welcome back to "squawk box," everybody. friday was a huge day where you saw the dow down by almost 400 points, and s&p futures are down by 18 and the nasdaq down by 48 as everybody awaits the fed meeting next week. >> joining us on the phone as promised, presidential candidate, donald trump. >> good morning. >> i think it was -- it was not the only time, it was last week or in the last couple weeks you made the point that in your view

your opponent, hillary clinton, didn't have the stamina either mentally or physically to be president, and given yesterday's event, and i am sure you don't take any satisfaction in what we saw yesterday, but would you say that you were probably correct in your assessment? >> well, i don't take satisfaction, joe, and frankly, you know, i hope she gets well and i hope she gets well soon, but, you know, it was quite sad to be honest with you. i hope she gets well soon. no satisfaction, believe me, whatsoever. >> i think i don't know, because i have not kept track of your entire schedule, but it's a grueling process what you are going through and you are on a plane lot now, and -- >> i am. >> and it's not easy giving hour-long speeches day after day after day, so it's grueling and i think your schedule has been more grueling than the one she

is pursuing, and that has been documented? >> it has been and it has been a very tough schedule. you go from one city, we are going from pennsylvania, ohio, florida and all over over the next, you know, day or so and you go to a lot of different work -- you are not putting up a lot of money to fund my campaign so the fund-raising not a big deal but turned out to be amazing because we have the internet, and it's called new world fund-raising and millions and millions of dollars are come into the campaign in small doses by small donors. we have, i think it's averaging $61 we have taken in, just a tremendous numbers of dollars which no republican has been able to do before. in june i think we took in $27 million, and now we are taking in much more than that and we are raising a great deal of money, including we are being helped by wonderful donors. but it has been -- again, it's

money going to the republican party more so than me. i will say, joe, it has been an interesting process, but its grueling work and there's no question about it. >> that's my point. there's a long way to go and there's the debates, and lot of travel involved. i would think we will have -- i don't know if she is going to release more records or how the clinton campaign decides to deal with this, but it will all come out at some point because it's so grueling that if somebody is not well it will be tough to go through the process. >> well, it is. what was interesting, because they say pneumonia on friday but she was coughing badly a week ago or even before that if you remember, and this was not the first time. it's interesting to see what is going on. i want her to get better and i want her to get out there and i look forward to seeing her in the debate. i will say this, with the scheduling, if you look at my scheduling and compared to anybody else's scheduling,

there's not a contest. i have found the whole challenge to be very invigorating. it's about making america great again, and that's what we are doing. so many things that can happen. for one thing we have to get the business taxes down. you know, i speak to your viewers when i say that, but we are bringing the rate down from 35% to 15%, and businesses won't be leaving our country anymore and businesses are going to be reinvigorated and it will be a great thing to watch, and not since reagan has anybody proposed anything like this. >> just had one of our frequent guests on, and i think he brings up a good point. he asked me to ask you about point he was making that big business and business across the board seems to have trouble finding its voice now with a lot of the country, and we know that the private sector, big business and small business, that's where

the jobs come from. why do you think that is? i know you talk about fair trade as well as free trade, and do you think the rhetoric on both sides of the campaign has caused there or are there any other reasons businesses are held in disregard at this point? >> i listin to mark, and he's right, business has lost its voice and taxes are too high, and this is a little surprising in what i find and going around to all over, big business and small business, i am meeting everybody, and what i find is more disconcerting to business regulations, and if you would have told me business regulations would be more important than a big tax paint and if you would have said regulations are more important than that and i would have said no way. regulation is much more important to the business than even the big tax cut. i am so surprised by it.

when you think about it, you can think to understand it. businesses are being put out of business by regulations and every day new regulations come down, and i am not only talking about small business i am talking about massive businesses telling me, donald, you have to do something, they are putting us out of business. the energy business, they are making it impossible for them to compete it's so onerous, but that's -- it's almost like it has become a business, the bi s business of creation of regulation and the business of regulation is turning out to be a big bureaucracy, and i am going to knock the hell out of it. we need for safety and environme environment, certain rules and regulation and they are a good thing, but about 80% of it, they are totally unnecessary. it makes it hard to compete --

