reminder to our viewers, keeping a close eye on what's happening with the storms. got the update, at least 23 people killed in north carolina. stay with cnn throughout the day for the latest there. right now, candy crowley. when speaker john boehner pushed the 2011 budget compromise through the house, 59 of his conservative republicans voted against it. >> listen. this bill's not perfect. there's no cause for celebration. this is just one step. >> the president fared poorly with his home team, too, only 81 house democrats voted for that bipartisan budget bill. the liberal left was far happier with the president's acid critique of the republicans'

2012 budget. >> nothing serious about a plan to claims to reduce the deficit by spending a trillion ondollars on tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires. >> friday the president sand the 2011 bipartisan bill just hours after the house approved the 2012 budget plan. all but four republicans voted for it. every democrat voted against it. situation normal. today -- the left and the right threaten to paralyze the middle. with republican senator rand paul and democratic congressman anthony wiener. looking at a long haul in libya with former cia director michael hayden. eye popping gas prices with former shell president john hoff mift person. >> the politics of energy is killing the u.s. consumer pch. s and the unlikely candidate donald trump. >> i'm honored by the polls because people agree with what i'm saying. i'm candy crowley and this is "state of the union."

when congress returns from its easter recess it faces must-do legislation to raise the debt ceiling so the u.s. can repay its loan obligation tops here to talk about that, kfb freshman senator rand paul, a member of the tea party. senator, thank you so much for joining us. let's talk about that debt ceiling bill. as you know, the u.s. will not be able to pay its bills unless you all agree to raise the debt ceiling. are you willing to send the president a clean bill that just doesn't attach anything you want to it, just says, okay, raise the debt ceiling? >> well, i don't think it should be an either/or situation. you know? there is another alternative, and that is that we send the message to the president through legislation that says, you know what, mr. president? pay the interest on our debt. don't default, but pay the interest out of the revenue. we bring in about $200 billion a month. there's no reason to default ever. i don't want default.

but i also don't want to just keep giving an irresponsible government more money. you know, if we give them a trillion dollar increase in the debt limit, it will be gone by november. it's out of control and someone needs to stand up and say, the emperor has no clothes. we have no money. we are borrowing to the tune of trillions of dollars and i don't think we can sustain this. >> well, if you use existing money and revenues that are in the u.s. treasury, then you're not going to be paying for something else. so, in effect, you are saying, let's cut something. >> yeah. and interestingly, if you didn't raise the debt ceiling, you'd be passing a balanced budget. and really what we need to do is balance our budget. the problem is, see, the president came out with a plan, his budget, about a month ago and it's supposed to add $1 trilli $1 trillion to the debt over 10 years. he decided that was a nonstarter himself and he's now coming out. what's tricky about all these

numbers, he's saying he's going to cut $4 trillion from the debt. no, he's going to cut $4 trillion from his proposed increase of $11 trillion in debt. the numbers get a bit confusing. but the bottom line is this year we will spend more money than last year and this year our deficit will be greater than last year. we aren't reforming the system. we're still heading head long towards a debt crisis. >> are you willing to phfilibusr a bill that would raise the debt ceiling? >> i think that's yet to be determined. what i've said is there is a circumstance where i will vote for it, but i do hearken back to the president's words. the president's changed a lot of his words since he was a senator. he said that to raise the debt ceiling was irresponsible at that time and only gave credence to bad policy, only gave credibility to people who were doing a bad job with controlling the deficit. so i hearken back to those same words. i would say i would vote to

raise the debt ceiling if we passed a bald budget amendment to the constitution and say from here on out this is the last time we're doing it, we are going to act responsibly. but i see nothing going on in washington that leads knee believe that they are spending our money wisely. they can't even balance the budget in the pentagon. the pentagon tells us they are too big to be audited. i think that's really a sad state of affairs. >> i want to just add that the president has said in recent interviews that his vote against raising the debt ceiling was a political vote by a novice senator and he regrets it. but moving you along here, if -- it just seems completely unlikely to me that there will be a vote for a constitutional balanced budget amendment. seems unlikely to me that the president would agree to just use existing funds to pay off the interest on the debt. seems to me that the only way this is going to go is that there will be the protection of

