Donald Trump: ‘I’m actually a conservative with a heart’

Businessman Donald Trump on Thursday said the country has to provide health care for the poor and that he’s “actually a conservative with a heart” who can work out deals with hospitals to make it happen.

“I want people taken care of in the country, okay? You can call it anything you want, but I want — including people that don’t have anything,” Mr. Trump said on “The John Fredericks Show.” about “We gotta do that.”

Mr. Fredericks, a Virginia-based radio host who has predicted that Mr. Trump will win the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, had asked Mr. Trump how to reconcile his statements critical of President Obama’s health care law with past statements in which Mr. Trump was warm to the notion of universal health care coverage.

“You know, I’m a very conservative guy … number one, the people that can do it, we’re going to get them plans that are so good and we’re going to break the borders, we’re going to go [to] the private plans,” Mr. Trump said. “A lot of people had plans they loved before Obamacare came along. You probably did. I have friends that had really good plans — now they have horrible plans and they’re paying five times more for [them].

“We’re going to get great plans, we’re not going to have huge costs — the biggest thing the government has to do is make sure these companies are very, very solvent, you know, that they’re very strong,” he continued. “Because what you don’t want is having a company collapse, right? So that’s the only function of the government.

“Then on top of that, the people that can’t afford to do that, we have to help them out at the lower level, we have to help them out,” he said. “And I would make deals with hospitals and I’d make deals with people where they can get them care, John. I mean, you can’t have a guy that has no money that’s sick and he can’t go see a doctor, he can’t go see a hospital. I just don’t think [you] can have that, ’cause I’m actually a conservative with a heart. And if I lose votes for that, I don’t really care.

“Because you have to take care of poor people — I mean, think of yourself: you’re really sick and you’re not allowed to see a doctor. I mean, it’s almost like, sort of … being in hell,” Mr. Trump said. “So we have to take care of people that are poor. We have to do it. And we can make a plan, we can work a deal — I can work a deal with hospitals that’ll be great for everybody and they’ll be able to go there.

“You’re not going to want to do that — it won’t be pretty, it won’t be as nice as the other — but at least they’re being taken care of,” he said. “And under Obamacare, they’re actually not being taken care of very well, either. But Obamacare is a disaster; it’s going to cost a fortune and it really kicks in in ’16 and it has to be repealed and replaced and we can do a great job with that, I have no doubt — I’m very expert on that stuff.

“You know, I have thousands of people working for me and I have great plans and … they got lucky but I have good people so I guess I got lucky, too,” he said.

Mr. Fredericks said he’s “the only media person this side of the Milky Way” that’s predicting Mr. Trump, who has surged to first in a poll released this week on the 2016 GOP field, will ultimately win the nomination.

Mr. Trump said “you may be right” and that he will work hard to make him right.

“I’m always right,” Mr. Fredericks said.

“You are always right — have a good time John, thank you very much,” Mr. Trump said.