>> it's like never clean out your refrigerator after the expiration date. it's hundreds of billions of dollars that have been added to business costs over the eight years or so. >> you referred to what mark weinberger was just saying. he doesn't endorse one candidate or the other but he said the business community is concerned because they are not hearing enough about things about trade or immigration or hearing about things they want to hear. how do you reassure some of the global leaders that it's something that you are working on and you will have policies and will reflect what they want to say? >> i would love to speak to mark directly if he would want, but i think i addressed trade -- >> i don't think he liked what you said. >> i amount king of illegal

immigration and i will stop it and nobody talks about it more than i do, and we have to stop it, and not only immigration, but the drugs. our youth is being poisened and you go to places like new hampshire, heroin, it comes from the southern border and you go to ohio, as an example, and i was there two days ago and the biggest complaint they have is what is pouring in. nobody talks about it more than i do, and it's my issue, and hillary clinton wants to have open borders and let whoever wants to come in come in and let the drugs pour in. i am a free trader, first of all, and i think joe knows that and you know that, but i want to make good trade deals. a lot of times i will say we have to renegotiate nafta, which is a disaster for our country. nafta is the worse trade deal

every made not in this country, but the history of the world. it has trained our country of businesses. what i want to do is renegotiate nafta. when people hear that, they say i am against trade but i am not against trade but i want to make good deals. nafta is a one-way street into mexico and other places, nothing comes through here, and it's a one-way street to the poor house. we are losing business on a daily basis, and mexico is the eighth wonder of the world. and i have a friend that tells me new plants, and he tells me the plants he is building in mexico are unbelievable what is happening and i said how are we doing in the united states, and he said not so good, it's terrible. i want to renegotiate trade deals and make them great. we should be happy about that and not upset about that. >> speaking of mexico, your

recent visit there, afterwards the finance minister resigned and stepped down in what was seen as a huge hit to the president there. and he was a guy educated in the united states and if you talk to others, he was paving the way and are you sorry to see him go? >> luis was a great guy and he said i was doing well in the campaign, and we are doing well in the swing states and we are leading in many polls and we are leading in the overall polls and cnn just came out with a number that i am leading by two points overall and we are doing very well and i think we are going to start to do beyond that. we have a tremendous schedule to go, and even today i am going to three different states. you know, luis saw that, and he wanted to arrange a meeting and i think it was a very positive meeting. i think they lost a tremendous talen the with him and i believe

he will be back in mexico, i really do, and i believe he will be back at a high level. he's a really good guy and a really good talent. i think that -- i think he probably got a lot of publicity and it was good for our country the meeting i had and it was very good for the united states and perhaps it was not good for mexico but mexico has to understand it's not a one-way street. we have to get something out of the deals also. we are getting nothing. >> shifting gears to, you know, our bread and butter, and that's business issues and the fed. you made comments a week or two about artificial markets, and maybe as a real estate guy you said i like low interest rates, and i think i don't know whether your position shifted a little

because the fed has been low for so long and everybody thinks it's not doing that much and are their negative affects and did you come to the conclusion that maybe it can't stay at zero forever and what do you think they should do in september? >> it's staying at zero because she's obviously political and doing what obama wants her to do and i know that's not supposed to be the way it is, because that's why it's low, and as soon as they go low the stock market will go way down, and don't forget, i called brexit and did a lot of calling and what they are doing is, i believe it's a false market. money is essentially free. i don't invest in the stock market and i think you saw the stocks i bought, and i bought a lot of stock and i am not a stock market guy, and i bought it because i did not use free money, and the stocks went way up and then i sold them because when i did this, when i decided