a bill to raise the debt ceiling. could you see yourself voting no and just letting it go at that or would you stop at any means? >> i think we haven't yet determined what our strategy will be but i can tell you that the people of kentucky elected me to shake things up. they didn't elect me to raise the debt ceiling. they didn't elect me to pass budgets that add -- you know, the president's budget will add $7 trillion to the debt. if you believe his numbers. but whatever the numbers are, our government and our leaders are still adding enormous amounts of debt. heaping this burden on our kids and our grandkids. it is precisely why i was elected to oppose this type of behavior. >> as you know, there is a so-called gang of six on the senate side, three republicans, three democrats, trying to come together to come up with a bill that could pass, that would deal with the debt that you're talking about here. because the president has a plan, house republicans have a plan, there's not a lot of middle ground there other than everybody thinks -- everybody says we've got to cut the deficit. i want to read you something

that senator tom coburn, a fellow republican from oklahoma said about these negotiations and about how to bring down the deficit. -- the debt. he said. i agree that we ought to cut spending. but will we ever get the spending cut to the level that we need without some type of compromise? he's talking tax increases here. can you see yourself agreeing to a tax increase to help with this debt that you're so concerned about? >> yeah. i think there is a compromise. but the compromise is not to raise taxes. the compromise is for conservatives to admit that the military budget's going to have to be cut. we've doubled military spending. i believe in a strong national defense, but conservatives will have to compromise and we will have to cut military spending. liberals will have to compromise and we will have to cut domestic welfare. the compromise is where we cut, not where we raise taxes. the problem is, if you give them more money in washington, they're not to be trusted.

i mean there was $100 billion in last year's budget that is unaccounted for. they don't even know where the money was spent. recently when we bailed out the banks in our country, guess who got bailed out? the libyan national bank. it was a pass through. aig became a pass through for foreign banks. when i want to turn in money for my office, turn a couple hundred thousand dollars back in that i'm not going to spend? it is not even clear where it goes. we can't be confident the couple hundred thousand i want to give back goes to our debt. we need to give our government less money. >> senator rand paul, thanks for joining us this morning. appreciate the time. joining me now from new york, democratic congressman anthony wiener. congressman, thank you as well for joining us. let me just pick up on this debt question. because it does sound to me as though there will be some republicans who are going to say we ant either more spending cuts

or a balanced budget amendment in order to agree to raising the debt ceiling. let me turn this around to you and say, are there spending cuts? would you agree to some number of spending cuts in order to get this debt ceiling raised? >> of course. i think that we need to have conversations about how we reduce spending. we also need to have a conversation about how we get some equality into our tax code again. warren buffett pays only 16% in taxes. when the top 1% makes as much now as the bottom 50%. we have a huge sense of income inequality that's been reinforced by the tax code. but i think everything should be on the table. the difference is that when the president and i say let's put everything on the table we really mean it. when people like senator paul say it they just mean the narrow slice of our budget which is nondefense and some defense discretionary -- >> he just said he thinks there ought to be big cuts in the defense department. that's something you could agree with. >> yeah. but we need to look at the enentire totality. we need to be concerned with the

idea that frankly over the last ten years or so we've given enormous tax cuts that have cost the treasury a lot of money close to a trillion dollars. think that's cause for concern. >> the truth is when the president had two houses of congress that he controlled -- democrats controlled, which was last year, he couldn't get those tax roll-backs on the rich. he had to go ahead and continue those tax cuts on the rich. so the chances, it seems to me, that you're going to get any kind of tax roll-back on the wealthy, $250,000 or above, are pretty slim. would you agree with that? >> no. the president said in his speech this week that he's not going to continue them. >> but he said that before. >> i frankly think it was a mistake and i've said on your show that i think it was a mistake that we extended them. now going forward he said very clearly in a speech that i think laid out for the first time the two sides in this debate that he's not going to continue with those and i don't think we should. i don't think very many americans can justify at this

