But his line of questioning was hilarious. Here is their exchange that I caught. Click here for the full transcript.:

MATTHEWS: Let‘s talk about the economy. I want to ask you. I‘ve only got a couple minutes left here, Donald. I want to ask you about the three big concerns I have as one of the many Americans worried about the economy. The dollar, are you worried about them letting it go too low in the world market?

TRUMP: Well, the dollar is keeping the economy good in a sense, because people are coming to New York. As an example, they‘re buying apartments in New York. They‘re using the hotels. The dollar—it‘s a horrible word when they say the low dollar, the cheap dollar. It‘s a terrible word to use. But the fact is, it happens to bring a lot of business into this country.

MATTHEWS: But it‘s great to travel in this country. It‘s a terrible situation to travel overseas with, right?

TRUMP: Well, that‘s right, but it keeps people here. So I‘m not sure that is so bad.

MATTHEWS: You are not worried that there will come a time when the people who are lending us money from the Far East, China and Japan, will simply say I don‘t like the value of the dollar anymore; I‘m getting out? And then we‘re in big trouble with a bank run basically on U.S. paper.

TRUMP: I don‘t see it happening. This is one country that it‘s just not going to happen to. Having the dollar where it‘s a reduced value a little bit, it sounds terrible and you hate to say it, but the fact is, it brings business and it is actually good in terms of what we all do.

MATTHEWS: So you expect they will keep this policy?

TRUMP: I think they‘re going to keep the policy. I think the dollar is probably going to inch up a little bit. And that is not so bad. But the worst times we‘ve had is when you had a very strong dollar. Nothing came in at all. (CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: And having a strong dollar, it turned out to be—it sounds good. That one sounds great, but nothing happens good for the country.

MATTHEWS: Well, what about when you compound the situation by a long a big long-term borrowing situation in addition to the couple billion—we‘re borrowing about $600 billion a year now. What happens when you add to that the big money we‘re going to have to borrow to carry Social Security into this new form of individual accounts? That big short-term deficits for the federal budget. Does that take us over the tipping point with regard to the value of the dollar, all that borrowing?

TRUMP: Well, we‘ve had the deficits before, and we‘re going to have them again and we‘re going to have them for a while, and the war is certainly costing a tremendous amount of money, far more than anyone ever thought. The key is as long as interest rates stay low, Chris. If interest rates are low, we‘re going to be fine. If interest rates go up and the dollar goes up, that is a really devastating combination.

MATTHEWS: Well, how do you avoid rising interest rates if you double the borrowing with the new Social Security plan?

TRUMP: Well, it is really amazing, because I‘ve been asking that for the last year or so. And the fact is that rates are still very low. They continue to be low and I‘m very happy about it, because I can tell you, the real estate industry, the entire—so many different industries, if rates go up, they‘re going to collapse and it‘s not going to be good. So, if we can keep the dollar pretty much where it is, even a little bit higher is fine, and interest rates keep low, we‘re going to be in good shape.

MATTHEWS: You‘re not afraid this isn‘t just another bubble situation, where it doesn‘t go wrong until it does go wrong and then it‘s really bad?

TRUMP: Well, Chris, don‘t forget, at some point, it always goes wrong. No matter where, no matter when, it always goes wrong. We‘ve been riding something very good and very strong for a long period of time. At some point, things will happen and they won‘t be pleasant. And you know what? We‘ll get out of them and it will be all right.

MATTHEWS: If you were the president of the United States, would you push individual retirement accounts for Social Security?

TRUMP: I sort of think I would. Something has to be done. Social Security is a huge problem right now, funding it. And something‘s going to have to be done and it‘s going to have to be done very quickly, actually. I think they‘re moving on different methods. But something is going to have to be done rather quickly.

As I was watching this exchange several thoughts came to mind. First had to be: Chris Matthews really wants Trump to say the US is going down the toilet because of Bush. It seemed like every answer Trump gave wasnt' what Mattews wanted. It seemed like he got more and more frustrated with each answer as Trump agreed with the handling of the economy and the new proposed IRAs for social security. I would be willing to bet if Trump had disagreed with the handling of the economy he would have immediately finished the interview by saying, "There you have it. Donald Trump thinks US will be third world country by end of Bush term." No wonder he is at the bottom of the ratings.