When real estate mogul Donald Trump announced he was getting ‘serious’ about running against Democratic incumbent Andrew Cuomo for governor of New York, the state GOP leadership hesitated. Now, after learning GOP chairman Ed Cox sent a letter to other state leaders questioning Trump’s motives, the billionaire was quick to respond:
"You’ve got a chairman who has never won a race; he just doesn’t get it,” Trump said. “Actually, he doesn’t understand politics.”
“We have a highly unsophisticated and poorly tested leader,” he said of Cox. “Nobody can read him. I don’t think he can read himself.”
Last week, Trump said he would only mount a campaign if the state’s Republican Party was behind him. It’s hard to tell, but with recent comments like these I don’t think he’s going to win them over as friends anytime soon.
Nevertheless, regardless of others assuming he’s just mulling a run for publicity, he insists his intentions are first and foremost to improve the Empire state:
“They assume maybe I won’t want to do this,” Trump said of disbelievers. “At the same time, I love this state, and I see where it’s going. We’re going to be another Detroit.”
He elaborated:
“We have the highest taxes in the nation, almost the world. We have the biggest exodus in the nation of people,” said Trump, who also criticized the closing of state mental health facilities and the SAFE Act, the gun-control measure Cuomo pushed into law last year following the Sandy Hook school shootings.
What’s more, after announcing a trip to Buffalo at the end of this month, Trump’s potential candidacy does seem to have some validity:
In a telephone conversation with The Buffalo News, the new York City real estate developer said he is ready to mount a GOP campaign, spending $30 million to $50 million in the process, but only if the party quickly unites behind him.
What do you think? Does Trump sound sincere? Or is this just another attempt to get his name in the paper?