By Mark Hensch
Donald Trump said on Sunday that big donors will not influence his Republican presidential campaign.
Trump added that he is only interested in campaign contributions given without any favors expected in return.“I don’t want lobbyists, I don’t want special interests,” he told host John Dickerson on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
“I don’t want any strings attached,” Trump said. “I turned down $5 million last week from a very important lobbyist because there are total strings attached to a thing like that.
“He’s going to come to me in a year or two years,” he added. “And he’s going to want something for a country that he represents or a company that he represents. That’s the kind of money I won’t take.”
Trump then took aim at hedge funds, arguing that the investors involved with them are not properly regulated.
“I would change it,” he said of the rules governing hedge funds.
“The hedge fund guys are getting away with murder,” Trump said. “It’s the wrong thing. They’re making a tremendous amount of money. They have to pay tax.”
“The middle class is … getting absolutely destroyed,” the outspoken billionaire added. “This country, it won’t have a middle class very soon.”
Trump, the GOP front-runner, has repeatedly argued he is independent of establishment politics because of his vast wealth.
