Trump's toying with race carries deja vu for state Politics

Donald Trump talks to the press after receiving the American Aautomobile Aassociation's (AAA) Five-Diamond Award for Trump's International Hotel & Tower New York at the hotel on March 31, 2011. Trump is widely rumored to be mulling a run for the US presidency in 2012. less Donald Trump talks to the press after receiving the American Aautomobile Aassociation's (AAA) Five-Diamond Award for Trump's International Hotel & Tower New York at the hotel on March 31, 2011. Trump is widely ... more Photo: Timothy A. Clary, AFP/Getty Images Photo: Timothy A. Clary, AFP/Getty Images Image 1 of / 5 Caption Close Trump's toying with race carries deja vu for state 1 / 5 Back to Gallery

His poll ratings are rocketing, Tea Party darling Sarah Palin has given him a new boost and his headline-making "birther" statements about President Obama have the Beltway cognoscenti buzzing.

But while businessman and reality TV star Donald Trump threatens to lend some needed pizzazz to the 2012 GOP race, the current frenzy suggesting "The Donald" may want to enter the fray of presidential politics carries an air of deja vu - at least in California.

The quotable and entertaining Trump is engaged in a virtual replay of his last trip around this track more than a decade ago, when he campaigned lustily in the state as a potential Reform Party candidate for president in advance of the 2000 elections.

With the field of prospective Republican candidates in next year's election looking like a bunch of retreads - Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee and Palin among them - it's no wonder some members of the media are aching for the excitement of a Trump comeback.

Worst nightmare

The New York Daily News' cover Monday trumpeted "Sideshow Don," a reference to Obama strategist David Plouffe's dismissal of Trump as a serious candidate. The comments show, Trump said, that he is the Democrats' "worst nightmare" - and that he's not kidding about a run.

But media types whipping up the frenzy can only hope the 64-year-old Trump will reprise some of the highlights of his last campaign swing through California in late 1999, when riding across the state with him meant getting squired in style on the lavish - gold faucets, round bed, anyone? - "Trump Force One" campaign plane.

Attired in razor-sharp black suits and sunglasses, his trademark golden mop glinting in the sun, the pre-reality-TV Trump knew how to sell it: He hit the trail with his stunning, statuesque Slovenian supermodel squeeze, Melania Knauss.

In a truly brilliant Trump moment, he held a news conference on the rooftop of an exclusive Beverly Hills hotel, with the city laid out at his feet while Melania stood by silently - tanned, bare-legged and in 5-inch-high Manolo Blahnik spike heels. She didn't need to say a thing; she was so good at the photo op, she's since become Mrs. Trump III.

Pretty faces

Trump made sure that there were plenty of other photogenic types and well-known faces in his California presidential campaign entourage: Hockey great Wayne Gretzky, actress Candice Bergen and motivational star Anthony Robbins jazzed up his campaign stops.

Back then, Trump made the rest of the wannabes, who included George W. Bush, John McCain, Pat Buchanan and Steve Forbes, "look like a pack of weary used-car salesmen," as The Chronicle reported.

"I'm not them," Trump deadpanned then, when asked about his potential presidential competitors in 2000.

As he is today, he was bullish on his chances to beat any comers. "We feel we can get the Reform Party nomination," he boasted then. "In a three-person race, we need 33 to 34 percent."

He didn't do timid: no rubber chicken lunches, boilerplate dial-a-speeches, no baby kissings.

Ten years before anyone had heard of the stuff, Trump distributed to reporters his signature "Trump" hand sanitizer because, he said, he didn't like shaking all those hands without some kind of protection.

He took reporters along as he hung out in the green room with Jay Leno prior to heading into the lion's den on the "Tonight Show."

A sense of humor

When he went on NBC's Burbank stage to cheers and "Hail to the Chief," Leno jibed him about the hair, the chicks, the money. If Trump got married in the White House and then divorced, Leno asked, what would Melania get - "like, west of the Mississippi?"

"You'd have to have a pre-nup, to save the country," Trump ad-libbed to howls of laughter.

Today, Trump is selling "Celebrity Apprentice," and its TV ratings skyrocket for each more outrageous comment he makes about whether Obama was born in the United States.

Back then, Trump was selling a new book - "The America We Deserve" - and a speaking tour.

"The Donald" was a rare presidential candidate who didn't care about fundraising in the state as he earned his own money. He was getting $100,000 a speech to address Robbins' "Results 2000" motivational events and spoke to sell-out crowds in an Anaheim sports arena where he strode up and down rows of adoring fans, talking about success, money, living large - and naturally, how he'd have no problem getting elected president.

Under that kind of glare, friends like Robbins predicted that Trump's bankruptcies and financial troubles - enough to fill an encyclopedia - wouldn't bother voters.

"I respect anybody who was $9 billion in debt and turned it around. He's brilliant," Robbins said.

Plenty busy

But Trump decided against a presidential run, sending hand-written thank-you notes to reporters who covered him with a gracious offer (call me if you need anything!).

Who could blame him for dropping out. The enormous bankruptcies, women, divorces, backroom deals, crazy quotes, insane photos, hair care and golden faucets were enough material to keep reporters busy for a long time. Why mess with success?

A decade later, some well-regarded Washington political analysts think Trump, who still possesses the gift of political gab and healthy chutzpah, is considering running for president.

But Trump is no "Celebrity Apprentice" in this race for the White House, and his California experience makes the argument for one ending to the show: He'll take himself out of the picture before real voters get a chance to say, "You're fired."