point a situation where people who average $340 million wind up only paying 15% or 16% in taxes. that has to be changed. >> i want to play you something that david plouffe, senior white house advisor, use to be campaign manager for president obama -- i had read to him one of your tweets last week and what you worry that the 2011 budget feels a lot like the tax deal that you're talking about and that you just worried about it. i asked him to say something reassuring to you about the 2011 budget. here's what he had to say. >> i don't really have any interesting in reassuring anthony wiener. i think what i want to do is reassure the american people. think the american people think that tax agreement was the absolute right thing to do and it's been a huge contributor to the economic growth we've had. >> does that sound like a white house to you that regrets keeping those tax cuts in place for the rich? >> listen, i like david plouffe and i hope that he's successful. he and i are going to work together to make sure president obama has a second term. this isn't about me or about him. the president of the united

states today said -- this week said it was wrong and unconscionable to continue those tax cuts. i take him the at his word. his speech this week laid out a pretty good foundation for us getting our economy back on track. i'd like no taxes or for my constituents to pay no taxes either. but for the middle class to make it, their income's going up by the very well-to-do. it is all a matter of fairness. as far as what david plouffe or i think, the most important thing is what the president said this week which is that those tax cuts won't be continued. >> one thing you said about the president's speech this week which was very tough on the republican proposal and long term debt plan, some of that speech was aimed precisely as lawmakers like you, constituents like you considered left of center, because the president believes that -- and the white house political operation knows -- that the left has been very unhappy with some of the things the president has done. you sound to me reassured.

are you now feeling that the president -- the criticism has been that he gives up too much, too soon, and you think that president is gone now, that he's a tough dealer? >> so the last question you said david plouffe doesn't want to reassure me and now the president was trying to reassure me. look, this wasn't about me. i can attest to the idea in the president's wasn't that tough. they used to say to harry truman, give them hell, harry. he used to say i'm not giving them hell. i'm just telling the truth. we believe in medicare, we believe in social security and in equality and standing up for the middle class. the president gave a spot-on speech not just to me or any element of our party, but to the nation. he showed that he's going to be a national leader in this discussion. if they want to have a contest of ideas, they can't expect that the president's going to roll over to their bad ones. >> let me read you something that president obama told the associated press on friday. talking about the debt ceiling in the upcoming battle for that. i think he, meaning speaker

boehner, is absolutely right that increasing the debt ceiling is not going to happen without some spending cuts. now the white house kind of walked that back a little and seemed to suggest that he didn't mean exactly that there would be spending cuts attached to the debt ceiling. how do you see this playing out? what are you willing to give up? what is your understanding what the white house is willing to do to get this thing passed? >> well, i think the debt ceiling should be passed as clean as possible. let's remember when we talk about the debt that the government holds, a lot of it is to united states citizens, most of it. frankly, we borrow from the social security trust fund. they get t-bills. if we're going to say to people who own bonds we're not going to pay interest of them, that would be devastating. the republicans have to stop playing politics with this. all that said, we need to have a reasonable conversation. . they wind up holding up things like medicare, social security, these bedrock programs that help people in need, help form the

safety net in our country, it is a nonstarter. democrats won't vote for it. >> congressman anthony wiener, thank you. next we'll turn to libya and whether the u.s. and its allies are on the verge of mission creep. former cia director michael hayden will join us. >> announcer: this past year alone there's been a 67% spike in companies embracing the cloud-- big clouds, small ones, public, private, even hybrid. your data and apps must move easily and securely to reach many clouds, not just one.

that's why the network that connects, protects, and lets your data move fearlessly through the clouds means more than ever. :20011231v

you were the last to be born in a family of 7 brothers. that's why you had to sleep on the seventh bunk bed and you developed vertigo, and that's why you couldn't become a pilot and you had to study engineering. you patented 367 inventions, but only 3 made it to market. that's why you don't have an apartment on the 16th floor and you have it on the fifth, but that's where you met carmen.

