Neil Cavuto: “Just a few hours ago, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo proposed doing the same for all state workers, the first governor to do so [raise the minimum wage to $15]. Mr. Trump, as the leading presidential candidate on this stage and one whose tax plan exempts couples making up to $50,000 a year from paying any federal income taxes at all, are you sympathetic to the protesters cause since a $15 wage works out to about $31,000 a year?”

Trump: “I can’t be, Neil. And the and the reason I can’t be is that we are a country that is being beaten on every front economically, militarily. There is nothing that we do now to win. We don’t win anymore. Our taxes are too high. I’ve come up with a tax plan that many, many people like very much. It’s going to be a tremendous plan. I think it’ll make our country and our economy very dynamic.

But, taxes too high, wages too high, we’re not going to be able to compete against the world. I hate to say it, but we have to leave it the way it is. People have to go out, they have to work really hard and have to get into that upper stratum. But we cannot do this if we are going to compete with the rest of the world. We just can’t do it.”

Cavuto: “So do not raise the minimum wage?”

Trump: “I would not do it.”

— Republican debate on Fox News, Nov. 10, 2015

Mika Brzezinski: “Last night I heard you say you would keep the minimum wage as is, you would not raise it. … Do you have people working for you making $7.50 an hour? No.”

Trump: “Yeah, probably, maybe I do somewhere along the line. I got thousands of people. But you know what? We have to become competitive with the world. Our taxes are too high, our wages are too high. Everything is too high. We have to compete with other countries, and if we’re going to just say hey, I just seen in New York where they made it $15, well you’re going to —”

Brzezinski: “Our wages are not — I mean, you can argue our wages are flat.”

Trump: “Listen to this. What’s going to happen is now people are going to start firing people because they’re going to — You know, the old story. It’s happened a hundred times. It’s always happening. But I’m not even saying from that standpoint, Mika. We have got to do something to compete with the rest of the world. Our country is not competitive anymore.”

— Morning Joe, Nov. 11, 2015