Donald Trump, the billionaire real estate developer, casino owner, entertainment mogul, TV personality and father of a woman who converted to Judaism and says she observes Shabbat, tossed hit hat into the huge ring of Republican candidates for president Tuesday.
He probably holds the record for being the most frequent “almost candidate,” having hinted several times in the past he would run for president.
This time it is for real. He said in his announcement in a 45-minute speech in New York:
I am officially running for president of the United States, and we are going to make our country great again. Sadly the American dream is dead. But if I get elected president, I will bring it back bigger and better and stronger than ever before.
He boasted his net worth at $8.7 billion, twice the amount estimated by most sources, and said:
I’m really rich. I’m not doing that to brag. I’m doing that to say that’s the kind of thinking our country needs. We need that thinking. We have the opposite thinking. We have losers…. The greatest social program is a job.
Trump went on to state, without batting an eyelash:
I will be the greatest jobs president that God ever created.” I’ve watched the politicians, I’ve dealt with them all my life. They will never make America great again. They don’t even have a chance.
Polls show that Trump has a chance to win the Republican nomination, but he still is a long shot. He loves Israel, but it is questionable if American Jews love him. He has made statements disparaging blacks and Hispanics, so he can forget about most of them for support.
What might really be interesting is if he does not win the Republican nomination but runs as an Independent. third-party candidate. That would make for the most interesting presidential election since former Alabama governor and segregationist George Wallace’s four pitches for the presidency, earning him the description of America’s “most influential loser.”
Trump, like Wallace, is a gadfly and shoots from the hip, something like an American version of Israel’s Avigdor Lieberman before he got too smart for his own good. Trump has sworn up and down that President Barack Obama did not fulfill a basic qualification for the presidency by being born in the United States. Trump’s constant jabs at Obama, along with those of other “birthers,” finally forced the president to produce a birth certificate. Of course, the hard-core birthers said it was a fake.
Trump’s name is plastered on a variety of industries, from real estate to wrestling, media, golf course, a chartering company, ice cream parlor, a line of men’s wear, vodka, books, steaks and a golf course.
Being a maverick gives him the image of sticking by his word. When he says he loves Israel, he puts his money where his mouth is. Trump has a huge real estate project in Netanya, and his daughter Ivanka, who converted to Judaism, looks favorably on Israel for real estate investment.
Her husband is from an Orthodox Jewish family, and she has taken her conversion seriously, adding “Yael” to her name and saying that “we’re pretty observant, more than some, less than others.”
If “the Donald” is elected president, the United States will have its first Jewish daughter in the White House.
Her father hates President Obama with a passion and has said that he is Israel’s greatest enemy. Trump also is a fan of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
Below are three videos. The first one includes parts of Trump’s speech today, the second one is from 2013, when Trump endorse Netanyahu for Prime Minister. and third is of Ivanka’s visit to Jerusalem in 2008.