with her, you had 3 children. the fourth ended up being a dog. numbers change your life. that's why you should take control of your credit score by paying your bills on time. for more tips, visit numberschangeyourlife.org. nato is keeping up the prer shush on mow gar gadhafi. the booming campaign isn't changing very much on the ground. shortly after the air strikes, several hundred people gathered at gadhafi's compound to denounce nato and declare that they would act as human shields for the libyan leader. here to talk about the latest in libya and the violence across the middle east, former cia director, retired air force general michael hayden. thank you again for being with us. i want to read you something from a joint op-ed. it was from president obama, british prime minister david cameron and french president

nicholas sholaolas sarkozy. so long as gadhafi is in power, nato must maintain its pagss so that civilians remain protected and the appreciate shun on the regime builds. then the genuine transition from dictatorship to an inclusive contusional process can really begin. led by a new generation of leaders. in order for that transition to suk seed, gadhafi must go. >> certainly getting the other two heads of government involved saying some things that our president has said consistently. but here we have a mismatch. if you look at the rest of the joint op-ed, it talks about the means they have at their disposal and the contours of the u.n. security council resolution under which they're acting. and in that case, the means we have seem to be sort of the objective that you just articulated. >> exactly. like the rhetoric is stronger than what's on the ground or what's in the air. >> right. >> and so what do you make of that? is this a message to the people around gadhafi?

is this -- because it seems to me a formula for staying -- enforcing this no-fly zone for decades. >> decades are a long time. but it certainly seems to be a message to everyone, opposition, loyalists, people in the region, that nato or at least these three members are intent on at least fulfilling the u.n. security council resolution. much more difficult -- >> which they don't think can be fulfilled unless gadhafi is gone. >> well actually, they don't think they can get to their political objective which is different than the objective of the u.n. resolution which is protection of the civilian population. you have military means here, and a political objective here. that's a bit of a mismatch. they then have to rely on other means to get gadhafi to go. their combined will, economic sanctions, isolation, other moves. but those are slow burning. those take a long time. and time is not an unalloyed

alley in this contest in the west. >> what will it take to get the rhetoric to match the means? what will it take to get this guy out of libya or gone? >> well first of all, nato, at large, as self-limited its military means. and within nato, we have self-limited the means which we are willing to contribute at least on a routine basis to the overall nato effort. that now leaves us with other tools which again are more slow moving. perhaps training the opposition. perhaps arming the opposition. but that in itself is problematic because we're still not quite sure what the basic narrative is here. we see the narrative as oppressed and oppressor. that's certainly true. that's the most visible narrative now. but there are others there as well. tribalism in libya. haves and have-nots. east versus west and unfortunately, a bit of a strain at times between islam and crusaders. so when you arm the opposition, one has to be careful what you

believe the overall outcome will be. >> who you are actually handing the weapons to. >> exactly. >> was it a mistake? >> i would have been a cautionary voice at the table in the situation room. frankly, candy, a fracture of the regime created by the shock and awe of the nato decision and the first military moves, absent that, what we're seeing now was perhaps not inevitable but predictable, that we would end up in this very uncomfortable equilibrium. >> stalemate. >> right. >> want to turn you in our last couple of minutes to yemen. you and i were talking before we came on. you think that right now looking at the totality of the middle east is the scariest place. >> i think it is. although much of our attention -- and unfortunately, much of our energy -- is focused on libya, and as difficult as that might be in humanitarian terms, in geopolitical terms it is somewhat self-limiting. that's not the case in yemen. we have a thriving al qaeda affiliate in yemen and al qaeda

in the arabian peninsula. we have over a million yemeni expatriates, guest workers, throughout the gulf region. what happens in yemen bleeds out from yemen much more quickly than things that happen in libya. and in yemen we're kind of in the same sort of stalemate, too, aren't we? here we've got saleh, it seems inevitable that he will go but no one can find the proximate event that forces him to turn the page. and frankly, after the page is turned, i don't know what happens. >> right. and isn't that the scary thing, that we know he has to go, but what comes next since there is so much al qaeda -- someone told me, and maybe can you shed some light on this, that al qaeda in the arabian peninsula is now, they consider, the headquarters of the fiercest branch of al qaeda, no longer pakistan, afghanistan, but yemen. >> the head of the national counterterrorism center explicitly said that in open testimony, that he believes the single greatest threat to the united states now comes from al qaeda in the arabian peninsula.

