Donald Trump announced that he is "running" for president today, with a 40 minute speech in which he touched on such subjects as whether or not he is a good person ("I think I am a nice person. People that know me, like me. Does my family like me? I think so, right. Look at my family."), whether Mexican immigrants are good people ("They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people."), and how many websites he has ("I have so many websites, I have them all over the place."). Also, since he is ostensibly still a real estate mogul, he had a number of illuminating things to share about the real estate industry. Here are ten of them:
1) There are too many restrictions on hotel developers:
"They just built a hotel in Syria. Can you believe this? They built a hotel. When I have to build a hotel, I pay interest. They don't have to pay interest."
2) The Chinese are buying expensive apartments:
"Hey, I'm not saying they're stupid. I like China. I sell apartments for— I just sold an apartment for $15 million to somebody from China."
3) Donald Trump won the Bank of America Building from China in a war:
"I own a big chunk of the Bank of America Building at 1290 Avenue of the Americas, that I got from China in a war. Very valuable."
4) Environmentalists are hindering us from developing military islands in the ocean:
"Now they're going militarily. They're building a military island in the middle of the South China sea. A military island. Now, our country could never do that because we'd have to get environmental clearance, and the environmentalist wouldn't let our country— we would never build in an ocean."
5) A desire to "build those big buildings" is what drove him in early days:
"[My dad] used to say, 'Donald, don't go into Manhattan. That's the big leagues. We don't know anything about that. Don't do it.'
"I said, 'I gotta go into Manhattan. I gotta build those big buildings. I gotta do it, Dad. I've gotta do it.'"
6) Donald Trump was responsible for Manhattan's Javits Center (this is news):
"I ventured into Manhattan and did a lot of great deals— the Grand Hyatt Hotel. I was responsible for the convention center on the west side."
7) Real estate is the old-fashioned way:
"I have to say this. I made it the old-fashioned way. It's real estate. You know, it's real estate."
8) Walls are on the rise:
"I would build a great wall, and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me, and I'll build them very inexpensively, I will build a great, great wall on our southern border. And I will have Mexico pay for that wall.
"Mark my words."
9) Our airports carpets are in bad shape:
"So we have to rebuild our infrastructure, our bridges, our roadways, our airports. You come into La Guardia Airport, it's like we're in a third world country. You look at the patches and the 40-year-old floor."
10) Donald Trump's golf courses are the best golf courses:
"Obamacare really kicks in in '16, 2016. Obama is going to be out playing golf. He might be on one of my courses. I would invite him, I actually would say. I have the best courses in the world, so I'd say, you what, if he wants to— I have one right next to the White House, right on the Potomac. If he'd like to play, that's fine."
· Here's Donald Trump's Presidential Announcement Speech [Time]
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