Trump, Wife Optimistic on Win, Critical of Media

Donald Trump, in wide ranging interviews including wife Melania and his children, said Wednesday he expects he will win the key battleground states in Ohio, Florida, and North Carolina, and defended his decision to take an hour off the campaign trail Wednesday to open his new hotel in Washington, D.C.

"I built one of the great hotels of the world," Trump told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos during an interview recorded at the new Trump International Hotel and airing Thursday morning on "Good Morning America."

"What am I supposed to do, not show up? I'm taking one hour off. I'm going to North Carolina right after this, then I'm going back down to Florida. I'm going up to New Hampshire. I'm all over the place."

"I can't take one hour off to cut a ribbon at a one of the great hotels of the world?" Trump said. "I mean, I think I'm entitled to it . . . I think it's so unfair, because Hillary Clinton goes to see an Adele concert last night, and everybody says, 'Oh, wasn't that nice, isn't that wonderful?'"

And while Trump believes he is going to win, he told Stephanopoulos he will make the decision "at the right time" whether to accept the results of the race should Clinton defeat him.

"We have a rigged system," he said. "Look at what's coming out with WikiLeaks. Look at what they're saying. What [John] Podesta says, Hillary Clinton running for president has bad instincts. Bernie Sanders says she's got bad judgment."

Trump, though said he believes the media has treated him badly in comparison to Clinton, and he didn't know if the "free media" he got during the primaries is free "when it's bad."

"What they should be talking about is WikiLeaks and the horrible things that have come out about Hillary Clinton," Trump said. "She's so guilty. She deleted 33,000 emails. They're missing boxes of emails. She's so guilty of how could she even run, but there's such anger over what she got away with."

FBI Director James Comey came under fire, as well, for saying no prosecutor would bring a case against Clinton.

"He made a mistake, or whatever," Trump said. "I don't even call it a mistake. I think something happened. Look, something happened. I think somebody talked to him."

Melania Trump said in the interview she has faith her husband will win, as he has "completed a movement" and crowds and voters are behind him. She also indicated, backed up by her husband, she might hit the campaign trail in the remaining days of the race.

"We will see," she said. "My priorities are my son Barron, our son Barron. I support him 110 percent, and there for him every time he needs me and may join him."

Trump, though, said his wife will make two or three speeches, and she is an "amazing public speaker."

"I think it's going to be big speeches, important speeches," he said. "I think it's going to be great."

Melania Trump said their son Barron, Trump's youngest child, knows what is going on and she has been working to keep him balanced and to allow him a "childhood that's as normal as possible," but like his father, "he follows the polls."

Like her husband, Melania said the "dishonest media" has been an issue in the race.

"I could just speak for myself that I don't want to mention a specific act," she said, "but so often they'll say, 'Oh, Donald Trump said this or he said that, and what I said was fine.' If a Democrat had said it, if Hillary had said it, they wouldn't have even thought about it, but I'll say something that's perfect and next day it's headlines. Donald Trump said this or that.'"

Her husband insisted the "media poisons the mind of the American voter," but voters are "really smart . . . I think the American voter is smarter than the media."

Melania Trump went on to say she plans, if her husband is elected, to focus on the effect of social media on the nation's children — and she gives her husband advice on his Twitter feed, which he uses to tweet attacks on his foes, "all the time."

"Look, it's a modern-day form of communication," the GOP nominee told Stephanopoulos, who had pointed out a two-page spread in The New York Times this week that listed all the people and entities Trump had insulted over the years.

"Between Facebook and Twitter, I have 25 million people," Trump said. "It's a big asset. You have to use it right."

But he agreed with his wife, "people are hurt so badly by new social media" before going on to defend himself for the attack tweets listed in The Times.

"Most of them deserved it," Trump said, before telling Stephanopoulos he is surprised he did not include the anchor in his attacks.

"I believe in fighting back," Trump said. "When people are against me, when they tell lies, you know, I have the power of this instrument and frankly, sometimes I'll use that. And I agree. Sometimes it will revert back or sometimes maybe it doesn't come out, you have to be careful with it. "

His wife, meanwhile, said she does not know Clinton "that well," but believes she is out there fighting, with the help of her "political machine."

Clinton and husband Bill were among the guests at the Trump's wedding, but Melania said in the interview the Democratic nominee is "protected a lot, and they will not say everything what needs to be said."