to do this i figured maybe there's a conflict of interest, who knows, and with them they accuse you with anything so i figured i would sale, and anybody could have made money. i think they are keeping them down and they will keep them down longer and any any crease at all will be a very, very small increase, joe, because, you know, they want to keep the market up so obama goes out and let the new guy, whoever -- let's call it a new guy, you know, because i like the sound of that much better, but the new person becomes president, let him raise interest rates or her raise interest rates and watch what happens to the stock market what that happens because you have no choice. the people that were hurt the worst are people that saved their money all their lives and thought they would live off their interests and those people are getting creamed. the ones that did it right, they saved their money and cut down on their mortgages and did all the things they did exactly right, and now they are getting

practically zero interest on the money they worked so hard for over 40 years. i mean, those people have really been -- you can almost say discriminated against. the interest rates are kept down by president obama. i have no doubt that that's the reason they are being kept down. >> what makes you think that? >> as a real estate person, i love it. but for the last 14 months i have not been active -- i do run my business and spend a lot of time on my business, i have to be honest with you because i am running a campaign and business, which is not so easy, but i certainly have not done as many deals as i would normally do, but i love low interest rates, but for the country something has to happen. i don't think it's going to happen very much because he wants to go out and he wants to play golf for the rest of his life and he doesn't care what is going to happen after january. >> let's say, donald, that we do some of this and let's say we cut taxes, and we can't find

enough waste in the government to pay for everything, and we do infrastructure and we have this incredible, you know, deficit run-up to where we are paying interests on that. if rates go up, what are we going to do? it's going to be much more expensive for what we have already done? >> it's a problem for the country and we are talking about rates that are practically at zero, if i refinance something i get money for almost nothing. to a certain extent, it's wonderful, i love it and i am getting as much long-term stuff i can and i have little debt, but i will tell you this, joe, at some point if rates ever go up to a more natural level, you know, these are the lowest rates in history, and if rates go up, we have $20 trillion, you know, and we doubled our debt under obama, doubled it.

exactly, by the time he leaves it will more than have doubled in eight years, and in eight years we doubled what happened in hundreds of years, think of it. we doubled the debt over the last eight-year period, and the worst part, we have not got anything with it, we have not rebuilt bridges or highways or airports and our airports are a disaster and roadways and tunnels are dangerous. the whole thing is a mess. we are $20 trillion and our infrastructure is a disaster, and we spent $6 trillion in the middle east, and we could have rebuilt our country twice, and that's because it was run by politicians that don't have a clue and our country is in trouble. it's one thing if we had $20 trillion as crazy as that number s. but our roads are new and bridges are beautiful, and many of them are in danger of falling down and you see the reports and

it's a sad thing what is going on. we have a country that needs massive investment and at the same time we are at $20 trillion. >> mr. trump, can i go back to the fed for just a moment. >> yes. >> what you said about janet yellen about how she is doing what obama wants her to do, that plays into a stream that we have seen from the left as well, and just last week senator elizabeth warren was working with a group called fed up and they are trying to put constraints on the fed and get their arms around it a little more and in a trump administration would you put more constraints on the fed as well? >> what i would want to do is have a policy -- i wouldn't go by what pocahontas wants you to do, because her agenda is obvious, and she's a disaster and one of the least effective senators in the united states senate, and nobody understands that, but she's done nothing. i would want to have a policy

where we can start to at least gently reduce debt and get things under control, because right now it's not under control. what happens if interest rates go up fairly substantially and with all of the money we have and are borrowing, do you know what that does to our balance sheet? >> obviously, it's huge. >> and the rates are crazy low interest rates, and they are not always going to be this way because of market and market competition, and what will happen when interest rates go up? they will go up. i was there with jimmy carter when the rate was 21% -- >> no, i remember my parents had an 18% mortgage rate at one point. >> i think the prime rate went to 21%. you think that can never happen again. it's like the baseball players, they have a good season and then though go out and live like they are going to have a season like that for the rest of their lives