>> so do we -- if you're sitting in the situation room, do you want saleh to stay? do you want the president out of there? >> you can see the dynamics. secretary gates two weeks ago said i've not participated in any meetings on post saleh planning. what's going to happen in yemen is going to yemen and we now have to accommodate to that. beyond al qaeda being very strong there, the yemeni government is not strong. this is fundamentally a tribal society. so what comes after is very, very unpredictable and it's hard for me to imagine that at least in the short to medium term, that it is going to be good news for us in terms of the global war on terror. >> which is why, since it's ongoing, we'll have you back, i know. general michael hayden, thanks for being here. when we come back -- the impact of those surging prices at the gas pump. [ sneezes ] allergies?

you think i have allergies? you're sneezing. i'm allergic to you. doubtful, you love me. hey, you can't take allegra with fruit juice. what? yeah, it's on the label. really? here, there's nothing about juice on the zyrtec® label. what? labels are meant to be read. i'd be lost without you. i knew you weren't allergic to me. [ sneezes ] you know, you can't take allegra with orange juice. both: really? fyi. [ male announcer ] get zyrtec®'s proven allergy relief

and love the air®. it's pretty pricey at the pump these days and the lose-lose for consumers. because what americans are paying to fill it up is money not spent elsewhere in an economy that depends on consumer spending for recovery. this weekend the national average cost for a gallon of regular is $3.82.

at the same time last month, the cost was $3.55. at the beginning of the year, a gallon of gas would have cost you $3.07. there are six states and the district of columbia where the average cost for a gallon of regular is more than $4. many economists consider that a tipping point price for consumers. nearly 70% of americans say they're spending less on all kinds of things. more than 60% are driving less. almost half are changing their vacation plans. who or what is driving the upward spiral at the pump and will it end anytime soon? up next, john hofmeister, former president of shell oil. and later, donald trump on the same subject. >> you tell opec fellows, that price is going down. let me just tell you, it will go down if you say it properly. no other medicine, not even advil pm, is more effective for pain and sleeplessness. motrin pm.

[ slap! slap! slap! slap! slap! ] [ male announcer ] your favorite foods fighting you? fight back fast with tums. calcium rich tums goes to work in seconds. nothing works faster. ♪ tum tum tum tum tums and more. if you replace 3 tablespoons of sugar a day with splenda® you'll save 100 calories a day. that could help you lose up to 10 pounds in a year. that's how splenda® is sweet...and more.

joining me here in washington to discuss the rising gas prices, john hofmeister, former president of shell oil and founder and ceo of citizens for affordable energy. it's getting less and less affordable, at least at the gas pump. we're now seeing $3.80-plus for regular gallon of gas, average. it's higher in some places. lower a little bit in others. where's the top? >> the top is yet to be determined. now let me say that on two levels. in the short term, like this year, i think we'll see a little bit more upward movement depending upon what happens in the middle east.

i'm more worried about next year and the following year and here's the reason why. demand for crude oil in china and india is growing like we've never seen before. china started the year at 9 million barrels a day demand. they're already at 9.6. they're headed to 15 million barrels a day by 2015. that's only four years from now. china's -- or india's at 4 million barrels, they're on their way to 7. that's almost 10 million barrels more than the industry knows where it is coming from and the world's been stuck at 86 million barrels a day crude oil production and if the u.s. doesn't pick up its contribution to that crude oil production, we'll be looking back at $5 in a couple of years. >> so if this is so, there's always this big argument, we've got to produce more at home, we've got plenty of places where we can go and get crude oil and we're not doing it. and the oil companies very often blame the president saying,

look, the government isn't leasing out enough and the government says, wait a second, you all have plenty of leases you're not even touching. so where is the truth here? >> it has become a completely political discussion where the truth is confusing on all sides. the reality is, we used to produce 10 million barrels a day. we're today producing 7. when the shut-in in the gulf of mexico, we could be on our way to 6 because it is not coming back any time soon. >> the losses, everything we're importing. >> that's right, we're importing the difference. >> somebody's getting -- what's the word i can say on television -- somebody here is holding the short end of this stick and it seems to me it is the person filling up the gas tank. when i talk to people about oil and gas they say why is it that i drive by my gas station and gas is $3.55. and i fill up. the next morning gi by and it's $3.60 and it is the same gasoline sitting in the same tank. why does that happen?

