Joining us now, Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump. Donald, good morning. Good morning. All right, a lot going on with you. And I'll start out here by saying I'm not blind to the emotions that you're tapping into, but I also think there's a number of Americans you're really scaring right now, including me. I'm worried that this is rhetoric that is fueling hatred and alienation and possibly something worse. Well, I think you should be more scared by what's going on. And, you know, this morning we learned that $28,000 was poured into this guy's account, this horrible person that did the shooting along with his wife, his radicalized wife. And I think you should be more scared about that by far than anything that I'm saying. I'm using common sense. I spoke in front of thousands of people last night. There were thousands of people -- your reporters are reporting it. Thousands of people outside of this, the Yorktown, this tremendous ship that couldn't hold all the people. I mean, it holds, you know, it's biggest crowd they ever had on the Yorktown. And thousands of people couldn't get in. They gave a standing ovation as soon as they heard it. The first sentence they gave a standing ovation; they wouldn't stop. What it is, is common sense. Now, remember this, until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on, Mika, because we don't know what's going on. You had the World Trade Center one. Remember this, you had the World Trade Center knocked down, Mika. People are forgetting. You -- they tried to knock it down a number of years before that. Should have taken out bin Laden but these are -- and I did mention in my book, and Joe was nice enough to say, wow, Trump actually talked about bin Laden before the World Trade Center came down. Before the World Trade Center came down. I think that's right, I think Joe will confirm that. Nobody else said that. Donald? Yes. I mean, almost every high ranking member of the Republican Party and candidates, they're all condemning your plan and your comments. Do you see what's happening? Well, they've been condemning practically everything I say and then they come to my side. They were condemning the wall, they were condemning illegal immigration, they were condemning all of the things I've been espousing. And now most of them are on my side. And the ones that aren't on my side are down to about 0 in the polls and they're not going to go anywhere. But do you -- but Donald -- Donald. I see a couple of people that have said they would come out. But you know, many of the people -- and not everybody has condemned it, if you really look. I don't want to get into names but not everybody has condemned. Yes, I know. If you want to be a specific about it, there a number that didn't condemn. But if you look at illegal immigration, and the wall and the strengthened borders and the kind of things that we have to do for safety of our country, everybody was against me. I took heat like nobody did. Made like baby stuff the first two weeks when I announced that I was running for president. And now everybody is fighting to be tougher than me on immigration. I understand you're not afraid of controversy. But what about the Muslim community -- Mika, this has nothing to do about controversy -- Donald, what about -- When I announced illegal immigration, I took more heat than I'm taking right now. I understand that. I understand that. And everybody now agrees with me in one form or another. Let me ask you this -- Hold on, wait, hold on -- Let me ask you this, do you believe that we need members of the Muslim-American community, of the Muslim community around the world, to help fight war on terror and perhaps that this is incredibly counterproductive? No, I think it's something that has to be done. I think it's a temporary move. I'm not looking at this long term; I'm looking at it temporary. We have to get our hands around a very serious problem. Look at what happened in Paris, the horrible carnage. And frankly, Mika, if you look at Paris -- and I hate to do this because the Commerce Department of Paris, the Chamber of Commerce is going to go crazy. But Paris is no longer the same city it was. They have sections in Paris that are radicalized where the police refuse to go there. They're petrified. The police refuse to go in there. We have places in London and other places that are so radicalized that the police are afraid for their own lives. We have to be very smart and very vigilant. We have to find out who gave this guy $28,000, put it in his account. How many other $28,000 checks were made? Are there thousands all over the country? When you say you're afraid, I think you should be afraid. You should be afraid of the other side, not my side. I want to get our hands around a very difficult situation. All right, Donald. One other thing -- You know, hold on, Donald. You got let us ask questions. You can't just talk. No, you got to let us actually ask questions. You're just talking. I'm not just talking. Donald, Donald, Donald, you're not going to keep talking. We will go to break if you keep talking. We're going to ask you questions. Go to break, then, Joe. All I'm doing is giving you the facts, and you don't want to hear the facts. Go to break, everybody. Go to break. Go to break. Go to break