NEW YORK – Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has released a new book with a wide range of policy recommendations that emphasizes his theme of "winning."
“We need a government that is committed to winning and has experience in winning,” Trump writes in “Crippled America: How to Make America Great Again.” “This book is about how we do that.”
Trump speaks to a nation of voters clearly disillusioned with career politicians and a partisan establishment media, railing against “politicians who talk a great game in campaigns – and play like total losers when they actually try to govern.”
He targets members of the media “who are so lost when it comes to being fair that they have no concept of the difference between ‘fact’ and ‘opinion.’” He also goes after lobbyists and special interests “with their hands in our pockets on behalf of their clients.”
He clearly is not afraid of a cover photo of him scowling.
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“In this book we’re talking about Crippled America,” he explains in the preface. “Unfortunately, there’s very little nice about that. So I wanted a picture that reflected the anger and unhappiness I feel rather than the joy.”
He writes that America needs leadership "that can deal with our mess and begin to apply practical solutions to our problems.”
“My goal is not to design hundreds of pages of government regulations and red tape like others propose," Trump said. "We need to outline commonsense policies and then knock some heads together if necessary to make them work.”
Trump insists he's not bragging when he calls himself a winner.
"I’m a practical businessman who has learned that when you believe in something, you never stop, you never quit, and if you get knocked down, you climb right back up and keep fighting until you win," he writes. "That’s been my strategy all my life, and I’ve been very successful following it.”
Iran: 'Worst deal I have ever seen'
Trump makes it clear he plans to pull no punches criticizing President Obama.
“The deal President Obama negotiated with Iran was the worst I have ever seen,” Trump writes. “We couldn’t have done worse.”
He says he would have increased the sanctions "until the conditions were so terrible that the Iranian leaders were begging for a deal.”
He contends that "the principle strategy of negotiating should be that the side needing the deal the most should be the one that should walk away with the least."
“I would have laid down certain conditions that had to be agreed to, starting with the release of our four prisoners,” he says. “I wouldn’t have settled for less than a complete dismantling of all their nuclear facilities, destruction of all their centrifuges, and on-site inspections anytime, anywhere.”
Trump concludes the Obama administration settled for a losing deal in which the possibility of Iran defying the world and developing a nuclear weapon “is still very real.” If the Iranians decide to prevent the International Atomic Energy Agency from inspecting their nuclear facilities, he warns, “there isn’t too much that we can do about it other than take military action.”
The bedrock of U.S. foreign policy, Trump argues, is to return to a strong military.
“We will have the strongest military in our history, and our people will be trained with the best weaponry and protection available,” he writes.
“This means the best missile systems, the best cyber-warfare training and equipment, and the best-trained soldiers,” he continues. “And when they come home after a war, battered and bruised, our troops won’t have to wait months for treatment.”
Education: 'A failing grade'
On the domestic front, Trump pounds public schools for their inability to teach the fundamental skills American children need to compete in a world economy, hindered by an increasingly political correct environment dominated by the power of teachers unions determined to keep even the jobs of the worst teachers at all costs.
“We’ve dumbed down the curriculum to the lowest common denominator,” Trump argues. “In many schools, we’ve eliminated grading entirely and diplomas have been practically devalued into certificates of attendance.”
He rails against the federal programs Common Core, No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top, which “allow progressives in the Department of Education to indoctrinate, not educate, our kids.”
He argues for returning control over education to local school boards and putting a spirit of competition back into education by promoting charter schools, restoring discipline of students in the classroom and firing teachers that are incapable of imparting skills to their students.
“In the end, we have no choice,” he writes. “We have to change the way we educate our children. We should return the basic control of our schools to the states and local communities. They need to set standards for their teachers that reward competitive quality and education.”
Energy: 'Bust the guts of the OPEC cartel'
When it comes to energy policy, Trump contends the first priorities need to be to approve the Keystone XL Pipeline and “start to drill everywhere oil is accessible.”
He rejects the Obama administration push for renewable energy, because he believes it's being driven by a mistaken belief that global climate change is being caused by carbon emissions. He also has concluded that renewable energy projects have proven to be non-competitive, economic failures, driven only by government subsidies.
“The most popular source of green energy is solar panels,” Trump notes. “They work, but they don’t make economic sense. They don’t provide enough savings to cover the cost of installing them and using them. They are the most highly subsidized form of green energy in America.”
America needs to drill its own oil, he said, and should not rely on the current drop in the price of oil.
“The excess of oil on the market, which has caused a great drop in prices, has made it seem less vital today, but eventually, the world will need that oil, and we will need the good jobs that it creates,” Trump writes.
Throughout the book, Trump focuses on jobs, castigating the free-trade administrations of Democrats and Republicans alike for signing international deals that push the price of labor to the lowest cost available. He proposes, instead, negotiating with countries like China to insist the regime stop devaluing its currency “because doing so makes it even harder for the rest of the world to compete.”
“There is only one thing that every single one of my many different businesses have in common: They all help provide jobs for people,” Trump notes.
He points to his hiring of minorities, including Hispanics, as evidence establishment media have distorted his image. Trump emphasizes his opposition is only to illegal immigration that allow borders to remain open to criminals, drug dealers and terrorists.
New York: 'Where everyone is a Democrat'
Trump explains his current positioning as a conservative Republican.
“I grew up and worked in New York, where virtually everyone is a Democrat,” he writes. “You know who else was a Democrat? Ronald Reagan. He switched, and I switched years ago, when I began to see what liberal Democrats were doing to our country. Now I’m a conservative Republican with a big heart. I didn’t decide to become a Republican. That’s who I have always been.”
Whether Trump is arguing why Obamacare needs to be repealed and the tax code simplified to encourage business growth and stop penalizing success, or he is explaining why the federal government is incapable of maintaining infrastructure, Trump consistently argues the competitive advantage remains with private enterprise.
“In Washington, D.C., I’m converting the Old Post Office Building on Pennsylvania Avenue into one of the world’s greatest hotels,” he points out.
“My home in Palm Beach, Mar-a-Lago, was once the greatest mansion in the country, but its previous owner, the United States government had let it deteriorate,” he writes. “Nobody had the vision to see what it could be. I restored it, rebuilt it, and now – go online and see what I’ve accomplished there. We brought the property back to the greatness it once was – and then made it better!”
'Making America Great Again'
Trump insists that making America great again means restoring law and order, “both on the street and in our courtrooms,” by supporting law enforcement with the equipment and training needed “to protect themselves and our honest, hardworking citizens” and by putting judges on the bench who understand the Constitution leaves lawmaking up to the legislators.
“Crippled America” reminds citizens that the strongest middle class in the history of the world has been built not by relying on government handouts but by unleashing the creative intelligence and determined ingenuity of the people.
“Making America Great Again begins at home,” Trump concludes. “It means restoring a sense of dignity to the White House, and to our country in general.
“The president of the United States is the most powerful person in the world,” he writes. “The president is the spokesperson for democracy and liberty. Isn’t it time we brought back the pomp and circumstance, and the sense of awe for that office that we all once held?”