Transcript - CNN: Piers Morgan Interviews Donald Trump on Piers Morgan Tonight - September 13, 2013 | Factba.se

Piers Morgan

00:00:00 - 00:00:34 (34 sec)

This is Piers Morgan LIVE. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. Tonight, who's got the upper hand, Vladimir Putin or President Obama? I'll ask New York Times columnist Nick Kristof, and the co-hosts of Crossfire

Ricky Gervais

00:00:34 - 00:00:42 (8 sec)

It's a difficult one, but, the short answer is, because they can't see what they're shooting. [End Clip]

Piers Morgan

00:00:42 - 00:00:44 (2 sec)

And his message for America.

Ricky Gervais

00:00:44 - 00:00:55 (11 sec)

Dear America, please let Piers buy a Kinder Egg but don't let him buy a gun. [End Clip]

Piers Morgan

00:00:55 - 00:01:15 (20 sec)

And we're beginning now with our Big Story. President Obama and Vladimir Putin locked in a tug of war over Syria. Senior administration officials said they don't believe Russia would agree to any UN resolution that it includes authorization of possible military force against Syria. President Obama recalls what's to keep that option of military strikes on the table. Today, he said this.

Barack Obama

00:01:15 - 00:01:30 (15 sec)

Ultimately, what's needed for the underlined conflict is a political settlement that allows ordinary Syrians to get back to their homes to rebuild and to relieve the enormous suffering that's taking place. [End Clip]

Piers Morgan

00:01:30 - 00:01:44 (14 sec)

New York Times' Nicholas Kristof is here. I want to get his view on this. But we'll begin with Donald Trump . His thought about Vladimir Putin and President Obama, he says, This country's never look so weak. And Donald Trump joins me now on the phone.

Barack Obama

00:01:44 - 00:01:48 (4 sec)

Donald, you're angry about this. Tell me why?

Donald Trump

00:01:48 - 00:02:04 (16 sec)

No, I'm not angry. I'm disappointed. We have a president that's not looking very good. He is being outplayed by, you know, Putin to an extent that nobody has ever seen and it's making us look very bad as a country and certainly he's looking very bad.

Piers Morgan

00:02:04 - 00:02:19 (15 sec)

In terms of the leadership element here, because it's a scenario which you're an expert. What is he doing wrong? Because it seems to me that he's being zigzagging all over the place and not really sticking to a firm game plan and that -- that's never strong leadership.

Donald Trump

00:02:19 - 00:02:57 (38 sec)

Well, it all began when we he used the term red line, he's going to draw a line in the sand essentially and don't cross. That they crossed but he didn't do anything and then it became very late, and he decides to go back to Congress, and Congress is having fits over it, and it looks like he wasn't going to even come close to getting to vote and he started looking very, very ineffective. And then, of course the letter or the editorial that Putin wrote at the New York Times was amazing. It was just amazing. He said so much. And he said it in a very nice way but it wasn't really nice at all, it was tough, about as tough as you're going to get. And Obama is having a very, very hard time competing.

Piers Morgan

00:02:57 - 00:03:12 (15 sec)

I mean, you know, well I read that Putin thing, it had a kind of Trump feel to it. It was a brilliant stunt. It created huge noise and maximum damage to his rivals while he's actually appearing to be smiling and charming.

Donald Trump

00:03:12 - 00:03:30 (18 sec)

Well, the letter was very well crafted because, I'm a great believer in crafting things, and this was about as well crafted as you can imagine. Now, I don't know that he wrote it. But certainly, it was his thoughts and covered so much territory, and as an example, American exceptionalism.

Donald Trump

00:03:30 - 00:04:15 (45 sec)

Obama likes to use that term, some others like to use that term. And you know, you think of the term is being find but all of a sudden you say, Well But then he talked about why are we exceptional, why would we be -- we've just went through a disaster in Iraq where we spent $1.5 trillion where we lost thousands of our people's lives and lots of other lives by the way, and what if we get nothing. In fact, it's going to be taken over by Iran or of course a lot of things can happen in the mean time.

Donald Trump

00:04:15 - 00:04:49 (34 sec)

But, as it is right now, Iran is already controlling it. They're flying over it to go to Syria. They've been given permission to fly, not that they needed the permission because Iraq has basically been wiped out. So, you know, it's been -- it's a very sad thing. But the letter was amazing and that it covered so much territory. Covered it with respect and with a smile and it was about as tough as you could do. What would you do Donald with Syria? And indeed with the wider issue of America's place on the world stage and in the Middle East in particular?

Donald Trump

00:04:49 - 00:05:03 (14 sec)

Well, first of all, you know, the old days, we had generals like Patton and Robert E. Lee and we had some great ones, General Douglas MacArthur, Grant. They must be just spinning in their graves when they see what happened because you know, if you're going to fight, you fight.

Donald Trump

00:05:03 - 00:05:13 (10 sec)

And if you're going to do something, you do. The elements of surprise has turned out to be one of the great jokes of all time. Here we are having our generals talking about exactly what they're going to be doing.

Donald Trump

00:05:13 - 00:05:21 (8 sec)

Where we're going to be hitting them? When we're going to be hitting? It's not going to be a hard hit. It's going to be very soft hit. We don't want to change the regime.

Donald Trump

00:05:21 - 00:05:36 (15 sec)

It's the most incredible thing I've ever witnessed as opposed to just either doing it or nothing. You know, I don't think it should be done any way. I think that this country, our country has tremendous problems that we have to solve and we cannot be the policeman of the world.

Donald Trump

00:05:36 - 00:05:51 (15 sec)

These are not people that like us in anyway shape or form. And you have others out there. Not that we're backing away from Russia and China and others, but we have problems in this country that we have to solve before we start helping people that hate us.

Donald Trump

00:05:51 - 00:06:09 (18 sec)

We have no idea who the rebels are, absolutely no idea. If we think they're probably perhaps is bad as Assad, maybe worse. And so, we should be attending really attending to our own business as straightening out the United States.

Piers Morgan

00:06:09 - 00:06:25 (16 sec)

And final point. A complete segue here for one red line to another, but a red line was crossed. In the world of beauty pageants, and Miss America, we had Theresa Vail who has, sports a very large tattoo. Would you ever allow such a thing in your pageants Donald Trump ?

Donald Trump

00:06:25 - 00:06:33 (8 sec)

Well, we allow them but we don't encourage it. I am not a fan of tattoos. I've seen many people get the tattoos and I don't know what's going on nowadays, but just -- everybody's getting tattoos.

Donald Trump

00:06:33 - 00:06:41 (8 sec)

Many of them regret it later on. Many of them are, you know, done by people that aren't even artists. They have no talent.

Donald Trump

00:06:41 - 00:07:07 (26 sec)

They have less talent than I would have in putting on a tattoo. And I see these people with TicTac billboards on their arms, and legs, and I don't understand what's going on with the tattoos. I would certainly not want it. I would not want anybody that I'm close to, to have it. If it's done it's done, but it's a pretty tough thing and it's an amazing trend. I look at some of the NBA players and I say, What the hell are they doing to themselves?

Piers Morgan

00:07:07 - 00:07:11 (4 sec)

Donald Trump , it's always good to talk to you. Thank you so much for joining us.

Donald Trump

00:07:11 - 00:07:14 (3 sec)

Thank you very much Piers.