and it doesn't work out that way, and that's with a we are doing, we are living like we will have no interest rates, and the numbers are so low, and she's keeping them artificially low to let obama retire. >> this is a question of fed independence. we have a notion that the federal reserve operates independently from the administration and congress and there are questions on all sides surrounding the fed right now about people who think they are not and finding ways to do that, and i guess the question of fed independence is the biggest i have? >> i used to think the justice department worked independently also and the fbi was independent also but that's not possible because hillary clinton is guilty as hell and everybody knows it and any third-rate

lawyer will tell you that and it's obvious, all you have to do is read and watch. i used to think they were independent. i used to hope that the fed was independent and the fed is not independent. it's not close to being independent. >> i guess you saw the markets reaction to brexit was not what any economist expected, and christine said she talked to all the exists and it was going to be a disaster if britain voted to leave and not only has the stock market done better but the matrix has done better because of the weaker pound and everything else, and do you think that's an indication, maybe globalization is important and then again so is looking out for number one in this case, whether it's britain or the united states, and maybe there's something to that. >> well, they call me mr. brexit

over there, and i predicted it and called it and i took such heat you wouldn't believe it, and i said i would think it was pass and i own a lot of property in the uk, and they asked me two weeks before when it was not fashionable and i said i think it will pass because people want independence and they are tired of taking in people from other places that want to blow them up, and i thought it would pass and obama said if they passes they are going to the back of the line, which i think helped it pass, if you want to know the truth. you know, that the way it is. they wanted independence. i think it was very smart. i think the uk is going to do better because of it, and the whole thing with the -- you know, tying it all up like that, it has been a terrible thing. i needed certain approvals on a job, and i couldn't -- i could

get them from the country but i couldn't get them -- nationally it was impossible to get anything approved and it was horrible, and the uk wanted independence and they got it, you know, i think they will be better off for it. it's a very short period of time but it's turning out to be better so far and they are very happy. if a vote were taken today it would do better, and they are very happy about it skpr, and in big investor over there, i like it better. >> you made comments about the president's recent trip to asia as well, and in terms of it not being as maybe well received as the, you know, head of the -- the leader of the free world should be. any additional comments on that? >> when you say "well received," they would not even give him a

chance to get out of the airplane. this is the first time the great air force one with its incredible history has landed where they would not give him stairs to get out of his airplane. it was terrible. he had to get out of the -- they call it the mechanic stairs, and that's the stairs to fix the plane when somebody has to run up and fix a light bulb, right, and this is our president. by the way, shortly before show showed other heads of state from other countries coming down on these magnificent stairways with red carpet, and he came down on the mechanics stairs, and when he landed in cuba, castro was not there to greet him. when he landed in saweudi arabi nobody greeted him. if it was me, if somebody was

not there to greet me, but our nation, because it's our nation, i would have told the captain, close up the doors and let's go to washington, and the same thing with saudi arabia and the same thing with china. i have never seen anything like it. they were standing there and would not provide them with the stairs and people were fighting on the runway with chinese officials and what a sign of total disrespect. it's like the iranians running their boats around our destroyers and making crude gestures at our sailors, and it's like that, and you say, how does that happen? like when they captured our ten sailors, joe, and they would not have given them back, but the money started pouring in and they had to give them back because they wanted the $150 billion, and the payment started two days after that, so obviously they gave them back only for that reason, and if it were not for that they would still be there. there's a great lack of respect. what i saw in china where they

would not provide staeurirs out air force one was, to me, incredible. >> mr. trump you are known with a great negotiator, and i wonder what you would do about north korea? after this latest nuclear bomb they set off, the latest i read this morning is the north koreans are saying this is laughable, the idea of additional sanctions, and how would you get a better deal when you are potentially dealing with a mad man? >> we are dealing with a man that has got some difficulties, no question about it, but i will say this, china has tremendous power over north korea, tremendous power, and also iran is one of their biggest trading partners. when we made this horrible iran deal, one of the most incompetent deals i have seen, they should have put in you have to help us with north korea because they are one of their

