Transcript - Speech: Donald Trump Delivers a Commencement Address at Lehigh University - June 5, 1988 | Factba.se

Donald Trump

00:00:00 - 00:00:24 (25 sec)

Thank you very, very much. You know next year we're going to design a little revolving platform here. You, folks, please, I'm not being rude, believe me. It's nice to have you all here and I really appreciate it. This is a tremendous honor for me, I guess in a lot of ways and my wife is sitting right over here, she just became an American citizen.

Donald Trump

00:00:24 - 00:00:57 (32 sec)

And that's Ivana. [Applause] So I'm looking at -- this is really a doubleheader. There are so many wonderful people, so many wonderful friends at Lehigh. My brother, my wonderful brother Fred, graduated from Lehigh in 1962 and no better man was there, anywhere, at any time. Fabulous guy. And I see here Ray Kravis, the legendary Ray Kravis, he's here someplace, I don't know.

Donald Trump

00:00:57 - 00:01:17 (20 sec)

He's such a modest guy. He'll sit up in that audience by himself with his $2 billion or $3 billion and he'll just not talk to anybody. But he's here, he's here, and so many other. Murray Goodman, my competitor in Palm Beach, but I gave up. So I decided to do residential. He did so well with commercial, I just said I'm going to do residential.

Donald Trump

00:01:17 - 00:01:55 (38 sec)

And Murray is going to do commercial and now we live beautifully together. He's a fabulous guy and getting a degree today, an honorary degree. I used to stopped to like him when I first came, I said, "Doctor, Lee Iacocca called and said, "Would you make the speech?" And I really immediately thought to my brother Fred and I said yes, the answer is absolutely yes." And then I called Peter Likins, who I think is really doing a great job at the school because I've seen so many things at this school in six year [Applause] and I said, "Peter, what did some of your other people say?

Donald Trump

00:01:55 - 00:02:12 (18 sec)

What did they do? Could you send me the speeches?" And he said, "Yes, absolutely." And I read Bill Cosby's speech and Bill talked about graduates and parents and the importance of parents. And boy, I'll tell you what, in all fairness to all of us, without the parents you wouldn't be here and I wouldn't be here.

Donald Trump

00:02:12 - 00:02:47 (35 sec)

The parents really need congratulations more than anybody, perhaps in this room today. [Applause] And we went to John Irving and Malcolm Forbes, who talked about the communication and high technology, and it sort of shows because Malcolm Forbes was a friend of mine and he spoke in 1984 and Malcolm really discussed what's happening with communication and what's really happening to steel etc.. Well, I'll tell you what, steel now is coming back.

Donald Trump

00:02:47 - 00:03:09 (21 sec)

This town is maybe a little bit an example of it. We were discussing before what's happened. And it hasn't been all for Bethlehem Steel, but steel is making a major comeback and I think that has a lot to do with the fact that the Americans are getting up their backbone and they're fighting Japan, and they're fighting these other so-called friends, our so-called allies, who really aren't allies at all, as far as I'm concerned.

Donald Trump

00:03:09 - 00:03:39 (31 sec)

And we're starting to fight back and I think if we do have to see that Bethlehem Steel's of this world really made comebacks. And then we went to my good friend, Lee Iacocca, and I said, "Look, I want to read Lee's speech. I have to see it." You know he speaks with a great passion. I said, "Let me hear it and let me see it. So I both listened and I read and really, what he told the graduates -- this is not perhaps the greatest thing to start out with but he said, "Get mad.

Donald Trump

00:03:39 - 00:03:58 (18 sec)

Get mad, get angry and go out there and fight" Now, you know, Lee, that's probably pretty much what -- I didn't have to read a speech to see that. But he feels that way. And there was a wonderful speech and I thought I'd speak about really about something else. Before I do, I'd be -- before I really start, that's something else.

Donald Trump

00:03:58 - 00:04:19 (22 sec)

What I really want to discuss is a day that I spent at Lehigh, many years ago. It was probably 1962 or so, in fact my brother was here, and I was on the wrestling team of my school and I mentioned this at the table today. I wrestled. I wrestle for two days and I was in a major tournament and it was a disaster.

Donald Trump

00:04:19 - 00:04:46 (27 sec)

I weighed 175 pounds and I came to Lehigh and this was and is the Mecca of wrestling on the East Coast, as I think most folks know. Now, with two days experience, believe me, I was in big trouble and at 175 we had somebody else out there who is probably better than me, so they said, "Donald, why don't you wrestle heavyweight." And I didn't know any -- but hey, we're two days, what's the difference?

