Billion To Buy In: Trump To Spend $600 Million On Presidential Campaign, Will Seek Voters To Fund Other $400 Million
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Trump has said repeatedly that he is willing to spend $600 million of his personal fortune to run for president, but to meet the $1 billion price tag for a 2012 campaign, even he will ask for campaign donations.
“If I run, I’ll absolutely (raise funds). I think it’s important for voters to invest in the direction of the country,” Trump said in an interview Tuesday with USA TODAY.
His success in a series of polls from a variety of large news organizations has left political observers explaining why the business mogul and reality star suddenly seems like a viable candidate.
In response to CNN/ Opinion Research Poll released Tuesday that had Trump and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee tied for first place, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour said voters simply knew Trump’s name.
“I wouldn’t read too much into that, in all candor,” Barbour told New Hampshire’s WKXL Radio on Tuesday. “For some voters, it may have just been that pure and simple: I’ve heard of Donald Trump, nobody else I’ve heard of I want to be for, so I’ll just park my vote for this little poll with Donald Trump.”
Trump expressed doubt that voters were simply picking whomever they knew.
“I think they know the other contenders,” Trump said, adding that former governors Mitt Romney of Massachusetts and Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota were fairly recognizable at this point. “I have the highest in terms of name recognition.”
Instead, he attributed his popularity in the polls to his message: The United States is in bad shape and someone needs to turn that around. “Something resonates with people; people know I’m a serious person,” Trump said.
He derided the recent trade agreements with South Korea and Colombia as a “disaster” and “terrible,” respectively, and said, if he were president, he would impose tougher rules and regulations on other countries in order to halt jobs from drifting overseas. He also slammed the Obama administration for allowing OPEC to “rip us off” and causing gas prices to skyrocket.
“The U.S. has never been in such bad shape as it is now,” Trump said.
Trump said that he will announce his intentions in June, after his reality show Celebrity Apprentice wraps for the season, and that, if he runs, he intends to compete in debates.
Trump said he wasn’t concerned about the increased scrutiny that comes with a bid for president, and he pledged to file disclosure forms dealing with his business empire. “They know me; they know what they are getting,”he said.
Trump has made Obama’s birthplace an issue in numerous TV interviews since his appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February. On NBC’s Today show last week, Trump said “there is a big possibility” that Obama may have violated the Constitution. The president was born in Hawaii, and his birth certificate, which is on file in Honolulu, was verified as authentic in the 2008 campaign by the state’s health director and director of vital statistics.
Asked about his investigation into Obama’s birth certificate, Trump said his investigation continues. “I’m amazed Obama has gotten such a free pass on this issue,” he said.
Contributing: Catalina Camia
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