right now. We'll being right back with more Morning Joe. [Break] All right, we're back with Donald Trump. Donald, we've got a lot of people around table -- Willie, Nicolle, Mark Halperin would love to ask you some questions. I want to just ask you a couple of questions. First of all, it seems to me that going after all Muslims, banning all Muslims from coming here, is as counterproductive as, you know, those pictures when you see the little 7-year-old kids being screened by the TSA. It seems to me, just in terms of policing we should focus, we should target, on the Muslims that we have a reason to believe need to have the most law enforcement focused on them. Isn't it counterproductive and unconstitutional to have this broad approach towards all Muslims? Well, it's not unconstitutional keeping people out, frankly, until we get a hold of what's going on, Joe. And then you look at Franklin Roosevelt, a respected president, highly respected, take a look at presidential proclamations back a long time ago, 2525, 2526, and 2527, What he was doing with Germans, Italians and Japanese because he had to do it. Because, look, we are at war with radical Islam. We are at war, Joe, whether we like it or not. I agree with that, Donald. Right. You certainly aren't proposing internment camps. I mean -- No I'm not at all. No, and this wasn't -- [Crosstalk] By the way, I am not proposing that and that's not what this -- you have to look at his presidential proclamations. It was tough stuff but it wasn't internment. We're not talking about Japanese internment camps. No, not at all. But we have to get a hand around a very serious problem. And it's getting worse. And you will have more World Trade Centers and you will have more bigger than the World Trade Center if we don't toughen up, smarten up, and use our heads. Willie. Donald, it's Willie. Hi Willie. You've said you want to do this just for a few weeks, not a long term plan you said, until, quote, we can figure out what the hell is going on." How will you know when the coast is clear for Muslims to come back into the country? What will you be looking for? You've said you want to do this just for a few weeks Well, I didn't say a few weeks, [Inaudible] maybe it could be a few weeks but hopefully we need people to get their arms around this situation. It's a terrible situation. I will go a step further. You have to look at areas that have become radicalized in other places. They are not the same places, Willie. They are places that you do not want to go to. You do not want to take your family there. You do not want to walk through the streets, even the police don't want to walk through the streets there. We have to be careful. Where is that, Donald? Paris. Look at Paris. Where in Paris? Take a look at the radicalized areas, the Muslims areas in Paris. Joe, the police won't go there. What, where? Where, though? Where are you hearing that? Oh, it's all over. I mean, it's all over the place. I know Paris. I mean, it's all over the place. You take a trip to Paris sometime, Joe, and enjoy yourself. Well, you know, I hardly ever get out of the Scanve County in Florida. But when I do, I'll look at Paris. I might go to Staten Island instead. I'll go to Staten Island. Do you know what parts of Paris specifically? Since you visited there? I can get you the information. Joe, it's well known, well documented. I will get you the information. But Donald, just to follow up, what you're talking about is finding solutions to a huge, global problem. So how will you know when it's time to open the borders of the United States to Muslims again? That could go on indefinitely. All it can be is a feel or a touch. We have to find it out. Look, how many more people have gotten checks put into their accounts? Obviously somebody gave them money, and I hope that the FBI and our great law enforcement are able to figure this out. But they have tremendous money. I said knock out the oil, nobody listened to me. Nobody knocked out the oil. I said check the banking systems. They have very intricate banking webs, ISIS I'm talking about. Nobody checks the banking systems. They have tremendous money. How many other people are given $28,000 or more or less to go out and do destruction like these two animals did the other day in California? We have a very, very serious problem and we can solve the problem, but we have to solve it through intelligence and we have to solve it through toughness. Do you -- this is Nicolle. Hi, Nicolle. Hi. I hope your father still likes me. Well, I was going to ask you about your supporters. Because you have a lot of supporters, and they are -- they have been drawn to your strength and straight talk for many, many months now. You've been on top of the Republican field for a long time now. Do you feel any obligation to them to balance your passion for these issues in the wake of the Paris attacks, or the San Bernardino, with things that comport with our values and our constitution? Yes, I do. I mean I have an obligation not just to my supporters, for the country. I mean, I feel I have great obligation to the country and I think I'm saying something that has to be said. And not all the candidates, by the way, that I'm running against, have come out and scorned me for this. I mean, I'm using common sense