MIAMI BEACH -- A Dade County real estate millionaire has launched a campaign to draft flamboyant New York developer Donald Trump for president.

Trump, 41, is known as a go-getter who operates an Atlantic City casino; has built a number of New York City buildings, including the trend-setting $190 million Trump Tower; and owns a winter mansion in Palm Beach.

"We need a proven leader," said Abe Hirschfeld, reached at his Castle Premier Hotel in Miami Beach.

Hirschfeld said Trump helped revitalize New York City in the mid-1970s with his megaprojects.

He said he called Trump this week and asked him if he would object to a "Trump for President" campaign.

" 'I wouldn't stand in your way' is what he told me," Hirschfeld said.

Trump could not be reached for comment.

The campaign was kicked off Wednesday with ads in The Miami Herald and The Miami News. "We got over 200 calls, all positive, about the ads," Hirschfeld said.

Ads will be run in Chicago and Los Angeles newspapers shortly, he said.

The ad in the Miami newspapers featured a reprint of an open letter that Trump had placed in The Washington Post, The New York Times and The Boston Globe on Sept. 2. The letter aired Trump's views that the United States is getting "ripped off" by escorting Persian Gulf tankers carrying oil that largely benefits other nations.

"We're bringing Japan's oil out so they can kick hell out of Chrysler and Ford," Trump said then.