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How about Jen M?
You know, I got along with Jen M. fairly well. She’s extremely
cunning. She knows what she wants to get from somebody and she knows
how to get it.
Right. OK. Of the remaining candidates,
who deserves most to win and why?
Who deserves to win the most? I think a lot of the people who deserve
to win are gone.
OK, but if you had to choose between the people remaining?
If I had to answer your question, who would I pick? Gosh, I don’t
know. I’d pick Sandy.
OK, and why would you choose her?
Because, she’s got--let me rethink that. I’d pick Jen
M., what the hell.
OK.
She’s got blonde hair. No, no, no, I’m just joking about
that [laughs]…Literally, the honest answer, Sandeep, there
is nobody I feel passionate about, and I think that’s the
answer I should stick with. Really, the truth is, I don’t
think anybody specifically stands out and deserves to win. I think
Kelly has done a great job in his performances and that’s
clear. Let me put it this way. Here’s my answer: if I had
a job to do, I would probably give it to Kelly. He’s probably
the most effective of the group left. He’s just not the most
likeable.
Right. OK, fair enough. You seemed to get along well with
your fellow candidates. Do you think this hurt you in the end?
No. I don’t think it hurt me at all. It made me, well, look
you know what, it’s actually a good question, I’ll tell
you, because in the sense that everybody stuck up for me it made
me much less worried about getting fired. So, as I went into my
boardroom, I was pretty much confident that I wouldn’t get
fired because nobody on my team said I should get fired. I knew
nobody was going to gang up on me. And I thought that would be such
an unusual thing that Trump would say, "Hey, this guy is obviously
doing something right, if no one is going after him." And,
as a result, I didn’t prepare to go on the offensive, or anything
like that, so I didn’t really fight nearly as hard as I would
have otherwise.
Right, because it seemed like Chris could have been taken
to the boardroom and Trump might have fired him, had you decided
to do that.
Yeah, it’s likely in fact that he would have been fired. But
then, look, I didn’t disagree with what he said. The man was
speaking his mind. I respect that. And I’m not going to take
someone in the boardroom for being straightforward and honest. And
I got along with him. He was a friend of mine. I wasn’t going
to be a yellow belly and pull him in.
OK. Do you feel that you were accurately portrayed on the
show?
I mean, you know, every time I spoke to a woman they put a camera
on me, so I think that was a little bit overplayed. But, I don’t have any gripes,
really, with the way I was portrayed. It was accurate, generally.
There’s only so much time they can put a camera on you. But,
I didn’t see anything that was really out of character.
What was the highlight of your experience
on The Apprentice?
From a professional standpoint, I enjoyed the restaurant task because
it was really a lot of fun to put together. And I won as project
manager. So, I enjoyed that. And from a reward standpoint, I had
a lot of fun with that Anna Kournikova incident.
You were selected on the show over, I imagine, hundreds
of thousands of people. What do you think set your application apart?
And what advice would you give to others seeking to be selected
by the show?
From an application standpoint, I probably have the best
real-world business credentials of anybody. I’ve done developments,
I’ve actually raised money myself and seen it through. I’m
working on a $35 million condominium project right now in Vail.
So, I mean, that’s stuff that nobody else is doing. That’s
the professional side. On the personality side, I have a lot of
personality. I think I conveyed that. They liked what they saw.
And that gets to my advice, which is be who you are and go for it.
When you go on television, especially in a reality television show,
it’s not the time to hold back.
RAJ’S NEWEST VENTURE
OK, let’s get to the Coalition for the Advancement
of the Republic. According to the website,
the organization "espouses common sense conservatism matched
with the conviction that progressive change must be embraced."
I noticed that you do have a newsletter that’s coming out.
How else do you plan to get your message out?
I intend, first of all, to have the basics, which is a website presence.
Secondly, I’m going to be meeting prominent people in various
areas of the country, and starting chapters in each of those areas,
where we’ll raise money for specific issues, and basically
build out an organization brick by brick. If there is a future for
me in some sort of public arena, in other words, if I’m on
television, I’ll be plugging it away consistently.
What political leader has views that most closely reflect
your own and why?
I would look back to Ronald Reagan. Going back from him, I would
say Barry Goldwater. I’m comfortable with those two. I think,
in the modern day, there’s nobody that I really look up to.
There’s a real lack of good leadership in America today. Wise
leadership.
What do you think about John McCain?
I like John McCain. I think he’s got the right ideas in terms
of [how] we need to reform the government [and] that the special
interests have too much power. I think he would have a good shot
at elected [presidential] office, but getting through the primaries
with the Republican party so dominated by right-wing interests--it’s
difficult for a moderate reformer like McCain, who we really need,
to get in.
