Donald Trump said in an Thursday interview that he doesn't "play to lose," so he always assumed that he'd do well with his presidential election, but he admitted that his campaign has gone "beyond what I would have even assumed."
In an interview pre-recorded Wednesday night and airing Thursday on
"Good Morning America," Trump was asked by ABC's George Stephanopoulos if he thought he would get this far. Trump replied, "People have asked me that question, and I guess the answer has to be yes, or I don't think I would have done it."
And looking forward to his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, Trump said he's not looking to make a grand entrance like he did on Monday, but it will be more about a "good grouping of words that's going to talk about our country and the problems that we have."
"We have deep problems," said Trump. "We have really deep-seated problems so it's not about the entrance. It's about the words and it's about getting the words done, and the only way we're going to get that taken care of is we have to, in November, do very well."
The speech, he said, will include talk about trade, law and order, and the nation's borders, among "many different things."
"Our country has a lot of problems," he told Stephanopoulos. "I think I'll be basically using the same message and giving the same message that I've been talking about for a long time."
The ABC host reminded Trump that there have not been a lot of his big applause lines, such as a call for a temporary ban on Muslim immigration or his insistence that a wall be built along the Mexican border, but Trump told him that those are still key goals.
"You'll be hearing a lot of things tomorrow," Trump said in the pre-recorded interview.
But while there are many people who have said they believe Trump will need to evolve as the general election nears, the nominee told Stephanopoulos that"I am who I am."
"I'm a very honest person," he said. "I think that my message is a good message. It got me here. We had almost 14 million votes. That's more votes than anybody in the history of the Republican Party. There's something happening, George, and people are tired of what's going on."
He also disagreed with polls showing that many Americans still consider him unqualified to run for the presidency.
" I think I'm very qualified, but don't forget Hillary is spending hundreds of millions on ads," he said. "You know what I spent so far? Nothing, nothing."
That's because he doesn't want to "waste" money this soon.
"I'm like a racehorse," he said. "A racehorse way back and I'm not looking to do anything now, but we're raising a lot of money, $51 million last month and I put in a lot of money. I'm over $60 million I put in. I spent $3.8 million last month."
But he said he'll soon start spending more money, as "this is an important thing for the country."
Trump also spoke about the speech given by his wife, Melania, which overshadowed the convention early in the week after it was revealed parts of it matched first lady Michelle Obama's 2008 Democratic National Convention speech.
Meredith McIver, who has worked with the Trump family before, offered her resignation for her role in helping Trump's wife with her speech, but Trump wouldn't accept it.
"She's been with me a long time, a good person," said Trump of McIver. "She came to see me, she hated to see the conflict and she made a mistake. People make mistakes.You've made mistakes. We all make mistakes and I think it's terrific how she came forward and say, 'Look, it was a mistake I made' and she thought it was unfair to Melania."
He does, though, think the media treated his wife well through the whole ordeal, as "they did not think she had actually anything to do with it."
As the interview was pre-recorded, questions about Texas Sen.
Ted Cruz's refusal to endorse Trump did not come up.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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