Donald Trump

00:04:46 - 00:05:05 (19 sec)

You already wrestle heavyweight, what difference does it make? If you have seen the guy that I had to wrestle, and this -- he looked like Mike Tyson except much bigger. And the results weren't great. I think he outweighed me by almost 100 lbs., and I said he had technique, he had weight, he had strength, he had every ingredient you could possibly have.

Donald Trump

00:05:05 - 00:05:23 (18 sec)

But that was my first experience with Lehigh, so I have to say that one wasn't a pleasant one. My next experience, which was a very pleasant one, was when Fred graduated, and that was a great one. And now I'm here today and this is just such an honor to hear that I was voted. You never really told me. Was I voted No. 1 or not?

Donald Trump

00:05:23 - 00:05:47 (23 sec)

Because if I wasn't voted No. 1 what the hell am I doing here? Was I? I was the first one to ask. I don't know. It's great diplomat, this man. What I thought I'd discuss today, we know all about parents, and we love our parents, and we know -- and it's pretty obvious what they've done for us and I could stand up here and talk for 20 minutes about how important they are.

Donald Trump

00:05:47 - 00:06:24 (38 sec)

But I think we all know that. I really wanted to talk a little bit about the negative and that's the obstacles, the obstacles in your way, in my way. But the obstacles. And you are going in and you're really one of the earliest group to go into a class, into a class of this world and get out there and find a new obstacle, one which is just come on board and one which is probably going to be by the time it finishes, one of the great disasters in that [Inaudible] and hopefully, somebody, maybe in this room, is going to find a solution to this horrible, horrible curse because it really is going to be an obstacle.

Donald Trump

00:06:24 - 00:06:47 (22 sec)

You have the obstacles of drug abuse, you have the obstacles of alcohol. You have so many others, but that AIDS now is getting -- I was, this morning, listening to the news and I'm hearing statistics which are just frightening, just absolutely frightening. And I say it and it's so negative and I believe very strongly in both the power of positive thinking and the power of negative thinking.

Donald Trump

00:06:47 - 00:07:04 (18 sec)

Without negative thinking you're going to get yourselves in trouble. You always want to be optimistic. You always want to be positive. So many articles are written about me and they say, "Donald Trump believes in the power of positive thinking." The real fact is I love positive thinking, but it can only get you in trouble to a large extent.

Donald Trump

00:07:04 - 00:07:37 (33 sec)

You've got to be aware of the downside, you've got to think negative. And when you think negative, you have to think in terms of drugs because they're out there and you have to think in terms of alcohol and what it can do to people. I left college, I graduated from Wharton, The Wharton School of Finance in 1968. And I left my class and they were in great shape and I can tell you that 50% of that class, and that was a pretty straight school, as a lot of you folks know, 50% of that class was just decimated by drugs or alcohol.

Donald Trump

00:07:37 - 00:08:04 (27 sec)

And now, you people, really, and I can also put all of us, I guess, in that same category. Now we have the additional obstacle of AIDS. And really, what I want to say is be very careful, be as careful as you can be because boy, I'll tell you what, it's out there and you don't think it. You know, when I graduated from from college we had, as our commencement speaker, William Perry at CBS, and he was in his prime and he gave a wonderful speech.

Donald Trump

00:08:04 - 00:08:29 (24 sec)

I will tell you though, there was somebody else that gave a speech, it was a disaster, it was a long boring and I wanted to get home, and everybody else in the room wanted to get home. But he gave her a wonderful speech and he also, for whatever reason, talked about the negative, because you have to know, really, the negative, and you have to go out and as Lee Iacocca said, you really have to get angry and you have to go forward and you have to push and push hard.

Donald Trump

00:08:29 - 00:08:54 (26 sec)

But you have to know the negative and you don't want to push into that negative and you want to stay away from those obstacles. On a countrywide basis, I think we've got some very, very serious problems. The other night Ivana and I had dinner with Abe Rosenthal, who headed and did such an incredible job at the New York Times, and Gay Talese, the writer, and they used a -- an expression, which I thought was fantastic.

Donald Trump

00:08:54 - 00:09:25 (31 sec)

It was the feeling of supremacy that this country had in the 1950's, it was a feeling of supremacy, it really was. And I had -- I didn't know it well, I was very young at that point and I didn't know the feeling of supremacy. I've known that since the Vietnam War and even a little bit before this country hasn't had the feeling of supremacy, and what's happening is Japan and Saudi Arabia and Kuwait and so many countries are just ripping off America left and right and down the middle, like nobody.

Donald Trump

00:09:25 - 00:09:59 (34 sec)

I mean, not our enemies, forget about our enemies. Russia, we don't deal with them that much etc. etc. These countries, our friends, are making billions and billions of dollars and stripping us of our dignity our economic dignity. We're a debtor nation, we're a poor nation. I came into my office about a month ago and a friend of mine, who's a real estate broker and a very successful one in New York, I really owe him, sort of a favor, he did me a big favor, and he said, "Donald, there is a man that wants to meet you from Japan". And I have tremendous respect for the Japanese.

