NEW YORK — Donald Trump was God’s gift to the Internet on Tuesday.

After years of head fakes about running for the White House, The Donald promised his two-decade game of pretend is over: “I am officially running for president of the United States. And we are going to make our country great again.”


The rambling, hour-long stream-of-consciousness speech was online catnip, from the soundtrack (pure schmaltz, featuring piece from the “Phantom of the Opera” and “Cats”) to the entrance, as Trump descended the escalator to the marble basement of the Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue with wife Melania, who was clad in stiletto heels and a strapless white dress.

So far he’s not “in in.” Federal Election Commission records show Trump has yet to file any paperwork making his candidacy official. He has 15 days to do so.

And he’s spent years flirting heavily with political office, only to back away. Trump entertained the idea of a presidential run in 1988, mulled it over in 2000, seriously considered it in 2004. In 2014, he threatened, very briefly, to run for Governor of New York.

If Trump follows through, his candidacy poses awkward dilemmas for a Republican Party trying to shed the clown-car image of fringe candidates that suck up media oxygen, but embarrass a GOP establishment desperate to reclaim the White House for the first time in eight years.

In the meantime, the man whose catch phrase is “you’re fired!” proclaimed he would become “the greatest jobs president that God ever created” and soaked up his time in the limelight on Tuesday.

He said he would “build a great wall on our southern border and have Mexico pay for that wall” and rebuild the country’s nuclear arsenal that “doesn’t work.”

He blasted the $5 billion price tag for Obamacare websites and said he could do better. “I hire people, they do a website, it costs $3,” he boasted.

And, of course, he reminded the crowd: “I’m really rich…that’s the kind of thinking you need for this country. It sounds crass, it’s not crass.”

A team of accountants, he said, has been toiling for months to calculate his total net worth of $8 billion, and assets of $9.24 billion.

“That’s the kind of thinking our country needs,” he said in apparent reference to his wealth. “We have the opposite thinking. We have losers. We have people that don’t have it. We have people that are morally corrupt.”

Trumpalooza was unlike any regular candidate’s announcement. Reporters from Access Hollywood, Entertainment Tonight and gossip reporters from Page Six filled the Trump Tower basement.

There was no attempt at diversity in the crowd of supporters, or the warm-up acts before he took the stage: the event was all about Trump. The only intro act was Ivanka Trump, who introduced her father with glowing praise.

Unlike the kick-off acts of the more serious candidates, where regular Americans are placed in closest proximity to the candidate, and the press is shunted to the back of the room, Trump fans were kept upstairs while the area closest to the hotel developer was reserved for hundreds of reporters and television cameras — even a Russia Today affiliate was on hand to cover the spectacle.

After his glitzy announcement, he was trending on Twitter for most of the day. A Vine of the escalator entrance went viral. Democratic strategists watched Trump’s announcement play out on social media with glee, passing the proverbial popcorn.

In a tongue-in-cheek statement, the Democratic National Committee welcomed Trump to the crowded Republican field: “Today, Donald Trump became the second major Republican candidate to announce for president in two days,” said spokeswoman Holly Shulman. “He adds some much-needed seriousness that has previously been lacking from the GOP field, and we look forward to hearing more about his ideas for the nation.”

But the famous blowhard could be a real problem for Republican candidates, hogging the attention and limited debate stage space that are key for such a crowded field of more legitimate candidates. “The worst nightmare for the growing Republican presidential brood is a man who has no compunction to fire and humiliate,” said Democratic strategist Hank Sheinkopf. “Donald Trump gets on the ballot, Jeb Bush might lose his mind. Everyone including the audience at debates will need earplugs and tranquilizers.”

On the record, 2016 Republican voices were polite. Well, mostly polite. Jeb Bush couldn’t help but chuckle when asked by FOX News Channel’s Sean Hannity about his word-association for Trump. (The answer: “rich guy”)

Republican National Committee spokesman Sean Spicer called Trump “a successful businessman” and said, “We’ve got a number of high-caliber candidates running in this cycle.”

Other campaigns welcomed Trump into the race. “He’s clearly been a successful businessman, and the more the merrier,” said Rand Paul spokesman Sergio Gor in a statement.

“Donald Trump has as much right to run as anyone,” said former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee in an emailed statement. “… I personally like him and I’m glad that he joins me in pointing out that we need to hold China accountable for their end of trade deals and currency manipulations.”

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said in a statement: “His experience as a successful businessman and job creator will prove crucial to ensuring the eventual GOP nominee is not only well-equipped to defeat Hillary Clinton in November, but also to make America great again.”

Still, the event had a lot of energy, in the building and on the Internet.

A crowd filled up three floors of Trump Tower, leaning over the amber-colored, mirrored walls, waving signs that said: “Donald, We need YOU!!!”

“This is beyond anybody’s expectations,” Trump crowed from the podium. “There’s been no crowd like this. Some of the candidates they went in, they didn’t know the air conditioning didn’t work and they sweated like dogs. … They didn’t know the room was too big because there was nobody there. How are they going to beat ISIS?”

He vowed: “Nobody would be tougher on ISIS than Donald Trump.”

Trump criticized President Barack Obama for failing to be a cheerleader for the U.S. and said as president he would immediately repeal Obama’s “illegal” executive action on immigration. But he said Obama would be welcome on his golf courses. “I have the best courses in the world,” he said. “If he’d like to play that’s fine. In fact, I want him to leave early and play, that would be a very good thing.”

And in perhaps his clearest articulation of why he’s running, Trump declared, “We need a leader that wrote ‘The Art of the Deal,’” a reference to his 1987 book.

Daniel Lippman contributed to this report.