Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump explained at Saturday's Republican debate that to get deals done in Washington, one can't "go to Hawaii and play golf," a clear reference to President Obama, but instead you have to get everybody in a room and "grab 'em, hug 'em, kiss 'em, and get the deal done."
People get together and make deals, Trump said, citing the relationship between President Ronald Reagan and former Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill, and he slammed the Iran nuclear deal as "amateurish."
"A good deal-maker would never make a deal like that," Trump said. "With Congress, you have to get everybody in a room, and you have to get them to agree, but you have to get them to agree with what you want ... You can't leave the White House, go to Hawaii and play golf for three weeks, and be a real deal-maker. It doesn't work that way.
"You have to get people in. Grab 'em, hug 'em, kiss 'em, and get the deal done, but it's got to be the deal that you want."
Guest moderator Mary Katharine Ham quipped in her question that Trump "literally" wrote the book on deal-making, a reference to The Art of the Deal, Trump's famous best-selling business advice book. GOP rival Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) has criticized deal-makers in Washington as maintaining the status quo.