Donald Trump

00:09:59 - 00:10:18 (19 sec)

Hey, they're knocking the hell out of us. That doesn't mean we don't have to respect them. It doesn't mean we have to fight back. So this man comes in, I didn't want to see him. He's one of the wealthiest men in Japan. And he walked in with an entourage of like 14 or 15 people, each one holding his seat, holding his hat, holding his chair, lighting a cigarette.

Donald Trump

00:10:18 - 00:10:42 (23 sec)

And I said, "What's going on?" And he sat in the seat without a hello, without anything. He shouted, "We want real estate. We want real estate now" I said, "Look, easy. Just relax. I don't want to sell." I'm doing -- I look at my friend to say, how the hell did you get me into this, and even he was sort of startled.

Donald Trump

00:10:42 - 00:11:02 (20 sec)

The level of intensity on this man was incredible. I deal with the biggest killers in the world, the worst, the worst killers, the worst people but I deal with some good ones. But when you do with the New York real estate market and you have to -- I'd love to mention names to a big, big press, but when you have to deal with the guys that I have to deal with, you're dealing with some rough people.

Donald Trump

00:11:02 - 00:11:28 (26 sec)

Let me tell you, this man, who, again, one of the wealthiest in Japan, he made them look like babies. And I'm sitting there and the first thing that came to my mind is what happens to our country when this guy and his guys around him walk into our state department to negotiate deals. No wonder we're getting the hell knocked out of us. How are our people equipped to handle this kind of intensity, this kind of anger?

Donald Trump

00:11:28 - 00:11:50 (21 sec)

And he went on and he just demanded that he wants Manhattan real estate, "We wanted in Manhattan." I'm seating -- I don't have -- It was just an incredible experience. And then as a ram up, which wasn't much, I said, "I have to tell you, your country has done a tremendous job. You've totally outsmarted our very stupid politicians.

Donald Trump

00:11:50 - 00:12:10 (20 sec)

Totally outsmarted them. You do it with a frown, you never act happy. You make hundreds of billions of dollars a year, hundreds of billions and you're always unhappy. "Oh, yes, of course, we're unhappy but we were happy you wouldn't give it to us." I said, "Absolutely." They walk into the offices of our politicians complaining how bad.

Donald Trump

00:12:10 - 00:12:32 (22 sec)

We defend Japan for nothing. And then you have problems with the Bethlehem Steel and so many other companies we defend they subsidize their steel, they subsidize their cars, they send their cars over hundreds and thousands and thousands of cars. Now we can't virtually sell our cars over there because it's virtually impossible and you can ask Mr. Iacocca about that.

Donald Trump

00:12:32 - 00:12:55 (23 sec)

And it's really gotten to a point when I said to them, "Congratulations." He said, "Yes. Twenty years ago our country was down here and you were here. Now we are up here and you are some way here." And I'm sitting there saying, and I have to listen to this. But the fact is, they've totally outsmarted our very first leaders.

Donald Trump

00:12:55 - 00:13:15 (21 sec)

They have economically stripped this country of its dignity, of its pride, and these are the problems that you're going right now in this incredible looking group of students. These are the problems that you're now entering their -- the so-called real world because this hasn't been the real world this has been the sheltered world, this has been a beautiful world.

Donald Trump

00:13:15 - 00:13:46 (30 sec)

I look at these places. This has been a beautiful world. But the real world is something different. And you go to hope and you better vote and you better find the right guy to run. Because I'll tell you what, what I'm seeing now, in terms of the kind of leadership that we may have, come January, these are the people that are going to beat this gentleman that was sitting in my office, and hundreds like it. Intelligent, smart, hatred in his eyes.

Donald Trump

00:13:46 - 00:14:06 (20 sec)

Absolute hatred in our -- in his eyes. And what they've done is they've won the war and now it's coming and I hate to single out Japan. Japan, of course, is the worst offender. But you look at Korea, you look at Saudi Arabia, you look at Kuwait. Kuwait has the highest lifestyle, living style, anywhere on this planet.

Donald Trump

00:14:06 - 00:14:28 (22 sec)

People that have the lowest jobs live better than major citizens of our country. And yet we take ships in, empty, and then bring them out full of oil that they send to Japan. They sell the oil at enormous profits, we get our ships blown out, our men killed and we get nothing. And it's ridiculous what's happening.

