Zimpapers Logo

Donald Trump

NEW YORK/WASHINGTON. — Property billionaire Donald Trump has announced he will run for the White House in the 2016 election.

Trump, a Republican, has never run for the party’s nomination before, but has often talked about it.

“I am officially running for president of the United States and we are going to make our country great again,” he told supporters at New York’s Trump Towers on Fifth Avenue.

He said his fortune would allow him to be an effective president.

“Our country is in serious trouble. We don’t have victories anymore,” he said. When was the last time anyone saw us beating, let’s say, China in a trade deal?

“They kill us. I beat China all the time.”

According to a BBC analysis, few people expected it to happen — he’s gone through the motions many times before — and his political rants up until now have been roundly derided as a joke. But this time he actually said the words, and he seems like he means it. With campaign staff in key early voting states and a net worth he puts at more than $8.5bn, he has the resources to roil the Republican presidential field. Trump is polling high enough to get a spot on the stage in the forthcoming Republican debates, and he’s already proven a willingness to take swings at his opponents.

Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio “don’t have a clue”, he said in his announcement speech. “How are these people going to lead us?” he asked.

If he says that enough times during a debate — or in a multi-million dollar television advertising spree — a lot of people are going to stop laughing and take notice. And that’s probably just what Mr Trump wants. — BBC.