Donald Trump really enjoys the people of Washington, D.C. In fact, he thinks they are “really special people.” He loves them so much that, if elected president, he would give them a state of their own.
The Republican presidential front-runner told Chuck Todd that should he become president, he would be totally okay with the District of Columbia becoming the 51st state.
While Trump wouldn’t go so far as to say he supported D.C. statehood, he said he would do whatever is best for the people of the district.
“I would like to do whatever is good for the District of Columbia because I love the people,” Trump said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday. “You know, it’s funny. I’ve really gotten to know the people, the representatives, and the mayor, and everybody. They’re really special people. They’re great. And they have a great feeling.”
WATCH:
Trump admitted that he had a conflict of interest in the matter, because he is in the midst of renovating the old U.S. Post Office Building into a luxury hotel.
The former post office building, which sits a few blocks away from the White House, will host conference centers, retail establishments and luxury hotel rooms when Trump’s organization is finished with renovations next year.
Trump said the new hotel will be one of — if not the — greatest hotels in the world when it opens.
“It’ll open. And, by the way, unlike our government, we’re under budget and ahead of schedule,” Trump said. “Isn’t that a nice thing to hear? You don’t hear that. Just like the wall will be under budget and ahead of schedule. And nobody’s getting through that wall. Believe me.”
Earlier this summer, members of the local D.C. government and the city’s delegate to Congress, Eleanor Holmes Norton, blasted Trump for comments he made about illegal immigrants in the country. Some went as far as to call for his name to be removed from the side of the future hotel site.
The idea of making the district the 51st state wouldn’t make much political sense for Trump, a recent Republican, because the city is made up of more than 75 percent registered Democrats. If D.C. became a state, it would almost assuredly give Democrats a lock on two Senate seats, plus another vote in the House.
Republicans make up just 6 percent of voters in the city– almost 10 percent less than those who claim no party.
President Barack Obama said last year he is totally for D.C. statehood. Efforts to make D.C. a state over the past 40 years, however, have been entirely unsuccessful.
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