Trump attacked George Bush: "Bush has been so bad, maybe the worst president in the history of this country. He has been so incompetent, so bad, so evil, that I don't think any Republican could have won."

"Look, everything in Washington has been a lie. Weapons of mass destruction. It was a total lie."

Trump praised Obama: "His speech was great last night. I thought it was inspiring in every way. And, hopefully he's going to do a great job. But the way I look at it, he cannot do worse than Bush." 

Trump said he is for universal health care: "I'm very liberal when it comes to health care. I believe in universal health care."

Trump likes single-payer government health care: "As far as single-payer, it works in Canada. It works incredibly well in Scotland.

Trump admired Hillary: "I'm a big fan of Hillary. She's a terrific woman. She's a friend of mine. I think she was treated very poorly and I think it's hurt Barack Obama quite badly."

"Very talented, very smart. She's a friend of mine, so I'm a little bit prejudiced. She's a very, very capable person and I think she'll probably be the nominee. We'll see, but I think she'll probably be the nominee." " I think she's a very, very brilliant person, and as a senator in New York, she has done a great job. Everybody loves her." 

Trump opposed NAFTA: "I am [an opponent] when the economy is not strong, which, unfortunately, will at some point happen, NAFTA is going to look like a disaster."

"Decades of disastrous trade deals and immigration policies have destroyed our middle class."

Trump is for campaign finance reform: "... I had Ed Koch tell me that I can't – that he can't do something for me because I was a contributor to his campaign. And I never liked him after that, to be honest with you."

Trump said he is against booze: "... I'd also come down tough on alcohol. I don't know why everyone's suing tobacco, which is terrible, and I love that they're suing and I love that they're paying a big price, but why aren't they suing the alcohol companies[.]"

Trump likes Oprah for VP: "Oprah, I love Oprah. Oprah would always be my first choice."

Trump condemned Republicans for being mean-spirited to immigrants: "Republicans didn't have anything going for them with respect to Latinos and with respect to Asians. The Democrats didn't have a policy for dealing with illegal immigrants, but what they did have going for them is they weren't mean-spirited about it. They didn't know what the policy was, but what they were is they were kind."

Trump supported a path to citizenship for illegals: "You have to give them a path. You have 20 million, 30 million, nobody knows what it is. It used to be 11 million. Now, today I hear it's 11, but I don't think it's 11. I actually heard you probably have 30 million."

"You know, the truth is I have a lot of illegals working for me in Miami[.]"

"You know in Miami, my golf course is tended by all these Hispanics – if it wasn't for them my lawn wouldn't be the lawn it is; it's the best lawn."

"At the end of the day, what we're looking at is a value proposition for America," "You've convinced me."

Trump said he would keep the Iran deal: "It's very tough to do, when you say, 'Rip up a deal.' Because I'm a deal person. ... I would police that contract so tough that they don't have a chance."

Trump said he is pro-choice: "I'm totally pro-choice. I hate it and I hate saying it. And I'm almost ashamed to say that I'm pro-choice but I am pro-choice because I think we have no choice."

Trump is for big government and crony capitalism: He used the government to take private property for his benefit.  "The entire development would cost the city nothing, and no private homeowners would be affected because there are no dwellings on the land."  Trump would own everything.

Bill Clinton encouraged Trump to run: "Four Trump allies and one Clinton associate familiar with the exchange said that Clinton encouraged Trump's efforts to play a larger role in the Republican Party and offered his own views of the political landscape."

Trump was for leaving Iraq before Obama was: "You know how [the U.S.] get out? They get out. That's how they get out. Declare victory and leave, because I'll tell you, this country is just going to get further bogged down."

Trump is pals with Al Sharpton: "I know [Sharpton] very well, and I've always gotten along with him, to be honest with you."

"There are those who say [Sharpton] likes Trump a lot. ... Al's a con man. He knows it. I know it. Don King knows it, his friend, who I go to with fights with – with Al. And they all know it."

Trump supported Obama on salary caps and the bailouts:

Larry King: Is Obama right or wrong to go after these executives with salary caps?

Donald Trump: Well, I think he's absolutely right. Billions of dollars is being given to banks and others. You know, once you start using taxpayer money, it's a whole new game. So I absolutely think he's right.

King: What about the whole concept of bailouts?

Trump: Well, it's a little bit different. A lot of people are not in favor of bailouts. You know, we talked about all the different things going on in this country. Let's face it, Larry, we are in a depression. If they didn't do the bailout, you would be in depression No. 2 and maybe just as big as depression No. 1, so they really had to do something. The problem is they're giving millions and billions of dollars to banks and the banks aren't loaning it.

Far-left economist Paul Krugman says Trump is right about economics: "Mr. Bush has chosen to attack Mr. Trump as a false conservative, a proposition that is supposedly demonstrated by his deviations from current Republican economic orthodoxy: his willingness to raise taxes on the rich, his positive words about universal health care," Krugman wrote. "For the issues the Bush campaign is using to attack its unexpected nemesis are precisely the issues on which Mr. Trump happens to be right, and the Republican establishment has been proved utterly wrong."

Trump thinks that boarding school is better than military service: Donald Trump, who received draft deferments through much of the Vietnam War, told the author of a forthcoming biography that he nevertheless "always felt that I was in the military" because of his education at a military-themed boarding school.  Mr. Trump said that his experience at the New York Military Academy, an expensive prep school where his parents had sent him to correct poor behavior, gave him "more training militarily than a lot of the guys that go into the military."

In short, there is a lot for liberals to like about The Donald.  And if he says something you don't like, wait a week or two – he'll change.

Robert A. Hall is a Marine Vietnam Veteran who served five terms in the Massachusetts Senate.  An association executive for 31 years, he was forced to retire in 2013 due to pulmonary fibrosis and underwent a lung transplant.  He is the author of 11 books, including The Coming Collapse of the American Republic, with all royalties going to charity.