Trump Folds Cards Early
The Donald will skip the Oval Office.
The Empire State developer will not run for president as a third party candidate this year, he said Monday morning on the NBC Today Show. Trump said Monday morning that Reform Party is "self-destructing" and "a total mess."
"The party is, as you know, self-destructing," Trump said, adding that the nation's strong economy is also dampening the fervor for a third-party movement.
"The reform party can only really jell if times are bad," he said.
Sunday afternoon, officials told CBS News that the New York billionaire had already decided that the party is too fractured to support a credible candidate.
Trump met over the weekend with advisers to consider a second option, running as an Independence Party candidate, but determined there was not enough time to get on state ballots. Trump considered that option out of respect for Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura, who had been the Reform Party's highest elected official before leaving the "dysfunctional" party last week to revive his state's Independence Party.
"I know he's been upset with the infighting that's been going on in the Reform Party," said Jack Essenberg, the head of New York's Independence Party, of Trump's decision.
Ventura and Trump were allies during Reform Party squabbling that culminated with the governor's departure and the chaotic ouster of a Ventura ally, Reform Party leader Jack Gargan, as party chairman. Trump said Monday morning that Ventura's decision, which came on Friday afternoon, was instrumental in his departure.
| Meanwhile, in Minnesota... On Saturday, state Reform Party leaders approved a March 4 convention in St. Paul to consider disaffiliating from the national party. The state central committee voted 59-15, and will officially consider reclaiming its erstwhile Independence Party name. |
A fractious Reform Party meeting Saturday in Tennessee - in which police were called to restore order - returned power to allies of party founder Ross Perot, who has not ruled out running for president a third time.
"The party is in such chaos that it will be a very hard undertaking I think for anybody to bring it back to the pristine ideals that some of the people who created that party in '92 had in mind," said CBS News Political Director Dotty Lynch.
Though he had not formally entered the race, Trump made a handful of campaign trips, hinted broadly for weeks that he would run and issued comprehensive health care and national debt reduction proposals. He held a single-digit ranking in most public polls, and was not given much of a chance of winning the White House.
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 Reform Party, R.I.P.The godfather from Dallas ends the party. |
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Trump estimates his personal net worth at $5 billion. Though independent analyses give lower estimates, there is no doubt he was wealthy enough to make inroads toward the Reform Party nomination.
The tycoon's decision leaves former Republican Pat Buchanan as the front-running candidate for the Reform Party's nomination. Buchanan left the GOP after two failed presidential bids, eying the nearly $13 million in federal money that will be awarded Reform's nominee.
In a parting shot Monday morning, Trump labeled Buchanan's presumptive Reform Party candidacy "a disaster."