With thoughts of a 2016 presidential run, business tycoon and reality TV host Donald Trump made a visit to Iowa, swinging in at Simpson College.

In an address that was expected to center around education, Trump also talked about his personal experiences as an entrepreneur, advice for college students entering the workforce and the nation’s infrastructure.

In the short time he spoke about education, Trump took a swing at the common core used in the nation’s school system.

“Common core is a disaster,” Trump said. “Common core is run by a bunch of bureaucrats who don’t know what they’re doing.” 

When asked by moderator Zach Goodrich if the Department of Education had any role at a federal level Trump responded saying, “I don’t see much.”

Trump received a small amount of cheer when he said policies in education would be better decided at a local level.

“Some person in Washington who is only there to collect a check every week is not going to tell the people of Iowa how to educate your students,” Trump said. 

When later confronted about the issues of student debt, Trump answered that the nation’s leaders need to focus on building jobs. Trump pointed out the nation is currently losing jobs as companies move out of the country.

“It’s all about the jobs,” Trump said. “If you come out from a great college like this and you come back and there [are] no jobs, that’s a tough situation.”

Forgetting he was on a liberal arts campus, Trump also said students out of college will be better marketed for jobs if they focus on what he views as more pragmatic areas of study like business, rather than humanities.

“Things like business do give you an advantage, even if you love those other subjects,” Trump said.

While Trump attempted to prove himself as a viable candidate to Simpson and Indianola community members, many students felt he skirted around issues and did not give forward answers. 

“I expected more of him talking about his plans instead of talking down on our country,” junior Kolby Warren said. “He talked about how China and Japan are surpassing us economically…but he’s saying we’re becoming an incompetent country and I disagree with that.”

Junior Jordan Hubka said he thought Trump put forth decent answers to issues facing the nation today, but questioned what Trump has done so far with solving them.

“He thinks he has answers to all the problems in the world,” Hubka said. “It sounds like he already has solutions to get jobs back here, but if he makes it sounds so simple, why isn’t it happening already?”

While speaking business and policy was the tycoon’s main focus, he took the opportunity to slide in a little humor. 

During the first portion of Trump’s talk, his microphone volumes were low. When given a new microphone and told people had trouble hearing him, he jumped to his famous “The Apprentice” punch line.

“Who’s running the mics?” Trump questioned. “You’re fired.”