Video: Stephanopoulos grills Trump

We need to load up on Trump content while we can because he’s getting it on all sides now, from establishment Republicans like Krauthammer and Rove to grassroots favorites like Mark Levin and Glenn Beck. (Beck’s crew went after him again just this morning.) Hard to believe he’ll retain a viable base of support as more conservatives start to highlight the unorthodoxies in his record. The latest, via the Club for Growth: Trump’s a big fan of the Supreme Court’s Kelo decision on eminent domain, a ruling so widely reviled on the right that it operates as an epithet.

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CAVUTO: You know, the one thing that sticks in the craw of a lot of people with this court, Donald — and I don’t know where you come down on it, but this eminent domain issue that essentially allowed someone’s home to be bulldozed, as was the case in New London, Connecticut, if it gets in the way of developers. Now, you’re a pretty successful developer in your own right. What did you think of that decision? Was the court overdoing it with that decision?

TRUMP: Well, it’s sort of not a good one for me to say, because I noticed every article written about it said, “Will Donald Trump take over your home?” sort of using me as the example, Neil. And it’s sort of — it’s an interesting situation to be in. But I happen to agree with it 100 percent, not that I would want to use it. But the fact is, if you have a person living in an area that’s not even necessarily a good area, and government, whether it’s local or whatever, government wants to build a tremendous economic development, where a lot of people are going to be put to work and make area that’s not good into a good area, and move the person that’s living there into a better place — now, I know it might not be their choice — but move the person to a better place and yet create thousands upon thousands of jobs and beautification and lots of other things, I think it happens to be good. (Fox News, 7/19/05)

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Eight years before Kelo, a government agency in Atlantic City tried to seize a woman’s home under eminent domain and transfer the property to Trump for development. (She won her lawsuit against them.) Stephanopoulos brought up the Club for Growth in their chat, in fact; I won’t spoil it by giving away his reaction, but watch for it — along with his answer on why he supported universal health care in 2000. Exit quotation: “It’s a long time ago. It’s 11 or 12 years ago. And frankly, a lot of people agreed with it. A lot of conservative Republicans agreed with it, at that time. We have a different country today.”

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