and I'm using something that we have to use. But you're going to have other World Trade Centers, you are going to have other cities being blown up and we don't want that. We don't want that to happen. That's going to happen. We have very, very lax laws. We have a president that's incompetent. We have a president that made a speech the other that night that was -- at the end of the speech I said what did he say? He didn't say anything. He didn't -- he said nothing. So Donald, I agree with you on that, too. But let me ask you this. A week or so ago, you said that you've got Muslim-American friends, that Muslims are good people. Do you still believe that, this week, that most Muslims are good, wonderful people? Oh yes, I do. And I do have friends and, by the way, my friends agree with me. My friends say that when they become radicalized, they become different people. So let me ask you this, and this is I'm going to propose a little challenge to you here. Dwight Eisenhower in 1957 went to an Islamic Center in Washington, D.C. What if you and I go to an Islamic Center in Washington, D.C.? Or we can go to a mosque somewhere in New York and just talk to Muslims. Would you be interested in doing that? I would. But, you know, talk is cheap. Talk is very easy. I mean, if you talked to these two people, these two horrible people, everyone said they were normal. Now, you know, that they were not radicalized. Nobody knew. Now, the fact is that many people knew, Joe. The neighbors did. They said -- Right, but -- Hey Joe -- You know, you and I both know if we're going to win the war against ISIS and if we're going to stop terror in America, we have to make sure the Muslim-American community is on our side. It's like community policing. You've seen -- my gosh, you were tough on crime in New York City in the 1980s. You took out full-page ads and then you had Giuliani, Bloomberg, and others coming together and they did community policing. So if you see something, you report something. I've always been tough on crime. Don't we need to do the same thing in the Muslim community, where the Muslim-Americans see themselves as part of the American fabric, where they're on our side against the radicals? But we're not [Inaudible]. Don't we reach out to them? I want them to be on our side, Joe. I hope they are on our side. Many people knew what was going on in that thug's apartment. Many people. You had -- I watched the sister being interviewed. I think she's lying. Right, many more didn't though, Donald. That's what I'm saying. We get -- I mean, just imagine if we can engage the Muslim community more actively in America, then it's more likely that those thugs that you described will actually be reported to police, right? You know what, I think that's great, Joe. And it sounds good and it's beautiful words, but the sad part is if you just look at this example of what just took place in California, many people knew that there's some really strange and bad things going on. One guy said -- and even more than one guy -- about racial profiling, I didn't want to report him because I didn't want to be a racial profiler. Give me a break. He wasn't a racial profiler. What I'm saying is this, Joe, we have to use our heads. We have to be strong, we have to be vigilant, and until we can get our hand around a situation, we have to do something and we have to do it now. If you look at some of the statistics that came out, I don't know if you read this, but 25 percent of those polled agreed that violence against Americans here in the United States is justified as part of the global jihad. These are people living in the United States -- Is that the Frank Gaffney poll? What? Is that the Frank Gaffney poll? That's the Gaffney poll and they have a Pew Research poll. I -- the two are far different. Pew's a lot more respectable than Gaffney's poll. Let's go to Mark Halperin in Orlando. Mark? Mr. Trump, Dick Cheney is not running for president and I don't think he's considered a guy who's political correct. He described what you're proposing as standing -- goes against everything we stand for and believe in. What do you think he means for that and do you have any sympathy for that point of view? Well, I mean, I have sympathy for everything. I mean, I understand all points of view. I'm just saying that I know how to get things done and we're not getting it done. If we continue to go in the path that we're doing, we're losing to ISIS in the war because we have a president that doesn't know how to fight the war. We have a president that doesn't even know what to call the terrorists. Explain -- Mr. Trump, if you would, explain that point of view. Explain. You said you have sympathy for it. So what do you think Dick Cheney means when he says it goes against everything we stand for and believe in? Well, he'd like to make everybody all inclusive. Now I'm not really sure; if he really felt that way, maybe he wouldn't have gotten us into that horrible war in Iraq. Which, by the way I was opposed to. I opposed the war in Iraq. People think I'm militant. I'm so militant that I'm the only one practically that you can say was opposed to the war in Iraq. There were very few of us, because they said it would destabilize the Middle East. And a lot of that has led to this. Let me just