It was an announcement six years in the making.
After first floating the idea back in 2010, Donald Trump declared on Tuesday that he was running for President of the United States.
“Sadly the American dream is dead,” Trump said as he wound up his announcement speech at Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in New York City.
With his wafer-like hair glistening under the stage lights, Trump promised to bring that dream back to life.
He rambled through a speech full of condemnations of China and Mexican people (“not our friends”), theories about free trade, all the while repeatedly calling America’s current leadership “stupid” compared to the Chinese Communist Party.
“Their leaders are much smarter than our leaders,” he said. “It’s like taking the New England Patriots and Tom Brady and have them play your high school football team. That’s the difference between our leaders and China’s leaders.”
Trump, whose net worth was previously estimated at about $4 billion, boasted of a $9 billion dollar fortune, built from his iron will and business cunning. (He will release his financial details later on Tuesday, the Washington Post reported.)
The real-estate mogul became the 12th Republican to enter the presidential race.
