Trump: Rubio Controlled by Donors

Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida is deep in the pockets of high-powered political donors and would be heavily beholden to them if he were elected president, Donald Trump said Thursday.

“Once the people start giving money, they control that person,” Trump said during an appearance on “The Laura Ingraham Show.”

“In my case, they have no control over me. And his case, he needs money desperately to run and put ads up and everything else. I spend my own money,” said the billionaire real estate mogul, who is funding his own campaign.

Trump said he has first-hand experience with the influence donors have, since he has been one himself.

“They really control that person,” Trump said. “Who knows the game better than me? I played the game a long time.”

Nevertheless, Trump does accept campaign contributions, collecting $3.9 million in the third quarter of of 2015, though much of it was from small donors.

Documents filed Thursday with federal regulators show the billionaire businessman and entertainer on par with some of his rivals who had been aggressively raising money from July 1 to the end of September.

Just $100,779 of Trump’s contributions came from his own pocket, a drastic shift from how he’d been paying for his campaign in its early months.

The GOP front-runner took a jab at a new ad from his chief Establishment rival. The ad plays up the senator’s Christian faith.

“I guess he’s looking for the evangelical vote,” Trump said. “But I have a very good bond with the evangelicals. And they know I’m going to be a good leader.”

Trump said the ongoing decline in China’s stocks, which sank more than 7 percent in the first 29 minutes of trading Thursday before authorities shut down the market, is a threat to the U.S. economy. It was the second time this week trading has been interrupted.

“There’s a big fat bubble over there,” he said. “There’s a bubble over here, by the way. Be prepared.”

The turmoil, Trump said, highlights the need to kill the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal. The 10-nation pact does not include China, but Trump said it is only a matter of time if the deal passes.

“I’m totally opposed to it … Some bad customers, some people who have not been good to us in terms of countries, are part of it,” he said. “And China, which isn’t now part of it, is going to be part of it.”

Trump said China would use a “back door” method to eventually join the pact.

“China’s going to come into the deal,” he said. “And they’re going to take advantage of the deal and all of the good things that everybody’s getting but us.”

He said it is a shame that trade has not been more prominently featured during the presidential race. He said China manipulates its currency to gain an unfair advantage in trade. Yet, the issue is not even addressed in the TPP, he said.

“We have power over China,” he said. “We have trade power over China. Nobody knows that.”

To say Trump has generated controversy during the campaign would be an understatement. But he said other candidates have come around to his positions. And it’s not just politics. He said the decision of Macy’s to cut his line of clothing amid protests from Latino groups proved to be a costly decision.

Ingraham noted that the company announced it is closing 36 stores and laying off 4,500 workers. Trump said his ties likely would not have prevented that, but he argued the ties and shirts would be flying off the shelves if the company had not caved to pressure.

“I think they were disloyal to the country,” he said.

Trump still enjoys a commanding lead in national polls over Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and the rest of the field. But Cruz appears to have overtaken him in Iowa and has been closing on him nationally. Trump in recent days has suggested Cruz would be a risky pick for Republican voters because of his Canadian birth.

Most experts believe Cruz meets the definition of “natural born citizen” because his mother was an American citizen.

“I think we do have a very good relationship,” Trump said to Ingraham, adding that Cruz should get a declaratory judgment to remove all doubt about his citizenship. “The problem is the Democrats are going to sue him if he gets the nomination. And you could be talking about two, three years in court.”

As raucous as the primary campaign has been, Trump downplayed the difficulty of mending wounds for the fall campaign.

“I think the party will unite,” he said. “And I’m about uniting.”