tell you, I fully understand what people say and hopefully this doesn't take long, but our people, law enforcement in particular, has to get their hands around a big problem. How many other checks were sent to people all over the country that have been radicalized? So you agree this goes against -- Hey Joe, nobody knew this guy was radicalized. His wife probably radicalized him. You agree this goes against American values? Well, no, because FDR did it, if you look at it. I mean, they said the same thing when I said we have to do strong borders. I did, then they looked back in 1954, Dwight Eisenhower, I like Ike, his thing was I like Ike, everybody liked Ike. He did it. So you know -- Did the Japanese internment camps go against American values? We have to be smart, Mark, and we have to be vigilant. And if we're not going to be smart and vigilant, and honestly we also have to be tough. Did the internment -- did the interment -- And if we're not going to be those three things, we're not going to have a country left.- Did the internment of the Japanese violate American values? We're not talking about internment; this is a whole different thing. I understand, but I'm just asking you to weigh in on that. No, no, this is a whole different thing. You're asking me a different question. Don't ask me that question. I'm asking you that question. Did the Japanese internment camps violate -- OK, now let me ask you this -- Did the Japanese internment camps violate your sense of American values? Mark, what about Franklin Roosevelt's presidential proclamations 2525, 2526, and 2527? Take a look at it, Mark. Just ask you one more -- did the Jap -- did the internment of Japanese-Americans violate your sense of American values? Yes or no? I don't want to respond to it. You know why? That's not what we're doing. I understand. You're asking me a different question. That's not what we're doing. But for some people the same values are at stake. But that's an entirely -- Mark. That's -- it's wonderful that you ask me that. That's an entirely different question. It has no relationship to what I'm talking about. Gene Robinson, jump in. Donald, your campaign has changed. Gene, I hope you still write well about me. Well, your campaign has changed. When you started your campaign, you were appealing to people's aspirations. You're now appealing to their fears, their basest fears. And I just want to know do you feel good about that? Do you feel good about what you're doing? No. No. I want to see a country where we can live in peace, where buildings aren't going to be blown up, where people aren't going to walk into a room with people, innocent people with no guns because there's no Second Amendment for those people, unfortunately. They didn't have guns. If they had guns, it would've been a different story. But I really want where people aren't going to walk into a place and shoot everybody and have no protection. I mean, Gene, we have a World Trade Center got knocked down almost twice. The first time -- people forget the first time. But we have other things happening. We have ISIS that wants to destroy us and we take people openly and then we find out they've become radicalized. And what you do is you have to look at other parts of the world and see what happens when this happens. It's a very, very serious problem for our country. All right, it is the top of the hour. We're talking with presidential candidate Donald Trump about his controversial proposal that has certainly made waves in the political community over the past 24 hours. Donald, along with this plan you're proposing, I know that you and Joe talked a little bit about engaging Muslims, and you called it beautiful words, but I do want to teak it further and ask you, along with your plan -- let's say it could actually be carried out -- what would you do alongside that to engage the Muslim community here in America and around the world? Well, I would want to engage the Muslim community, but the Muslim community has to help us, Mika. They're not helping us. The Muslim community is not reporting what's going on. They should be reporting that their next door neighbor is making pipe bombs and they've got them all over the place. The mother's in the apartment, other people, his friend was buying him rifles. Nobody was reporting that. The Muslim has to help us, because without the Muslim community we would have to get very tough and much tougher and I don't want to do that. But the Muslim community, it's a not a one-way street. The Muslim community knew that this guy, what he was doing and his wife, his very heavily radicalized wife, they knew what they were doing was wrong. Nobody called the police. Nobody said this is what happened. One person said, no, he didn't call the police because he didn't want to be a racial profiler. Donald, you can't generalize from this one incident and say that Muslims aren't helping law enforcement officers across America, because they are. I don't think they are much, Joe. They are to a very little extent, but not nearly to the extent that -- I mean, look, not nearly to the extent that they should be. Willie. Donald, I want to go back to your -- what you call temporary shutdown of Muslims entering the United States. I get the concept but I want to know how does it work