who is getting rich? >> actually nobody is getting rich. other than the foreign oil producers. they're making a killing on all of this because we import two-thirds of our oil. but what happens overnight is that the dealer, retailer on the street, finds out that his next delivery of a truck load of gasoline is going to be at a higher wholesale price. so in order for him to have the cash on hand to pay for that next delivery, he's going to raise the price to the consumer right away, as soon as he hears about the new price for the next truck load. >> but the truck is already en route probably. >> right. >> so what changes -- i mean the price of oil leaves wherever it leaves at $3.50, and it arrives at $3.80. explain that to me. >> because the next shipment will be at $3.90. so he's having to raise the price to pay for the continued supply of gasoline. the wholesale -- the refinery that produced the oil down in texas and pushed it into the

pipeline coming all the way up to washington, d.c. is -- they know that the next delivery of crude barrels will be at $108, whereas the previous delivery was $106 or $105. so each part of the food chain raises the prices as quickly as they can because they got to pay for the next one -- >> they sure don't lower them. >> no, they take their time to lower them. that's a fact of life. that's make it while you can. so they rocket it and they float down. >> this isn't demand and supply, this is fear. we are paying -- as i understand what you're saying, we are paying gasoline prices because everyone is afraid that oil supply will be disrupted because of what's going on in the middle east and everyone is afraid or sees that japan -- that china and india are going to have so many more consumers and need so much more oil that we're now paying nearly $4 a gallon of gas on something that hasn't even happened yet. >> it is fear. and it's irrational. the way to take the fear out of it and to take the irrationality

out of it is to take care of ourselves first by producing our own domestic oil which we should be able to bring to market at much lower costs than the fear factor that's cranked into the price globally. and for us not to do that is simply an invisible tax on ourselves, because we're unwilling to make the choice to go do the work necessary to increase domestic production. >> let me ask you this as a final question. i assume you have a car, too. >> i do. >> i assume you have to fill it up every once in a while. is there a way for a consumer to be smarter about buying gasoline other than we all know, do everything you have to do in that one trip an search around for the cheapest gas. is there something americans can actually do other than just pony up at the pump? >> no. really there isn't. i mean yes, you can inflate your tires, yes, you can keep your engine tuned up. that will have a marginal impact. the reality is we're citizens

and we're consumers. as citizens the public voice of the citizenry saying to the united states congress and to the president, look, you're not doing what this countries needs to be done which is to look after our own energy needs first. and if that means more domestic production, then by golly, let's go produce more domestically, because don't we matter? don't consumers matter in this country? i think they do, and they should. >> and so far, that hasn't been done simply because of the politics of energy. >> the politics of energy is killing the u.s. consumer. that's the bottom line. >> john hofmeister, thank you so much, as always. when we come back, the one and only donald trump on libya, china and his potential presidential run.

the steamroller named donald trump kept right on rolling this week. he spoke yesterday in florida at a rally of tea party supporters, a segment of the republican party he has polled well with in

the past couple of weeks. >> if i decide to run, and if i win -- >> trump plans to announce his presidential intentions, or not, before june and after the finale of his reality show "celebrity apprentice." he has big numbers to consider. a cnn poll of republicans in march showed trump well back in the gop presidential pack. but this week's poll shows him tied for first place among republicans. repeating that -- first place. in between those two surveys trump made frequent headlines questioning whether president obama was born in the u.s., a subject we covered in part one of our interview last sunday. this week, the economy, foreign policy, and 2012. up next, donald trump. what's this option? that's new.

personal pricing now on brakes. tell us what you want to pay. we do our best to make that work. deal! my money. my choice. my meineke.

