Donald Trump says President Barack Obama will lose the election by a large margin in November unless there is a dramatic drop in the price of gasoline. The real estate mogul also told Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren Wednesday that Obama’s claims that he has no control over the price at the pump are “totally false.”
“I believe that gasoline prices will have a huge impact — if they don’t start coming down, I don’t think it's possible for Obama to win the election, personally. I think it will be a bigger victory that most people think,” Trump said. “Then you hear the head of energy say: I want $7 and $8 fuel. And I am saying: Where is this man coming from? I think that statement is one of the two sound bites I would use if I were running for president as a Republican.
“Number one would be the secretary of energy’s sound bite about $7 and $8 fuel. The other would be Obama saying very strongly that the president has absolutely no power over the price of gasoline or the price of oil — which is totally false, by the way, totally false. He has tremendous power over it, tremendous power,” he said. “But his sound bite that he has absolutely nothing to do and no power over the price of gasoline is a disaster for him. When he made that statement, I said: Boy, they have to copy that one.”
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Van Susteren then turned to the Republican nomination contest and asked how the candidate he supports, Mitt Romney, will be able to get around the Romneycare issue in the general election. Trump said he does not think the Massachusetts healthcare law will be a problem in November as Romney has made it clear it was a state plan, without national ramifications.
“He could have disclaimed it and said: I made a mistake. He chose not to do that — I think that was very smart,” Trump said. “Instead, he said why he did it there in that little section, why he did it and why it’s different, and how it's different from Obama and Obamacare.
“And I think that he explained it very well,” he said. “And obviously he’s leading by a substantial margin, so it hasn’t had the effect a lot of people hoped it would — he’s winning.”
Switching gears, the Fox News host asked Trump his thoughts about a vice-presidential candidate.
“I think Chris Christie is a terrific guy. I think Senator Rubio would be very good — Florida is very important, a total swing state,” Trump said. “I really think he could win Florida anyway because they are not happy with Obama, but I think Senator Rubio would be very good. I hear a lot about [Rob] Portman . . . I hear he is very talented and a good man, but I don’t know him at all.
“And of course his number one choice would be Donald Trump — but I am only kidding.”
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