Donald Trump CPAC 2015 FULL Speech (Conservative Political Action Conference) February 27
Businessman Donald Trump speaks to guests at the Iowa Freedom Summit on January 24, 2015 in Des Moines, Iowa. The summit is hosting a group of potential 2016 Republican presidential candidates to discuss core conservative principles ahead of the January 2016 Iowa Caucuses. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Real estate mogul and reality TV personality Donald Trump on Friday sought to paint himself as a Washington outsider ready for the national stage.
But in a question-and-answer session with Fox News host Sean Hannity following his speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference, he fell back to a familiar pattern: questioning whether President Obama was born in the United States:
"Hey look, [the president] wrote a book when he was a young man and it said ‘born in Kenya,’ blah blah blah. I don’t know where he was born. I would like to see his college records, I think that’s important.
As far as the birth certificate, Hillary Clinton wanted his birth certificate. Hillary is a birther. She wanted it but she wasn’t able to get it. John McCain fought really hard and really viciously to get his birth certificate. John McCain failed. Couldn’t get it. Trump comes along – and I’m not a sitting senator, I’m not a sitting anything else, I’m a good businessman – but Trump comes along and I said, ‘Birth certificate.’ He gave a birth certificate.
Whether or not that was a real certificate, because a lot of people question it, I certainly question it—but Hillary Clinton wanted it, McCain wanted it, and I wanted it. He didn’t do it for them, he did it for me. So in one sense I’m proud of it. Now all we have to do is find out whether or not it’s real.”
Trump has signaled in recent days that he is seriously considering a bid for the White House in 2016. During an interview Wednesday with The Post's Robert Costa, Trump said he is "'more serious' than ever” and is beginning to build a political campaign staff.
"Washington is totally broken and it's not going to get fixed unless we put the right person in that top position. It's just not going to happen," he told the crowd of conservative activists Friday. "I'm not a politician, thank goodness. Politicians are all talk, no action. I’ve dealt with them all my life."
While Trump has developed a formidable brand centered on his standing as a business mogul, he has struggled in the past to be taken seriously as a potentially political candidate. That is at least in part because of his frequent – and sometimes off-color – feuds with prominent political leaders and celebrities alike.
Donald Trump: I want to run for president ‘so badly’
New York real estate mogul Donald Trump said Friday there is at least a 75 percent chance that he is running for president.
Mr. Trump has teased the idea of a bid on numerous occasions, so much so that most of the political world assumes he’s simply trying to bolster the brand of his businesses.
Asked by Fox News host Sean Hannity at the Conservative Political Action Conference in suburban Washington how close he is to running using a 1 to 100 scale, Mr. Trump answers “I would say 75 and 80.”
“I am really inclined,” he said. “I really want to do it so badly.”
Mr. Trump said former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s loss in the 2012 election has caused him to take a more serious look at seeking the GOP nomination in 2016.
He said the nation’s political leaders are “all talk, no action.”
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