practically. How does it work at the border? Let's say a man and his family want to travel -- We just shut -- Willie, Willie. What happens at customs? There's certainly going to be - Willie, there's certainly going to be exceptions made, like for instance, sporting events and other things. Hopefully this wouldn't take very long. But you know what, by doing this, what we really need help from are the Muslims that do know what's going on, the neighbors of people that are looking to do harm. They have to call the police. Donald, I understand that and you've made that point. But I just want to know how it works. Religion doesn't appear on a passport. Would there be questioning at the border in Europe before they got to the United States? Would it happen here in America? How would this work? It could happen at the site, it could happen here, it could happen at many different forums, Willie. That would have to be worked out, and I don't think it would be for an extended period of time. We have to get our hands around this situation. And a customs agent would ask a person his or her religion? Donald, a customs agent would then ask a person his or her religion? That would be probably -- they would say are you Muslim? And if they said yes, they would not be allowed in the country? That's correct. Mark Halperin. Mr. Trump, I gather you're supposed to attend a Republican National Committee fund-raiser tomorrow and now you're not. Are you not going? And if not, why not? I don't know. I honestly don't know anything about it. I'm funding my own campaign, so I don't need money to put it mildly. So I don't know anything about a fund-raiser tomorrow. I mean, Mark, I'm funding my own campaign. I just want to say, this is a fund-raiser for the Republican Party. It was announced that you were attending. I don't know if I'm going or not. I have no idea. I didn't know it was on my schedule, frankly. All I know is I'm funding my own campaign. I'm not getting money from the special interests, from the lobbyists, and from the donors. Like every other candidate. When you said that some of the candidates hadn't been - of the other Republican candidates -- hadn't been critical of you, who are you referring to? Well, I haven't heard from Cruz. I haven't heard from Rand Paul. Somebody said came out with a proposal that was similar actually, it was similar and in many ways more broad. I had heard that. I don't think he commented. I doubt he will comment on me. He's - I wouldn't say I'm his favorite person. Of course, he's not doing too well, maybe because of me. But Rand Paul I think has got a proposal that was pretty severe. Actually, Cruz's proposal was pretty severe too But, you know, not everybody. And most of the ones that are, guys like Kasich, he's got no polling number. He's made a fool out of himself. He's one of the worst debaters I've ever seen. And some of the others are just people who are just hanging around. Ted Cruz says, did say he disagreed with the policy. There are some who are accusing, including The New York Times" Give me a break. Speak from your heart. Why did you do this? I call it the failing money-losing New York Times. I call it the failing... Look, let me tell you something. CNN came out with a poll yesterday that has me clobbering everybody in Iowa. There was another poll that came out, I don't know the poll, but it came out where I was a little behind Cruz in Iowa. Only in Iowa. Nationwide, I'm leading in every poll. And in every other poll - this one outlier came out yesterday. I disagree with their polling methods and data, but CNN, which does do very good polling and highly respected, came out with a poll where am I correct, Mark, or do you want to correct me? I was absolutely clobbering everybody. Do you agree with that? You were ahead in that CNN poll and many other polls. No, no, no, not ahead, Mark. How much ahead was I, Mark? Way ahead. Way ahead. Mr. Trump, you are way ahead in the polls. You could become the Republican nominee, you could become our future president. How do you think your first meetings with leaders of, say, the United States Arab Emirates, where they're a superb ally, they're flying missions over ISIS, they have women in their army. How do you think those meetings would go after you had proposed -- and it sounds like you have ideas for implementing a policy like this? I think I'll get along great with them. I've always been a unifier. I've even gotten along with Joe and Mika for years. If you could do that, you could do anything. This is true. And frankly, I think -- But really, you don't think you'd create any -- By the way, Nicolle, you know who is not a unifier is President Obama. He's a disaster. He's the most -- the greatest divider I've ever seen. I don't disagree with you -- But you don't see any -- I am a unifier. So you're at the top of the polls, you seem to be on track to be our party's nominee. You don't see any danger to our relationships around the world when you propose banning the world's 1.5 billion Muslims from entering our country indefinitely until you figure it out? Well, let's -- OK, Nicolle, let's talk about our relationships around the world. We don't have relationships around the world. Every country that we're supposed to -- Russia hate us, China hate us, we're not talking