Donald Trump has taken a lot of positions that are anti-establishment. Donald likes the idea that he can maybe break through. Putin obviously likes him.
If you read Donald Trump's book "The Art of the Deal," you know that he likes to create leverage, he likes to have psychological advantage, he likes to be on the offense. He believes in what he calls truthful hyperbole.
If [Vladimir] Putin likes Donald Trump, guess what, folks, that`s called an asset, not a liability.
If Putin likes Donald Trump, I consider that an asset, not a liability, because we have a horrible relationship with Russia.
People generally have the idea that Donald Trump is a great communicator. And the press has acknowledged this guy has extraordinary communication skills. I think what doesn't come through is his humility. I know some people might laugh at that comment, and he likes promoting his brand. But at times he can be extremely humble. He likes people and wants to help people.
In Donald Trump, you have somebody who praises Vladimir Putin all the time. America should really wonder about a President Trump, who had a campaign manager with ties to Putin, pro- Putin elements in the Ukraine, who had to be fired for that reason. They should wonder - when Donald Trump is sitting down with Vladimir Putin, is it going to be America's bottom line or is it going to be Donald Trump's bottom line that he's going to be worried about with all of his business dealings?
Nobody could like Donald Trump, surely, except his mother. No one really likes The Donald. But how can you not have respect for a guy who's been down on the floor and just keeps coming back? Nothing will keep Donald Trump down until they drive a wooden stake in his heart and a silver bullet in his brain.
Donald Trump said: I, Donald Trump, yes, I am going to take on the entire establishment. I'm going to take on the political establishment. I am going to take on the economic establishment. I'm going to take on the media establishment. And I think a lot of people responded positively to that message.
One of the reasons people love sports is because it's non-political. And to the degree that Donald Trump puts sports organizations like golf tournaments in difficult positions, they won't want anything to do with him, i think all of this is evidence that Donald Trump is finding it a lot harder to be a candidate than he probably anticipated.
Donald Trump has pulled something off that I have never seen pulled off. And it is, I think, at the root of the frustration that Republican consultants and the Republican establishment and anybody else in the Republican Party has that is anti-Trump, and that is: Donald Trump owns the media.
Vladimir Putin likes Donald Trump because he supports this view of the world, that the big guys can carve it up, sit and talk about the world, carve up the countries, shape borders. For Putin, treaties, alliances, Nato, the EU are stumbling blocks.
What I`m starting to think of as the mythical beast of the Republican establishment, which is the sort of inchoate idea that we keep talking about what they`re going to do and it never seems to have much impact or be manifest in very visible ways, obviously, it is one thing for Donald Trump to have taken a shot like he did early in his campaign at John McCain, calling him not a war hero.
I think where [Donald Trump] loses most hawkish republicans is when he talking about how much he likes [Vladimir] Putin. That should make any person who believe in the American exceptionalism, incredibly uncomfortable.
Donald Trump didn't even understand, right, that [Vladimir] Putin was playing him. So, in Putin's mind, I have no doubt that Putin thinks that he's an unwitting agent of the Russian Federation, although Putin would never say that.
Thanks to NBC News and thanks to the NBC primetime TV network, Donald Trump has been in living rooms for 11 years being who he is. The Donald Trump running for president is not an unknown quantity. The Donald Trump running for president is the Donald Trump everybody's gotten to know, and quite a lot of people watch those Donald Trump TV shows, The Apprentice and whatever else on there.
America should really wonder about a President Trump, who had a campaign manager with ties to Putin, pro-putin elements in the Ukraine who had to be fired for that reason. They should wonder when Donald Trump is sitting down with Vladimir Putin, is it going to be America's bottom line, or is it going to be Donald Trump's bottom line he's going to be worried about with all of his business dealings. This would be solved if Donald Trump would release his tax returns as he's told the American public that he would do.