At his campaign rally in the Bronx last night, former President Trump touted his record in the private sector in NYC.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Give me the snake, please. The snake.
00:02Trump! Trump! Trump!
00:04Trump! Trump! Trump!
00:06Trump! Trump! Trump!
00:08Thank you, everybody.
00:10What a crowd.
00:12This is something.
00:16You know, we wanted to keep it small
00:18because who knew
00:20this is like a love fest.
00:22Love fest. It's a love fest.
00:24We love you.
00:26Thank you, darling.
00:30Thank you.
00:34Thank you. Wow.
00:36We love Trump!
00:38We love Trump!
00:40We love Trump!
00:42We love Trump!
00:44We love Trump!
00:46We love Trump!
00:48We love Trump!
00:50We love Trump!
00:52Who said we're not going to win New York?
00:54We're going to win New York.
00:57You know, if we win New York,
00:59we win the whole thing. Wouldn't it be nice?
01:01Wouldn't it be nice? We take back our country.
01:03We'll do a job
01:05like nobody's ever done before.
01:08And what we did for four years
01:10was incredible, but we also learned a lot.
01:12We're going to get in there very fast
01:14with the right people, great people,
01:16people that are tested and true.
01:18Years ago, there was an ice skating rink,
01:20the Wallman Rink
01:22in the middle of Central Park.
01:24You know that story?
01:26That had been under construction
01:28for more than 10 years.
01:30They couldn't get it open.
01:32It was a renovation. They couldn't get it done.
01:34Mayor Koch was at his wit's end.
01:36They just couldn't get it finished.
01:38They couldn't get it built.
01:40They couldn't get it open.
01:42People wanted to skate before their children turned old.
01:46Almost $20 million was spent
01:48over a long period of time.
01:50It was an embarrassment to the city.
01:52Every day they'd be laying the copper pipe
01:54and every night that same pipe would be stolen.
01:58And then they'd start all over again the next day
02:00and it would be stolen.
02:02This went on weeks and weeks and months and months.
02:04They poured the concrete
02:06in small patches in wrong directions
02:08and at different heights.
02:10And they took their advice
02:12from a refrigerator company
02:14from Miami, where it's 95 degrees out.
02:18It was a total mess.
02:20They didn't know what they were doing.
02:22And I saw this and I wanted my children
02:24to be able to ice skate before
02:26they didn't care about ice skating.
02:28I looked down on the rink and I said,
02:30what is going on?
02:32Years and years.
02:34So I volunteered and I took over the project
02:36and did a good job.
02:40And when I took it over
02:42I said that if it cost more than $2 million
02:44I would pay for it
02:46the entire amount
02:48but it cost far less.
02:50The first thing I did was call
02:52the Montreal Canadiens
02:54hockey team in Canada.
02:56Doesn't that better than a refrigerator
02:58company from Miami?
03:00They didn't know what we were talking about.
03:02But the Montreal
03:04Canadians knew and they were really nice.
03:06I'll never forget how nice they were.
03:08And they told me that you don't want to
03:10use copper tubing and gas
03:12because the gas is very delicate
03:14and it leaks. It's very fragile.
03:16It just doesn't work.
03:18You want to use rubber hose.
03:20I said, I like that. That's a lot cheaper.
03:22Water and salt.
03:24The salt makes it so the water doesn't
03:26freeze. It's called brine.
03:28And you're going to put that
03:30under the concrete. You're going to pour
03:32the concrete over the top. It's going to be great.
03:34It's going to work. It's not going to leak.
03:36It's cheaper, faster, and it works
03:38all the time. And when we opened
03:40there were no leaks. There were no problems
03:42whatsoever. Anyway, I started the project
03:44laid the rubber hose, mixed
03:46the water and the salt
03:48beautifully together. I was down there when they
03:50were doing it. They said, you got to do it right.
03:52And covered the entire rink
03:54with concrete in four
03:56literally, you had to see
03:58this scene, concrete
04:00trucks operated by the Teamsters.
04:02Do we have any Teamsters here?
04:04Oh.
04:06You got to
04:08make sure that O'Brien, he's a good man.
04:10He endorses Trump.
04:12I think he's going to, actually.
