GOP front-runner Donald Trump promised Thursday morning that he'd be "so presidential, you will be bored" when the right time comes, and just minutes later dropped a bombshell: He doesn't agree with the "bathroom bills" being passed in places like North Carolina.
"At the right time, I will be so presidential, you will be so bored, you will say, 'can't he have a little more energy?'" Trump said in an early morning, outside town hall-style interview with his wife and family during
NBC's "Today" show. "If I acted very presidential, I wouldn't be standing up here today, somebody else would be. I will tell you, it's easier for me to be presidential than for me to be doing what I've been doing for the last, really nine months."
But when it came to the bathroom bill in North Carolina, he described the state as doing "something that was very strong," but "They're paying a big price."
One of the best answers he has heard on the issue, and he agrees, was to "leave it the way it is right now" when it comes to whom to allow in what bathroom.
"North Carolina, what they're going through with all the business that's leaving, all of the strife, and this is on both sides," Trump said. "Leave it the way it is. There have been very few complaints the way it is. People go, they use the bathroom that they feel is appropriate. There has been so little trouble."
And, he said, he does not know if he has any transgender people working in his organization.
"If Caitlyn Jenner were to walk into Trump Tower and wanted to use the bathroom, you would be fine with her using any bathroom she chooses?" show host Matt Lauer asked, with Trump responding, "That is correct."
Further, he said he does not agree with a push to create new bathrooms just for transgendered people.
"I think that would be discriminatory in a certain way," he said. "That would be unbelievably expensive for businesses in the country. Leave it the way it is."
Meanwhile, Trump said he has faith that he will be the nominee, and that he will be able to swing people who are not decided yet in the race, when they see how he will bring back jobs, strengthen the military, and get rid of Obamacare and Common Core.
Trump further admitted that while he has said some strong words about women, immigrants and more, much of his rhetoric has been said in "fun."
"I've said it as an entertainer, doing "The Apprentice," said Trump. "You know how successful, I just saw they wanted to renew me for two years. And I didn't do it because of this. But a lot of that was entertainment. There's nobody that respects women more than I do. There's nobody that will take care of women's health issues better than I will. Hillary cannot do it. Believe me. She doesn't have the strength, the energy."
He also spoke about his plans for ISIS: "We're going to get the countries in that region to put up their manpower or they've got big problems...we do have to get rid of ISIS."
Trump also answered a woman who asked about two relatives who have been in the United States for 25 years illegally, and wanted to know if they would be deported.
"We're going to do something for people that have been, look, we're either going to have a country or we're not going to have a country," he said. "But many people are very fine people. And I'm sure these are very, very fine people. They're going to go, and we're going to create a path where we can get them into this country legally, okay? But it has to be done legally."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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