too much with the Muslim problem there. But you go around the Middle East blew up around President Obama and Hillary Clinton. It's a war zone. You look at Iraq, you look at Iran, Iran just took us to the cleaners with a deal where they got $150 billion and they can have all the nuclear weapons -- within ten years they'll have more nuclear weapon than we ever had. So when you say about our relationships with other countries, for the most part, we have no relationships with other countries. We have been in free fall as far as relationships are concerned. I guarantee you our relationships will be far better than they are right now because right now we have no real -- We have a president that was not meant to be president. He is a disaster. So you'd waive the ban for the leaders of Middle Eastern countries to let them in? Of course I would. Yes, of course. Oh good. OK. So from 1945 to 1991, Donald, we were engaged in a cold war where the actual -- the balance of the -- the human race hung in the balance. We feared nuclear war. We still let Russians come to America, though, despite the fact that the danger was actually greater. If you looked at the cold war and mutually assured destruction. If we had banned Russians from emigrating to this country, coming to this country, we wouldn't have Google. We wouldn't -- Well, no, I'm not looking at that, Joe. Joe, take a look back at Roosevelt and take a look about the alien Germans. They called them alien Germans, alien Italians, alien Japanese. Because we were at war, Joe -- we're at war right now, whether you like it or not, we are at war with radical Islam right now. Donald, I agree with you. No -- but nobody else does. [Crosstalk] But the difference between you and me though is I want to -- The president doesn't agree with you. '-- get as many Muslims on our side as possible and it seems to me that your approach divides Muslim-Americans and don't make them feel like they have a stake in the American dream. I believe -- and you look, there are six to -- I think Muslim-Americans have buying power of about $100 billion in this country. There are great entrepreneurs that are Muslim-Americans, law-abiding Muslim-Americans, they actually employ tens of thousands of Americans. I want them on our side. I want Muslims across the world on our side. Joe, so do i. But you said it will divide. They are already divided, Joe. They, you say they. The Muslim-Americans. Who? Five percent, 10 percent. Joe, Joe -- If we have 90 percent, don't we want -- I mean, you -- you're great at making deals. You understand, you make deals by drawing people in and getting as many people on your side. It seems to me the last thing you want to do is divide the very people that we need to focus on -- Joe, by doing this, you ultimately will draw them in. '-- to be on our side. If Muslims are on our side in America and across the world, we win this war against ISIS. Joe -- We're not winning anything right now. That I can tell you. No, we're not. Do you think we're winning against ISIS? I just said no, we're not. I'm talking about how we win the war ultimately. OK. Joe, we will win by being firm, by being tough, by being smart, and we will draw them in. Right now we're not drawing them in. Right now -- things are going on right now that you don't know about, that I don't know about, that nobody -- right now there are things going on that you have so-called people that you think are on our side and they're not reporting it, they're not talking about it, and in some cases they're involved with it. I mean, look, I'll give you an example. Some of our so-called allies that we work with and we protect and we protect them militarily, they're sending massive amounts of money to ISIS and to al Qaeda and to others, OK? Who are you talking about there? You know who it is. Why do I have to bring it up for? You know who it is. Well, because you're running for president. Other countries. Hey Joe -- Joe, other countries are giving massive amounts of money. People from other countries are giving massive amounts of money. Right, so who -- Are you saying the Saudis are doing this? Of course they're doing it. Everybody knows that. OK. Any other countries? There are but I'm not going to say it because I have a lot of relationships with people, but they are. And you know that and everybody knows that and nobody says it. Nobody talks about it. Well, but you're not even saying the countries that are doing it right now. Why aren't you willing to name those -- You say you have a lot of relationships there. Hey, Joe, all you have to do is check your records and our government knows the countries and one of them happens to be Saudi Arabia and our government knows that and why aren't we doing anything about it? Why aren't we being firm as to why are we allowing that to happen? So why don't you think we are doing anything about it? Because I think we have an incompetent president. Well, is he the only president that has -- had a policy basically -- [Crosstalk] No. I think our previous president did not do the job. I wasn't exactly a big fan, as you know. He might be a Republican, but I wasn't exactly a big fan. I was the one that called Osama bin Laden. He -- if I were -- I would have had Osama bin Laden knocked out and maybe the World Trade Center, as