Billionaire real estate developer Donald Trump released a video on his YouTube channel Wednesday weighing in on turmoil in the Middle East and the Republican-led effort to reduce the power of unions in Wisconsin. Trump spoke at the beginning of the video about a Newsweek/Daily Beast poll released on Tuesday. The poll showed Trump only two percent behind Obama in a hypothetical match-up. By comparison, Sarah Palin trailed Obama by eleven percent, Mitt Romney by two percent, and Mike Huckabee tied with Obama.
“The poll came out, and we’re in a virtual tie and I haven’t campaigned,” Trump said in the video. ”I’m not really, despite that, that surprised, because it’s a message of common sense. We can have a great country again, the problem is we don’t have the right leadership.”
Trump then answered a series of questions that he said people had asked him. The first question: How would he grade President Obama as a CEO?
“I’d have to give him probably a C, maybe a D+,” Trump said. In answering the question, Trump said that the Obama administration was quiet on the Middle East protests due to a lack of respect for America abroad.
He also wondered aloud about what was next for the Middle East. “Who is going to be taking over those countries after these dictators that have stolen all of this money, and that are worth 40 or 50 billion dollars with five houses all over the world. This is money that we gave, as an example, to Egypt, and the money is now in somebody’s pocket, hopefully it won’t be there for very long.”
Trump praised the effort by Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker to reduce the power of public sector employee unions. “I’ve been very impressed by him and his stance. I really think he’s doing the right thing for his state,” said Trump.
Support for Walker was joined with kind words for unions that Trump has worked with.
“New York is very heavily union, I’ve had great relationships with the unions over the years,” Trump said, “But at the same time, I fully understand the governor of Wisconsin, what he’s trying to do. He’s trying to fix a very, very serious problem, and probably he will be victorious.”
Trump repeated that he will not decide on whether to run for president until June.
