Trump: I Do Learn a Lot by ‘Watching’ and ‘Reading’

CUOMO: “So, you said something earlier about the poll that you came out ahead on ISIS that was a surprise to people. One of the reasons –“

TRUMP: “But not to me because I talked about it a lot.”

CUOMO: “I understand. But one of the reasons that might have been surprising is something else you said which is that you get a lot of your military analysis from watching television. That –“

TRUMP: “See I didn’t exactly say that. I watch your show. And I watch other shows. And you have the best channels, the best everything –“

CUOMO: “We do. We have great staff.”

TRUMP: “OK. Frankly, probably better than I could get. In all fairness, you know, what do I know? I’m a man that made a great fortune. I’m going to make our country rich and I’m going to make our great, but you know what, you do not get me the right generals and I’ll see four, five generals. I’ll see all sorts of people that live in stoop down the colonel stuff. You go all over the place. But you have a lot of different people and so are other shows and they’re really good people. And I watched that and read the Times. And I read the Wall Street Journal. I know we have a lot of other news page.”

CUOMO: “But you need a team, aren’t you?”

TRUMP: “And I read magazines specially Time Magazine this week because I’m on the cover. OK. So I specially will look at it. But I read magazines and I read other things. Yeah, sure I need a team but, you know, by the time you get to a problem, you know, we’re talking a long ways away, it’s going to be changed. You can have a whole different set of -- I mean different countries will be run by different people in all fairness. So when I watch –“

CUOMO: “But you’ll someone like your opponent Jeb Bush who says, “I have a policy team, a staff.” He doesn’t have one.”

TRUMP: “He says he does, OK? Look, he can say -- he is a very low energy person Jeb Bush. He’s got very low energy which is OK. It’s good. If you want a little, you know, live a long life but he is a low energy person. Perhaps he should stand all day long with a particular general. But, you know, what I can get a lot of information in a very short time. Now, I’ve met with numerous people. I was given the biggest award by the marines the other day. It’s just about one of the biggest civilian awards by the marines the other day. I was with all of the marines. I was with the head of the Joint, the new head of the Joint Chief of Staffs. He’s a very impressive guy at the Waldorf, Missouri the other night. I was given, you know, one of their most distinguished awards which is a great honor for me.”

CUOMO: “So you’re saying they respect you?”

TRUMP: “So I need -- I think they do. I mean I think, well, I got the award from them and they presented it to me so I think they do. But when I say that, a lot of people thought I was very smart, you know, I watched all of the shows, you get the best people, you know, because even the generals want to be on television, right or their retired generals in many cases but I see a lot of good things by watching your show and other shows. And it’s really nothing that we left that or scoff that –“

CUOMO: “And if you took it for the next level then you’d have your own policy advisors.”

TRUMP: “Sure, and you know what I do is when I watched without naming names but when I watched your different shows and you show a particular you’re very in to this but when I watched the different shows, there were certain people that I really think are terrific that I can do better by watching and seeing and reading in the times. And then I know who I maybe want to speak to more so because you’re not going to meet with 400 different people. So I do learn a lot by watching and I do learn a lot by reading the various newspapers and magazines and everything else and I really find it to be a fascinating subject.”

CUOMO: “Today?”

TRUMP: “And some people agree with me on ISIS. Many of them agree with me on ISIS.”