''It really is not very different than the 80's,'' Mr. Trump says. ''In the 80's, people had limos. Now they have all-terrain vehicles, which cost more than the limos.

''There was an anti-80's feeling for a while, everyone cutting back, but now the mood is 'Let's just do it!' I just got back from a golf course I built in Florida. It costs $300,000 to join. In the 80's, there was no such thing. Rich people are handing me checks like Godiva chocolates.

''Greed is not good. The line played well in a movie. But a lot of things play well in words -- like 'All men are created equal' -- that sound magnificent and beautiful, but that doesn't necessarily make them so. Greed is the bad part of success. And people have wanted to be successful from the beginning of time.

''My entire life, I've watched politicians bragging about how poor they are, how they came from nothing, how poor their parents and grandparents were. And I said to myself, if they can stay so poor for so many generations, maybe this isn't the kind of person we want to be electing to higher office. How smart can they be? They're morons. There's a perception that voters like poverty. I don't like poverty. Usually, there's a reason for poverty. Do you want someone who gets to be president and that's literally the highest paying job he's ever had?

''You don't need money to get beautiful women. All my life, I've had friends who were successful and can't get a date, let alone a date with a beautiful woman. I have watched men worth hundreds of millions who have all the trappings -- a G-5 [Gulfstream jet], the Fifth Avenue apartment, the Palm Beach estate, and they cannot get a date. They're sitting at home watching television. They're brilliant all day long and at night, they don't have a clue.