Trump Announces White House Bid

Donald Trump is a king of real estate and of American-sized ego, but, politically, he's a diehard Birther with a long history of playing Hamlet when it came to deciding whether to run for president. For the past 20 years he has been more than happy to tell the world he was considering a run for the White House and that he would be the best person to lead the country. But when push came to shove, The Donald chose Not To Be (a candidate).

His years of political flirtation ended on Tuesday, when he finally took the dive. The GOP will field a wide array of candidates in the 2016 primaries. It'll be a circus. And now it has its ringleader. And, of course, Trump brought his swagger to his big announcement, held at the 68-story Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. No humblebrag here. He crowed that he's the "most successful person ever to run for the presidency, by far," according to CNN. And he took a shot at business savvy but politically unsuccessful 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, by boasting that he owns a "Gucci store that's worth more than Romney."

While Trump has been light on policy specifics to date, he has alluded to a “foolproof plan” to deal with Islamic terrorists but declined to provide more details because “I don’t want the enemy to know what I’m doing.” Trump’s announcement comes one day after former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush threw his hat in the ring. Perhaps that was the kick in the pants needed by The Donald, who said earlier this year in Iowa “the last thing we need is another Bush,” according to the Washington Post. Trump is scheduled to appear on CNN’s State of the Union with Jake Tapper this Sunday at 9am. [CNN] [WaPo]