Donald Trump

00:14:28 - 00:14:51 (23 sec)

We not only get nothing but when we wanted to land helicopters on their soil they said absolutely not. We want nothing to do with this war. Can you believe this? We take their ships and they break -- Why don't we get 25% of the profits they're making? Why isn't somebody in our government ask, give us 25% of the profits, give us 20% of the profits.

Donald Trump

00:14:51 - 00:15:10 (19 sec)

Give us something. We wouldn't have deficits we lose $200 billion a year, we defend Japan for nothing. It's ridiculous. We want to use minesweepers from Saudi Arabia, the minesweepers, they have the best. We can't afford them. We have garbage sitting out in Newport Virginia. That takes us nine weeks to get over there.

Donald Trump

00:15:10 - 00:15:35 (25 sec)

And when you get them over they don't work anyway. They're obsolete. Saudi Arabia has the best. We say, "Look, we're defending your waters. We're letting you live. Without us you wouldn't even be here. We want to use those minesweepers. We want to use them." They say, "No, we don't want to get involved." So I say, "Who the hell is doing the asking?

Donald Trump

00:15:35 - 00:16:02 (26 sec)

What kind of a clown do we have representatives? Who's doing the asking?" So it's a very sad situation. [Applause] Thank you. I really have to say that this, believe it or not, is a message of hope in terms of you people sitting here and it's a message of hope, and that you can do better in this world by starting off at a lower base.

Donald Trump

00:16:02 - 00:16:26 (24 sec)

And I believe you're starting off a lower base. I think our country is very weak right now. I think our country is not respected and, in fact, I think, it's being laughed at by a lot of the people that we are stupidly calling friends. But what it really says is that you're starting from a lower plateau, not a lot different than in 1975, I started in real estate in New York and the city was a disaster.

Donald Trump

00:16:26 - 00:16:43 (18 sec)

And it was a great time to start. Now it could have gone worse, we could have gotten better. Most people predicted it was going to get a lot worse for a long time. And New York real estate has had a boom like, probably, no other place in this country, maybe on the earth from 1975. But there was good timing, that was luck.

Donald Trump

00:16:43 - 00:17:03 (19 sec)

And we all need luck because no matter how smart we are, and I've seen it, I went to school, some of the smartest people in the world. And I've seen that they got out and they were useless because they didn't understand the street. They didn't understand the life. They knew how to study. They did well with their marks, straight-A averages some of them.

Donald Trump

00:17:03 - 00:17:29 (27 sec)

But they didn't know life. And what's happening is you start off with that lower base and you're all starting even right now. Pretty even. Hey, it's still nice to get good marks. I don't want to knock you, OK, if you get good marks, I think that's great. But you're starting off much more even. And I think, that from his country standpoint, I believe that over the next period of four, five or six years, that this country is going to get smart.

Donald Trump

00:17:29 - 00:17:53 (23 sec)

That this country is going to say, "Pay for your defense. We're not doing it anymore for nothing. Pay us billions and billions for that defense. Pay us for the oil that we're getting out. Pay us for this. Reduce the taxes." You're not even talking about taxes raised, you're talking about tax reductions. All we have to do is be intelligent, take a Murray Goodman and let him negotiate for us, not these people in Washington that don't know what they're doing.

Donald Trump

00:17:53 - 00:18:15 (23 sec)

And I really think -- Where's Murray? Murray will take the job. Will you take the job, Murray? Murray will definitely take the job and I'll tell you what, we will be, we'll be a nice, wealthy country again and it won't take them very long. So, you're starting off with a base that's interesting. You're starting off what I consider a low but there's a lot more improvement.

Donald Trump

00:18:15 - 00:18:34 (19 sec)

If you're starting up here, you're not going to go to here so easily. If you're starting here, you're going to go up. And I think the class -- I'll tell you what, this is -- this is one of the great experiences I've had and I didn't realize that there might be a few people that might be a few students. I walked into this auditorium with 7,000 people and I'm impressed.

Donald Trump

00:18:34 - 00:18:55 (21 sec)

I really am impressed. And I'm impressed by the looks of the class. It's a very handsome group of people. So I just want to say good luck to everybody. I was really honored when I heard, even if I came out No. 2 or 3, which I still hear I came out No. 1. But even if I came out No. 2 or 3, I'm honored. I'm really honored that you chose me to be your speaker.

Donald Trump

00:18:55 - 00:19:13 (18 sec)

And again, Bill Paley did another really great job. Somebody else was a disaster. He kept us in that auditorium all day long, listening to words that nobody listened to. So rather than my long cumbersome speech, I'm now going to let people graduate and go onto the real life and do well and get mad, as Lee would say.

Donald Trump

00:19:13 - 00:19:30 (17 sec)

Have a good time. [Applause]