Donald Trump GOP Announcement - H 2015
AP ImagesDonald Trump is aware that his attempt to seek the 2016 Republican presidential nomination is hurting his business interests.
Since the real estate mogul announced his candidacy on June 16 during a speech in which he called Mexican immigrants “rapists” and drug dealers importing crime into the U.S., Univision, NBC and Macy’s have all ended their business relationships with him.
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Calling in to Fox News’ Fox and Friends on Saturday, Trump conceded his campaign is hurting his “brand.”
“This isn’t good for my brand; I think it’s bad for my brand,” Trump said in response to critics who’ve said he’s only running for president to bolster his image. “Maybe I’m leading in polls, but this is certainly not good. I lose customers; I lose people. I had one of the top shows on television, The Apprentice, and I decided not to do it because I wanted to do this. I mean who gives up a top, top show. Plus I gave up hundreds of millions of dollars from deals where I’m doing this and then you hear about a NASCAR and you hear about an NBC and you hear about different people that dropped Trump because Trump wants safety in the United States. If you think of it, what am I doing? I say let’s make our country safe and people are offended. It’s incredible.”
NASCAR became one of the latest organizations to distance itself from Trump on Friday, announcing that it would not hold its season-ending awards ceremony at Trump National Doral Miami.
Trump said he was surprised by NASCAR’s decision.
“I’m really surprised at NASCAR because I have so many fans in NASCAR,” Trump said. “I love the NASCAR people and I’m a little surprised at NASCAR to be honest with you.”
He added that although he expected there to be business consequences for his campaign since he heard for years that successful people shouldn’t run for office, “I didn’t know it was going to be quite this severe.”
Watch Trump’s full interview below.