04:14But the Teamsters, it stretched
04:16all the way. You had trucks
04:18stretching all the way from the Wallman Rink
04:20which was, let's say, at 60th Street
04:22all the way back to Harlem. One
04:24contiguous, it was a day and a half
04:26of pouring concrete. One
04:28contiguous, a giant surface, as you
04:30know. The rink was completed
04:32in just three months
04:34for far less than the $2 million
04:36projected. The biggest
04:38expense was actually the demolition
04:40that is the
04:42demolishing of everything that was built
04:44so incorrectly, so badly over a
04:4610-year period. The biggest cost was demolition.
04:48Taking it all down
04:50and starting all over. We
04:52opened with a ceremony with all
04:54Olympic gold medal winners including the
04:56great Peggy Fleming,
04:58Dorothy Hamill, Scott Hamilton
05:00and all of the others. Every one of them was there.
05:02It was a beautiful night, beautiful weather.
05:04I'll never forget the evening. It was one of the
05:06most beautiful. My parents were
05:08there. Now they're looking down on us. They
05:10say, wow, that's my
05:12son. Can you imagine?
05:14That's my son.
05:18Can you imagine? He's
05:20being tried in a court with a crooked
05:22judge. Can you believe this?
05:24Can you believe it?
05:26And highly
05:28conflicted judge at that.
05:30But everybody was there
05:32and it was really something to behold.
05:34It was an incredible experience
05:36and one of the great experiences
05:38of my life in New York. We
05:40opened it. It's been successful
05:42and successful ever
05:44since. What a great, great experience.
05:46It was beautiful. You know, a lot of it
05:48is common sense. You like to say the Republican
05:50Party is the party of common sense.
05:52You don't go to Miami when you want to
05:54make ice. You go to Canada when you want to make
05:56ice, right? Or you
05:58can go right down the road in the Bronx
06:00to Ferry Point, right?
06:02Everybody know about Ferry
06:04Point. It was another disaster, a development
06:06where the city had spent over
06:0829 years,
06:10almost $300 million
06:12trying to develop it into a luxury
06:14golf resort, resort, anything.
06:16They'll take anything.
06:18They were spending money. You know, trucks were going
06:20here, dumping, getting
06:22filled up, moving it here, dumping,
06:24getting filled up with the same stuff.
06:26This went on for years, back and forth, the same
06:28stuff. They were
06:30featherbedding. They were doing lots of bad
06:32things. But really, they didn't
06:34know how to get it
06:36done. They had no idea how much money they were
06:38spending. And when asked how
06:40much they spent, they said, we just
06:42don't know. This has been going on for years,
06:44decades. They were unable
06:46to do it. And at the time,
06:48the mayor, Michael
06:50Bloomberg, said,
06:52no,
06:54it's all right. It's
06:56okay. Now, Michael Bloomberg
06:58was the mayor, and he called me.
07:00He said, I have to get this done before
07:02I finish my term. It was very important to him.
07:04He was embarrassed by it. Everybody was embarrassed.
07:06It went through Mayor
07:08Koch. It went through a lot of different mayors.
07:10Almost 30 years.
07:12Remember that. And he said, in all
07:14fairness, he said, I want to get this done.
07:16And you're the one that can do it. You're the only
07:18one that can do it. And I
07:20said, and I will do it. I will get it
07:22done. And we got it done before he finished his term,
07:24which was great. But there were
07:26no other bidders, to my knowledge.
07:28And I took over the project, spending
07:30only my money to build it.
07:32And I called all of the contractors
07:34together. These were tough
07:36people. These were tough, hard
07:38people. Many of you are probably
07:40contractors on that side.
07:42And I said, look, fellas,
07:44you guys have made a fortune on
07:46this thing for years and years
07:48against the city. It's time we get
07:50together and build it. Let's get it built. Let's
07:52do it right. And let's get the hell
07:54out of here. We owe it to the city.
07:56And they worked so hard.
07:58The roughest, toughest contractors in
08:00New York, they had spirit like you've
08:02never seen before. And
08:04it was magnificently
08:06designed by the great Jack Nicholas,
08:08who told me, I don't want to make
08:10any more money. They paid me enough.
08:12Everybody got paid a fortune. Jack
08:14said, I don't want money. I just
08:16want to see it get built for the people
08:18of New York. And that's what we did.
08:20But everybody, just like Jack,
08:22they said very similar things.
08:24Guys were rough and tough,
08:26and they made a lot of money, but you think they'd
08:28want to make more, but they didn't. They just wanted
08:30to get it built. And in
08:32just a little more than a year, so this
08:34was going on for 30 years, including
08:36think of it,
08:38just a magnificent thing to watch.
