-You were in business for a long time
before you were in television.
What is your take, you know,
coming from the world of finance,
is this idea of Trump is a great businessman,
is it a mirage or is there something to the idea
that he was good at this other thing before he was President?
-Well, if you were to compare him to Mitt Romney,
when Mitt Romney ran,
all of his peers in private equity backed him.
When President Trump ran,
you didn't see anyone from the big real-estate universe.
You didn't see any big New York business people back him.
You saw people in middle America who wanted a change.
And the thing is he did a brilliant thing
in that he went to see them.
Those rallies were in places where I haven't visited.
I don't know if you visited.
And it gave people hope.
The twisted thing is he gave them hope
without an actual resolution.
He had the smarts to say,
"I'm gonna solve income inequality,"
but he's not doing it.
When he says, "I'm gonna go after trade,"
that's a good idea.
There are issues. China?
Yeah, there's problems there,
but what he's actually doing makes no sense.
If he said, "Intellectual property
or artificial intelligence,
we're gonna go after that."
President Trump, if you asked him about A.I., no joke,
he would think it was a steak sauce.
-Yeah. [ Laughter ]
-So what he's offering the American people --
[ Cheers and applause ]
He's a brilliant marketer with no real solutions,
and the country needs solutions.
-You know, he falls back on the economy every time
it seems like he's cornered.
Is there anything missing because like you said,
consumer confidence is up, you know, business confidence is up.
Is there an argument to be made that he's making a fair point
when he says, "Hey, despite everything
and despite how it's a circus at the White House,
the economy is good,"
or is there something that he's leaving out there?
-Well, there's something to remember.
The economy was good before President Trump took office.
It was a slow and steady climb out of the financial crisis.
What Obama didn't do was sell it very well.
He's a -- somewhat of a, not a soft-spoken guy,
but certainly more humble than Trump.
Everyone is.
-Yeah. [ Laughter ]
-And when Trump says things are great
and it's trickling down, it's not.
We have lots of people with jobs, and that's great,
but they just don't pay enough money.
And so this idea that things are going to trickle-down,
if you look at Republicans
that are running for office now in the midterms,
they don't talk about the economy
because they know, in their states,
people aren't living comfortably.
It's those who don't need to run again.
They're saying, "Look at this economy. It's great."
It's great for big business.
Right after Trump won -- I don't know if you remember --
he snuck out of Trump Tower and he went to the 21 Club, right?
One of the fanciest restaurants in New York.
Lots of people love it.
Filled with wealthy people,
and he said, "I'm gonna lower your taxes."
And he did.
So President Trump wanted to impress
and do this for the wealthiest people
and he has done that.
The concern is that people who voted for change
aren't going to get that change.
-I showed one of your greatest hits, and again,
I'm a fan of your work, but I do --
I think it's only fair to show, really,
one of the flubs of the year.
I have to tell you, I loved it.
We were really happy when you did it.
-I'm glad you were. My kids were too. My kids were.
-This I will say, if your mom was on TV and you were a kid,
you'd be very happy about this.
So here you are not as sharp as you were earlier.
Let's take a look.
-As California is farting -- excuse me -- fighting,
the largest wildfire in the state's history...
[ Laughter ]
-They're farting.
-Well, there are a lot of vegans in California.
-That's true. [ Laughter ]
-There are a lot of cleanses that go on.
So they could be farting.
-They're farting the wildfires.
-They could be farting.
Listen, I did not get into television until I was 36.
So if you wanted a TV presenter who is a teleprompter superstar
with perfect posture and all of those things,
then you picked the wrong girl.
-No, I want, you know, once a year
someone who accidentally says farting.
[ Laughter ] -You know what?
We're gonna keep it real, and you know, farting happens.
-It does happen. Thanks so much for being here.