NEW YORK -- Billionaire television personality and business executive Donald Trump formally began his Republican presidential campaign Tuesday in Manhattan, saying the United States has become "a dumping ground for other people's problems."
"Our country needs a truly great leader, and we need a truly great leader now," said Trump. "We need somebody who can take the brand of the United States and make it great again.
"So ladies and gentlemen, I am officially running for president of the United States," Trump told a crowd gathered at Trump Tower. He promised "to bring back our jobs, to bring back our manufacturing" and to be "a great cheerleader."
"I will be the greatest jobs president that God ever created," he said. "I'll bring back our jobs and I'll bring back our money."
He cataloged what he described as humiliations of the United States by foreign countries, addressing terrorism and immigration. He said China is "killing us" and that Mexico is sending "rapists" across the border.
He pulled no punches with his fellow Republicans, finishing a riff on Jeb Bush by saying, "How ... can you vote for this guy?"
"My father is the opposite of politically correct," his daughter Ivanka Trump said in introducing him. "He says what he thinks and he means what he says."
About 100 supporters, most wearing Trump T-shirts handed out by the campaign, cheered when he and his wife, Melania, descended to the stage on an escalator. Trump made his announcement in the lower floor of the building where he lives and works, next door to Tiffany's and overlooking Central Park. "I'm really rich," he said at one point, adding: "I'm proud of my net worth."
Trump bragged about the lavish staging of his event, insisting that he had better air conditioning than other candidates did at their announcements and suggesting that was a measure of their competence. "How can they beat ISIS?" he said.
He also promoted his real estate holdings. "I have the best [golf] courses in the world," he said, adding that President Barack Obama would be welcome to play on them if he would leave the White House early.
Before Trump had left the stage, the Democratic Party had released a tongue-in-cheek statement.
"Today, Donald Trump became the second major Republican candidate to announce for president in two days," Democratic National Committee spokesman Holly Shulman said, referring to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's announcement Monday. "He adds some much-needed seriousness that had previously been lacking from the GOP field, and we look forward hearing more about his ideas for the nation."
Trump is chairman and president of the Trump Organization and the host of NBC's The Apprentice. The son of a real-estate developer, Trump took control of his father's firm in the 1970s and has expanded the company with skyscrapers, golf resorts and other properties in New York, Miami, Chicago, and Honolulu.
He has thought about running for president in the past but each time decided against it. This is his first campaign for public office.
"All of my life, I have heard a truly successful person, a really successful person, and even a modestly successful person, cannot run for public office -- just can't happen," Trump said Tuesday. "Yet that's the kind of mindset you need to make this country great again."
Trump has hired campaign workers in early-voting states and will have to file the financial disclosure report required of declared presidential candidates.
On Tuesday, he held up a one-page document that showed his net worth to be about $9 billion.
"I'm using my own money. I'm not using lobbyists. I'm not using donors," Trump said. "I don't care. I'm really rich.
"It sounds crass," he said. "It's not crass."
Trump, who turned 69 on Sunday, has supported candidates of both major parties through campaign contributions, including Republicans John McCain, George W. Bush, Rudy Giuliani and Newt Gingrich and Democrats John Kerry, Charles Schumer, Ted Kennedy, Joe Biden, Harry Reid, and Kirsten Gillibrand, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.
He has given between $100,000 and $250,000 to the family foundation of 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton, according to the foundation's website.
Trump has earned a reputation as one of Obama's most outspoken critics by questioning his place of birth and eligibility to hold the office. While considering a campaign in 2011, Trump said he had sent investigators to Obama's birth state of Hawaii to investigate the president's citizenship.
When Obama released his long-form birth certificate in April 2011, Trump took credit for pushing the matter. "I'm really honored, frankly, to have played such a big role in hopefully, hopefully, getting rid of this issue," he said.
Trump has indicated his business record will be the basis for a 2016 campaign. "Americans deserve better than what they get from their politicians -- who are all talk and no action!" he said in a statement announcing the formation of an exploratory committee in March. "I have built a great company, created thousands of jobs and built a tremendous net worth with some of the finest and most prestigious assets in the world -- and very little debt!"
Trump was set to fly to Iowa after his announcement in New York. He plans to travel to New Hampshire today for an event at Manchester Community College. He made frequent trips this spring to Iowa and New Hampshire, where the nation's first nominating contests will be held early next year.
Bush: Clinton 'tough'
As Trump announced his candidacy, Bush was in New Hampshire for his first full day of campaigning.
Bush didn't pass up the opportunity to go after Clinton. In an interview with Fox News Channel's Sean Hannity before a campaign event, Bush described Clinton as smart but said she passed just three laws in eight years in the Senate and that he'd "put my record up against Hillary Clinton's eight days a week."
"She is a formidable candidate," Bush said. "She is going to be tough, no question about it."
Bush, who described himself as the only Republican candidate who "doesn't ascribe bad motives" to Democrats, said during the forum that he'd work across the aisle to make Social Security solvent.
He didn't disagree with a questioner who said Republicans are known for tax cuts for the wealthy, saying the code is "rife" with carve-outs for wealthy special interests. Bush said the tax code should be simplified, but he didn't say which exemptions or credits he would eliminate.
Twelve Republicans have entered the 2016 race. Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad on Monday called for changes to the party's plans for its presidential debates, saying all major candidates in the race should be treated equally.
Branstad said the debates should not be limited to "the people that are in the top tier on some national poll." Instead, he suggested dividing the field into two panels. Branstad spokesman Jimmy Centers said the governor would prefer to see candidates randomly grouped.
Fox News, the host of the first debate, plans to restrict it to the top 10 candidates based on averages from the five most recent national public opinion surveys. Last week, the network said candidates who do not qualify will be invited to participate in a forum to be aired the afternoon of the debate.
The party's second debate, hosted by CNN in September, also will be divided. One debate will feature the 10 highest-polling candidates, and the other will include the remaining candidates who register at least 1 percent in public polling.
Information for this article was contributed by Emily Greenhouse and Michael C. Bender of Bloomberg News; and by Jonathan Lemire, Steve Peoples and Catherine Lucey of The Associated Press.
A Section on 06/17/2015