08:40You had to watch these people working just
08:42the opposite of what took place
08:44for the first 29 years.
08:46But we had a
08:48magnificent, world-class golf course
08:50that many of you have played now.
08:52And it's rated as one of the best
08:54public courses in the country.
08:56And then, a short while later, we built
08:58a beautiful clubhouse, one of the prettiest
09:00I've seen. Built it, completed.
09:02The project was absolutely
09:04beautiful. It opened
09:06to great fanfare
09:08and great, great success.
09:10And do you want to hear the end result,
09:12though? Should I?
09:14Should I go off teleprompter
09:16and tell you the end result?
09:18You think
09:20Biden goes off teleprompter?
09:22I don't think so.
09:24He's no good
09:26on teleprompter.
09:28No, but, okay, so I did this beautiful
09:30job, and then we had
09:32a dispute over January
09:346th. We had a dispute.
09:36And they said, January
09:386th, we want to terminate
09:40his agreement with the city.
09:42I had a long-term agreement with the city.
09:44And they sent me a notice of termination.
09:46I said, wait a minute.
09:48I just spent $20, $25 million
09:50building it, built this magnificent
09:52clubhouse. It's in full operation.
09:54It took you 29 years.
09:56You were spending hundreds of millions of dollars.
09:58You couldn't get it done. And the neighborhood
10:00came to court totally for me.
10:02The Bronx neighborhood. It's in the Bronx.
10:04It's on the East River in the Bronx.
10:06And we went to court.
10:08The city sued to break my agreement
10:10that they had just made.
10:12And I had done such a great job for them.
10:14And it was accolades everywhere.
10:16Golf Magazine, all of the big magazines
10:18were saying, what a great job.
10:20They terminated my agreement.
10:22And I went to court.
10:24And I will tell you, I had a very good experience.
10:26We had a Supreme Court Justice
10:28named Deborah James.
10:30And I have to give her credit.
10:32I didn't know her, never met her.
10:34Deborah James,
10:36an African-American
10:38woman who came to my
10:40defense. We explained
10:42it, and the city explained it.
10:44They said, we want to terminate it. They had no reason.
10:46And we said what
10:48we just said.
10:50And she looked at them, and she
10:52said, in effect, how dare you?
10:54This man came in. He put up
10:56his own money. He did an incredible
10:58job. You were building it for 29 years.
11:00How dare you ask for this
11:02to be terminated? How unfair is
11:04that? Deborah James,
11:06a great Supreme Court
11:08Justice. That's all I can tell you.
11:10And we won the case.
11:12But it's
11:14not easy doing business in New York,
11:16I'll tell you. Not easy. So I
11:18just appreciated that I had to tell that story.
11:20And as you know,
11:22then I renovated Grand Central Terminal.
11:24I built the Grand Hyatt Hotel
11:26on 42nd Street and Park Avenue.
11:28And as part of that,
11:30I renovated the beautiful Grand
11:32Central Terminal, did a really good job on that.
11:34And then I was very much
11:36responsible for the construction of
11:38the Jacob Javits Convention Center,
11:40where Hillary Clinton was going
11:42to have her big evening.
11:44That was not good.
11:46Remember?
11:48We had the glass ceiling.
11:50You know, we built the glass ceiling.
11:52She said, we're going to break the glass ceiling.
11:54It didn't work out.
11:56You know, I'll tell you a little secret that I don't think I've ever...
12:08You know, I'll tell you a little secret that I don't think I've ever...
12:10I hated the concept.
12:12I said, we have to get on with our country.
12:14We have to win against Russia.
12:16We have to win against China
12:18and North Korea, all the different countries
12:20we're at loggerheads with.
12:22But as long as you have
12:24a smart president, you're going to win those battles.
12:26We were winning all those battles, even with
12:28the fake Russia, Russia, Russia scam,
12:30which made it harder.
12:32But you hated that, and then you see what they want to do
12:34to us, to me, to us.
12:36And they come along, and they don't mind
12:38because Joe Biden
12:40is the worst president in the history
12:42of our country, has no sense,
12:44doesn't know what he's doing,
12:46grossly incompetent,
12:48and our country is going to hell.
12:50But we're going to turn it around. We're going to turn it around fast.
12:53Because above all else,
12:55and I say this, and I believe this
12:57on New York, is you are different.
12:59You do know that.
13:01You know that when I...