OK. I want to ask you about some issues here. What are
your views on the war in Iraq? Did you support the President’s
decision to go to war?
No. I have long been a critic of the war in Iraq. I think you cannot
walk in with American ideals and expect to democratize a region
of the world that has no experience or inclination to become democratic.
I think that in many cases failing civilizations, like failing people,
can only be fixed when they come to realize what’s wrong with
them. And, force-feeding ideals of democracy to someone who doesn’t
want to hear them is like trying to take a crack pipe away from
a drug addict. They just don’t want to hear about it. And,
unfortunately, I think we’re going to find ourselves mired
in a situation where the exit strategy might just be Saddam-lite.
And, long before the war began, I had that concern. It was quite
obviously not about weapons of mass destruction, because if that
were the case, we’d be going after North Korea. At the end
of the day, I don’t think we’re going to succeed at
democratizing [Iraq]. I think it’s a noble attempt, but ultimately
misguided.
What are your views on outsourcing jobs to countries like
India?
I think we live in a global economy. We need to compete. If we lose
jobs in certain areas of the old economy like textiles and older manufacturing areas,
that’s fine. I’m all for globalization. What America
needs to focus on are new areas of industry and manufacturing, next
generation technology and techniques. Let all the old-fashioned
jobs go to areas of the world that can produce things more efficiently
than we can. I think it’s healthy; it keeps us competitive.
Never put your head in the sand.
What about computer jobs that have been going as well?
We are not losing that grip on intellectual property. Most of the
creative stuff is coming out of the US. It goes [back] basically
to manufacturing things, essentially what programming is in India--that’s
OK. I think that it’s a very good idea for the United States
to promote closer relations with India. It’s extremely important
because you have this Chinese colossus looming on the horizon and
we’re going to need countries in the region that can be strong
allies against that.
Do you plan to run for elected office some day?
I will run for elected office some day, yeah.
What kind of a position are you thinking about?
I think that Philadelphia in particular, my hometown, is in real
need of good government, so I’ll probably get involved there
in some capacity.
You seem to speak your mind. Do you think that your candor
would help or hurt you in politics?
It will help in certain cases and hurt in others. I just need to
hone where it helps and use it… [laughs] wisely. But people
want a candidate who will speak the truth, but at the same time,
you have to know when to give the politic answer.
Right. When do you plan to have your first newsletter come
out?
That will come out at the end of this month. It will be a New Year’s
newsletter.
RAJ ON RAJ
OK. I want to get into some more personal type questions
about you. Our readers want to know: What aspects of South Asian
culture have influenced you?
I would say, for sure, my father is Gujarati, and there is a great
tradition of entrepreneurship in that community. And that definitely
has influenced me heavily. It has influenced me in the sense that
I know that when you put your mind to something, you can do pretty
much anything. In the sense that, it has made me very proud to come
from a community that has really come to America with little more
than a desire to work and a thirst for knowledge and success and
see that success happen on a daily basis. It’s given me faith
in human achievement. Surely, [our] family values are very strong.
Those are two areas where it has probably influenced me most profoundly.
What’s the best part of your newfound celebrity?
You know what, I don’t know what the best part of it is yet.
I suppose that I can pick up the telephone and meet with pretty
much anybody right now. That’s good. I need to figure out
how to use it though. [laughs] Honestly, it has not changed my life
very much at all at the end of the day.
Do you like being famous?
Anybody who goes on television and tells you that they’re
out there thirsting for anonymity, and they really don’t want
to be famous, is a stone liar. Everybody goes on television because
they want to be famous on some level. End of the day: that’s
just the facts of the matter. So, yeah, I like it. But it’s
not too important to me. And it’s not what identifies me.
I understand the bow tie, it’s a distinctive look.
But the cane, what’s the deal with the cane?
You know what [laughs], when I walk around in New York, I actually
do walk with a cane. I enjoy having something to twirl around in
my hands. I pilfered the idea from the character on the bottle of
Johnny Walker scotch. It’s just something that I do. I didn’t
realize when I was bringing that thing [on The Apprentice], that
I’d be bringing it into Toys ‘R’ Us. You’ll
notice I didn’t show up with it too much frequently after
that.
Our readers are dying to know if you’re single.
I am single, yes.
OK, well they also want to know, obviously you are attracted
to supermodels and Anna
Kournikova, nothing wrong with that--
[laughs]
--but our readers are primarily, you know, ABCD ladies and
they want to know if they have a chance with you.
Of course. Of course.
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