we begin or conversation donald trump talking about one of his favorite punching bags -- oil producing nations in the middle east. >> oil is a big part of the economy. when we're paying $110 a barrel, you're going to have problems like you've never had before. and it happened before, three years ago. it got up to $150. then it all almost collapsed in its entirety. i mean it was a disaster. okay? it's going to happen again. oil at $110 is unsustainable and it is going up higher because we don't have anybody saying what's going on. here's the thing. there's so much oil. it's all over the place. >> and do what? i mean how do we get more oil without paying -- >> there's so much oil. i just said. these analysts were saying they didn't know why the price wasn't going down because they said it is so much, there is so much oil coming out from all different sores. one guy said the ships are loaded, they don't know where to

dump it. they say we don't understand why it's not coming down. it's not coming down because epeck sets the price. >> but we can't stop opec -- >> oh, we could do it so easily. we have such pow fer we know how to use it. >> give me one way to get opec to lower the prices. >> brain power. we don't use our brain power. we need one thing -- brain power. >> okay. what would be your one big idea to get opec to stop price gouging. >> candy, it is the messenger. i can send two executives into a room. they can say the same thing. one guy comes home with the bacon and the other one doesn't. i've seen it a thousand times. it is the messenger. we don't have the right messenger. obama is not the right messenger. we have not a respected nation anymore. the world is laughing at us. you tell opec, fellows, that price is going down. let me tell you, it will go down if you say it properly. >> why do you think the world is laughing? what's your -- what leads to you

believe that? i get you thinking. >> excuse me. lib lo look at libya. look at this mess. we go in, he should be removed, he shouldn't be removed, we don't want to touch him but he should be removed. nobody knows what they're doing on gadhafi. then we're back into rebels, oh gee, whiz, maybe we can't, because they're backed by iran. if somebody said what would be your theory or what would you could in terms of libya, i'd do one thing. either i go in an take the oil or i don't go in at all. we can't be the policemen for the world. >> just take their oil? >> absolutely. i'd take the oil, give them plenty so they can live very happily. i'd take the oil. >> wait, we can't go -- >> candy. candy. in the old days when you have a war and you win, that nation's yours. this country is a laughingstock throughout the world. it's being ripped off by every country. if you look at what china's doing, they're stealing our jobs, they're taking our money, they're then loaning our money back -- it is amazing, they're making all of our products and

they're doing this by manipulating there are currency. they are so manipulating the currency that it makes it almost impossible for hour companies to compete with china. >> we've tried to get them to stop. i mean the president and certainly negotiators zblsh he's been trying to get them to stop ever since he's been president. we are trying to get them to stop. then he has a state dinner for the president of the china at the white house, the most gorgeous dinner that you've ever seen. i wasn't invited, but that's okay. the most gorgeous dinner that you've ever seen for the president of china who's ripping us off. you don't have dinner for people that are ripping you off, candy. so -- >> so cold shoulder? don't deal with him? >> no, you deal with him very easily. we have all the cards. china doesn't have the cards, we have the cards. because if we stopped doing business with china or if we taxed china, meaning the products coming in from china, china would be in such an economic problem you have no idea. we are rebuilding china.

i don't know if you know it. they're building bridges. they're building airports. they're building cities, brand-new cities. when was the last time you saw a bridge being built in the united states? we don't have bridges being built. we have bridges that are falling down. when was the last time you saw a great airport being built? we used to build them in the '40s or '50s? >> are we a second rate nation? >> we're becoming absolutely a third world nation. you land your plane at laguardia airport, it is like a third world airport. you go over to saudi arabia, qatar, abu dhabi, china, a lot of other places, a lot of it done with our money. meaning the money that they made from us. you know that this year klein will make -- aside from taking a lot of our jobs -- will make $300 billion -- call it profit -- on the united states. $300 billion. next, donald trump on presidential politics and his potential run for the white

house. so you can save money. like a snapshot? that's what i'm talking about. in a sports car. show it to me. yes! i want to believe it! ooh! fierce! argh! love it. i think we have it. the snapshot discount. new, huge, and only from progressive.

[ male announcer ] surprisingly priced at $15,995, the 2011 jetta has arrived. discover german engineering and premium style on the jetta s with best-in-class rear legroom, as well as no-charge scheduled carefree maintenance, all standard. that's great for the price of good. hurry in, and for a limited time while they last get a 2011 jetta for $179 a month. visit vwdealer.com today.