biggest trading partners, and the one that really has power that can cut them off completely is china. china doesn't like to say they have power because they want to tweak the united states, and look what china is doing, they are building in the south china sea a military foretruss, and we have power over china because they suck is drive, and i have the biggest bank there has my tenant and i have great relationships with china, and what i say they know is true, and they just renewed the release and i couldn't believe it, and they obviously like the building. we have tremendous power over china because they take so much -- they suck so much money out of the united states. we should get china to fix that problem, and we should use our economic power because without us china would be in serious

trouble. they have -- they take tremendous amounts of dollars out of the united states and without us china would be in tremendous problems, but we don't have leadership and people to get them to do that and when you ask the chinese, oh, we don't want to get involved. they don't want to get involved. in the meantime this guy is developing the real deal. two years ago they were saying they couldn't lift them off the rocket ships and now it's the real deal and i think he is being helped by iran, and i think they are being helped by iran, but you look at their technology and it's getting better all the time, and something damn well better be done soon, because once he is set, like you said, he may be or may not be a mad man, but he's got evil intentions, no question about it. >> when you refer to china and they are sucking a lot out of us in terms of the economy, but i believe they own the largest

percentage of our debt, so they have a big chip with us as well. >> it's all the more power we have over them, and because of that we have more power over them. you do understand that right, becky? >> because of the idea if we owe the bank $100 -- >> look, we owe china $2 trillion, okay? $2 trillion. hard to believe, but that's what it is. they suck the blood out of us and we owe them money. they are magic upbz. >> you won't default on the debt? >> no, we would not. china has defaulted with us because if you look at what they are doing with intellectual property, $300 billion a year.

you look with what they are doing with stealing our intellectual property and rights, it's crazy what they are doing. it's like no laws that pertain to them. you could make a case in a court what they have done to us is incredible. and then they come over and get steak dinners, we give them state dinners. honestly, it's a very sad thing, how china has out negotiated us, it's sad. china could solve the problem we have with north korea in one day if they wanted to. >> we have a can -- i don't know how much time we have left, but i want to talk about the debates and how you are preparing for those and whether you like the moderators selected? i would like to see what we have been talking about, instead of maybe add momming stuff, it would be great to have the discussion we just had.

real quickly on the wall street journal, if you are going to get somewhat objective treatment you have to look here, but the headline today "are clinton and trump healthy enough to serve?" . at least they address the clinton issue but had to throw you in there, too. >> they always do. >> would you release your full health records if she releases hers? >> you know what i did? you would be proud of me. i saw what was going on with her, and i said i will do something and i took a physical and this week we announce the results of it, they come in. i did pretty much the whole deal, and because i think we should, i think we should do that, and so i will be announcing sometime during the week i will hand out a paper with very large numbers, very detailed -- hopefully good

statistics. i feel very confident, otherwise i probably would not be telling you i did this, right? i will be releasing something this week in great detail as to a physical. i like that. as far as the debates are concerned, and the system is being gamed because everybody said i won the so-called forum that your group put on, but they all said i won and that matt lauer was easy on me, and he wasn't, and i think he was professional and has been treated unfairly, and they all said i won so when i go into the debate i will be treated unfairly by the moderators. this is no different than the great bobby knight, and he endorsed me and i won in a landslide after getting his endorsement and he would do numbers on the referee and towards the end of the game, they would just sort of, you

know, maybe subconsciously give him the calls and he was a master at it. well they are doing the same thing now. they are saying about how matt lauer -- he was not nice to me, and he was tough. i answered them better than she did. the fact is they are gaming the system, and i think maybe we should have no moderator. let hillary and i sit there and just debate. i think the system is being rigged so it's going to be a very unfair debate. i can see it happening right now because everybody was saying he was soft on trump and now the new person is going to try and be really hard on trump just to show the establishment what he can do. i think it's very unfair what they are doing. i think we should have a debate with no moderator, just hillary and i sitting there talking. >> mr. trump, we appreciate all the time you have given us this morning. i know you have other things on your schedule, and we will talk to you again soon hopefully. >> thank you.

thank you very much, joe and becky. thank you. >> you are welcome. >> thank you, mr. trump.