it was, would have been standing right now. So let me ask you this. It looks right now like the rest of the Republican candidates are divided against you. If you get to the convention, and let's say there's -- Joe, that's been from the beginning. All right. So let's say there's a broker convention and you go in with the most delegates. If they don't will you the domination, will you break away from the Republican Party and run as an independent? I can't tell you that, Joe. I signed a pledge for fairness and I assume they're going to live up to that. I think that I'm going to win the nomination in terms of popular support. You know, I'm very popular. And you know, the poll that came out yesterday in Iowa, the poll that came out two days ago, it sort of indicates that very strongly. Way ahead in every category. Every state and their -- So let's turn page from politics really quickly. I want to talk policy. Right now Ted Cruz is taking two different tacks on the fight against ISIS. One seems to be that he wants to carpet bomb them until the sand glows. But he's reluctant to say that he wants to send ground troops in. After San Bernardino, do you believe that the United States needs to send more ground troops in as part of an international force to take ISIS' land away from them? OK, here's what I'd do. I'd knockout the capital and I'd knock it out big and strong. I'd take over the oil and I'd keep the oil. All right. So you need ground troops to do that. I've been saying that for three years. Right. But you need ground troops to do that? Yes, you'll need some ground troops. Yeah. You'll need ground troops. What do you think? 10,000, 20,000? Do you have a number? Listen, Joe, I'm not giving them back the oil. I'm keeping the oil. There's a big difference. OK. I understand. So I think we have Ted Cruz coming on later this week. I'm going to be asking him specifics on how we defeat ISIS because we're not winning, I agree with you right now, and we have to defeat ISIS -- The only way you're going to beat ISIS, Joe, is to take their financing away, to take their money away. And the way you're going to do that is by banking and by knocking out their oil. So -- I want to get specific with you like I will with Ted Cruz and everybody else because I think people need to start giving us specifics on how we get there. Well, I've been specific. So 10,000 troops -- Joe, Joe -- I'm talking specifically about ground troops -- Joe, I've been more specific than any other candidate. All right, Don. So I'm trying to drill down a little bit because we're not going to win by carpet bombing, as some candidates say. So would you support taking it, say, ten thousand ground troops as part of an international force? I want to knock out their capital and I want to knock out the oil and I want to take over the oil and I want to ring it so that the oil is safe and we're going to take the oil and we're going to give some of the profits of the oil to our wounded warriors and to our veterans and to the families of the people whose family and whose sons and daughters died in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria. Agreed. That sounds great. So how many troops? 10,000 maybe? Would you support 10,000 ground troops? I would. Yes, I would. All right. And who -- do you -- would you be comfortable, just again, we need to figure out how to do this moving forward. Would you be comfortable with those troops with, say, Russia and when you brought up the Saudis as part of a bigger international force in Syria and Iraq? Yes, I would. OK. I would. I think it's wonderful if Russia wants to drop bombs on ISIS. Anybody who wants to drop bombs on ISIS, I'm all for them. All right. So let's go to domestic politics. Ted Cruz is ahead in one poll in Iowa. You're ahead in all the others. Is Ted Cruz right now your main competitor for the Republican nomination? I don't think so. He might be, but I really don't think so. Ben Carson down 19 points in the latest Monmouth poll. I said that seemed to me that -- the headline -- is Ben Carson finished as a prospective Republican nominee? Well, I think he's a very nice man. I like him very much. Yes, I think he's finished as a nominee. All right. Who is your greatest competition right now? Well, I don't want to say, but I don't think -- You know, look, I don't know if I have anybody. I'm so far ahead. I mean I watch you too. I don't think really I have anybody. I'm leading in every poll. I'm doing great in South Carolina -- You ought to see the crowd last night in South Carolina. We saw it. Largest crowd in the history of that ship. What is -- Final thoughts. What's your final -- here's your opportunity as the guy who right now is the highest ranking Republican, certainly -- obviously grabbing most headlines and have the highest polls -- what's your message to Muslim-Americans right now as we conclude this interview? We love you, we want to work with you, we want you to turn in the bad ones, we want you to practice vigilance. We know that you know a lot in many cases. We want you to turn in the bad ones. We all want to get along. We want to get back to a normal, peaceful life. All right, Donald Trump, we greatly appreciate you calling in. Donald Trump. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you very much.