Trump: 'I would've won the race against Obama'

Donald Trump is aggressively pushing himself back onto the Iowa stage as presidential material.

In a sit-down interview with The Des Moines Register, he said the two presumed GOP frontrunners, Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush, are doomed to lose — and he expressed regret that he hadn't run himself in 2012.

Trump said he should be in the White House right now.

"I was leading in every poll. ... I regret that I didn't stay in," he said in an interview before a private dinner at the Stine Barn in West Des Moines. "I would've won the race against (President Barack) Obama. He would've been easy. Hillary (Clinton) is tougher to beat than Obama, but Hillary is very beatable."

Trump said he heard Bush is trying to raise $15 million before he makes up his mind about running.

"If I do it, I'll be self-funding so that solves that problem. Which is nice," he said.

As for timing of a decision, he said: "It's too early for me to say. I'll may make a decision to run before June. But I'm strongly inclined to do so."

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Trump, a New Yorker famous for his real estate development work and his stardom in a reality TV series, spoke earlier in the day at the 2015 Land Investment Expo, an annual real estate conference in West Des Moines. Peoples Co., an Iowa-based real estate and property management company, hosts the post-conference dinner every year.

Trump has toyed with a White House bid numerous times since 1988 — and attracted plenty of national media coverage — but has never officially become a candidate. He briefly considered a run as an independent in 2000, then dropped hints about his interest in 2008 and 2012 in the months before the presidential nomination voting began.

He said he had two main reasons he didn't run last time: He had signed a contract to do future seasons of his reality TV show "The Apprentice," and he was in the midst of golf course, hotel and other development projects around the world. But that 2011 contract expires after this season, he said. He hasn't re-signed for another season, nor has he expressed any interest in doing so.

On Saturday, Trump speaks at the inaugural political summit that U.S. Rep. Steve King and the conservative group Citizens United are hosting in Des Moines. The event in Des Moines has attracted eight Republicans who have openly acknowledged they're weighing presidential bids.

Trump said he's not sure which of the potential GOP 2016ers he'd prefer right now, but he's certain it would be a mistake for Romney to seek a third term.

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"He failed. He choked. He's like a deal-maker that didn't close the deal. He shouldn't be running again. He had a great opportunity to win against a president that was absolutely lame, and he didn't do it. ... The 47 percent statement, which was a disaster, is not going away. Romneycare is not going away. All of his problems are not going away. He should get out and get out quickly."

As for Bush, a former governor of Florida whose family has sent two men to the White House, Trump said: "Frankly we've had enough of the Bushes. We're bushed out."