let me ask you in terms of a possible presidential bid. what makes you preferable to mitt romney? why would republicanss prefer you to, say, mitt romney? >> well, mitt romney is basically a small business guy, if you think about it. he was a hedge fund. he was a fund guy. he walked away with some money from a very good company that he didn't create. he worked there. he didn't create. >> he did create companies though. >> well, but, look, he would buy companies, close companies, get rid of the jobs. i bought a great company and one of the beauties of, frankly, if and when i announce sometime prior to june you will see how bigamy company is because it's

much bigger and more powerful than anyone knows. you will see how big it is, how strong it is. it's a big strong company that i built. i have thousands and thousands of jobs i have created over the world. >> you're a better businessman you think? that's a selling point for you over romney? >> i have a much bigger net worth. my net worth is many, many, many times mitt romney and i don't know mitt romney. i'm not saying good or bad. i know some of the other candidates. i don't know mitt romney, but i built a very big net worth and i would like to -- i have always had an ability to do that. i would like to put that ability perhaps, if i decide to go, perhaps i would lo to put that ability to work for this country. so i don't do it for myself. i will be doing it for the country and, guess what, that's what this country needs. >> i have two quick questions. there was an article out the

other day talking about the top 400 gross income folks. it was in blumberg paying 17% personal income tax while those who made less than them were paying 23%. what percent of your personal income do you do? >> sure, it's substantial. i would have to check. >> higher than 17? >> i will be reporting certain things. assuming i run and there is a good possibility. assuming i run, in about two months you will know that information. >> and that's my last question. >> with what's happening to our country. we are laughed at. we are a whipping post for the world. china is taking our money. i love my life.

i love what i'm doing and i said it before, if i had my choice of our president, if we had a president that was great our current president, obama, president obama, if he were great that would be my first choice but he's not great and he won't be great. >> you think he's weak. >> i think he's ineffective. our country is in trouble. i wish i didn't have to do it because i'm enjoying my life. i have a great company, a very successful show, all of that stuff, right? i wish i didn't have to do it. i would prefer not doing it, but i love this country and if you ask me what are the odds, i will let you know prior to june. but i am givings i serious thought annual id i'm honored b polls. people agree with what i am saying. i am honored by the polls. >> and they know your name. they recognize your name.

>> do you know why? because of success. that's why they know my name essentially. >> and you can stir the pot. >> well, i'm not doing it for any particular reason. i'm stirring the pot. i don't know what that is. china's ripping us off and saudi arabia is ripping us off. excuse me. the arab league? saudi arabia, abu dhabi, the richs nations in the world tell us to go into libya. they tell us to go in. france leads the way. that's the beauty. france is the leader. forget that. the arab league is so wealthy, they have so much money they have cash pouring out of their ears and they tell us and we're a debtor nation. they tell us to go in and take out gadhafi. why aren't they paying us? when they said that you should have said, we'll go in. we want $5 billion. we have already spent $1.5 billion on fighting gadhafi. we want $5 billion right now and we'll go in. you know what? that's peanuts to them.

they'd give you a check in two seconds. they'd go boom, boom, boom, thank you very much. we don't have the mentality that thinks to ask for it. >> it's a businessm mentality. >> i think it's common sense. thank you. >> thank you very much. i appreciate your doing this. i do. >> thank you very much, candy. >> friday, we asked trump's office if they were able to check up on what percent he's paying on his personal income tax. the response, he'll answer that at a later time. up next, a check of the top stories and then "fareed zakaria gps" at the top of the hour. ♪

[ slap! slap! ] [ male announcer ] your favorite foods fighting you? fight back fast with tums. calcium rich tums goes to work in seconds. nothing works faster. ♪ tum tum tum tum tums

[ male announcer ] engine light on? come to meineke now for a free code scan read and you'll say... my money. my choice. my meineke. now time for a check of today's top stories and this

just in to cnn. egypt's former prime minister ahmed nazi will face trial on krups charges. he served in hosni mubarak's government and is being held in a prison in cairo. two other members of the government were also charged. house speaker john boehner visited iraq saturday to meet with the country's prime minister al malaki. the u.s. combat mission in iraq ended last year, about 50,000 american troops are expected to remain there until the end of this year. in japan, engineers say they need at least nine months to completely shut down the damaged reactors at japan's fukushima nuclear power plant. the chairman of tokyo's electric power company says it will take three months to restore normal cooling systems at the plant and bring down radiation levels. violent weather in the southeastern u.s. left 30