GREENVILLE, S.C. — New York businessman Donald Trump says he will let everyone know “very soon” whether he will announce a run for the presidency. In the meantime, he told reporters at the Citizens United Freedom Summit that his potential run for the presidency should be taken “seriously.”
When asked by The Daily Caller why the public should take his potential run seriously since he decided to not run for governor of New York in 2014 after mulling on the run for several months, Trump disputed a WIVB report from March of 2014, and said he decided not to run for governor after only two weeks.
“No I didn’t. The people in the Republican Party very badly wanted me to run for governor. I said no. I thought about it for about two weeks but I said no. The only time I really gave serious thought to the presidential was last time.”
Trump’s response is similar to what he told The Buffalo News, which was that he never planned to run for governor to begin with. However, The Buffalo News notes that New York Republican State County chairman Nick Langworthy and former New York GOP gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino may likely think otherwise, since they tried to recruit Trump to run for months.
Trump flirted with running for the presidency in 2012 for a few months during the primary before he decided not to declare his candidacy and endorsed Mitt Romney.
“Unfortunately, Mitt Romney let us down. I endorsed him. I thought he was going to do better and unfortunately in the last month something happened to his campaign whether he choked or whether things happened but he let us down,” Trump said. “It was very sad to see that happen. Because Obama should have been beaten. So I’m looking at it very seriously.”