You actually did have a phone call with Donald Trump.

-I did.

After he got elected and before he took office,

I wanted to be -- he wanted me to know he wanted a call,

so I called him.

He was the Pres-elect and I don't have an ego, so okay.

And he asked me what he should do and I said,

"Well, you don't know anything

about a lot of parts of government.

You've never been in government before.

What you need to do is to get some people

that have experience, try to find a bunch of people

who are smarter than you,"

at which point he alleged that there weren't any.

[ Laughter ]

And then he gave me his private cellphone number,

which I didn't bother to write down.

[ Laughter ]

[ Cheers and applause ] -Oh, my God.

Have you talked to him since? -No.

-You haven't talked to him? -I have not talked to him since.

-Last time you were here, you were --

-But I mention him in my commercials.

[ Laughter ] -Yeah, I heard that. I saw that.

When you were last on our show, I think you were still mayor,

and everyone here asked you, begged you to run for President,

And you said no.

Why are you deciding to run now? Why now?

-Because I took a look and I thought the people

who are running didn't have ideas that were practical.

We couldn't afford them, and Congress wouldn't pass them,

and I didn't think they could beat Donald Trump,

and I think the most important thing is to change

who's living in the White House,

because as I said back in Philadelphia in 2016,

"Not the right guy for the job."

-Yeah. [ Cheers and applause ]

I think your strategy for your campaign

is very, very different.

We haven't seen anything like this.

You're not focusing on, like, New Hampshire and Iowa and --

-Well, I entered the race too late to really compete

in the early four states,

and you have to build a team and there are

only a certain number of people you can hire that would know

who to talk to and where to go and where to have dinner

and what to say and the local knowledge.

So I just really didn't have the chance to enter

those four early states,

but I've spent my time since then going around the country

for all the states who have their elections in March,

and so far I've been to 24 states and 56 cities

in four or five weeks. -Wow.

-And tonight I'm going to Houston.

Tomorrow, Washington. -Really?

-Then California and Arizona and Colorado

and that's before the weekend.

-Wow. It's a --

[ Cheers and applause ]

It's a big job.

You are self-funded. -Yes.

For me to ask other people for money is ridiculous.

[ Laughter ]

I mean, let's get serious here.

Also, I didn't take any money

when I was running for mayor three times.

I want people to understand that my integrity is everything.

You cannot buy me, and people say,

"Well, if everybody just gives $1,"

but it just sets the right -- I think it sets the right tone

to say I'm not taking anything from anybody, and unfortunately,

the Democratic Party has rules you can't be in the debates

unless you have 200,000 or 2 million, whatever it is, donors,

and I only have one donor -- me.

[ Laughter ] -Yeah.

-If they were to change the rules, I'd love to debate.

-Yeah. You would like to debate?

-Sure, why not?

It's a good chance to show the public

that you can take the grief as well as give it out,

and I think I have good answers to the kind of questions

that reporters would ask you, and some cute remarks for those

that come from the other candidates,

where they don't care at all.

-That's basically what the debates are, yeah.