Real estate developer Donald Trump endorses Mitt Romney for president.
Donald Trump formally endorsed Mitt Romney for president on Thursday, describing the former Massachusetts governor as "tough" and "smart" and the best pick in the GOP primary.
Trump and Romney appeared together in Las Vegas to announce the endorsement, which drew heavy media coverage.
"It is a real honor and privilege to endorse Mitt Romney," Trump said in brief remarks. "Mitt is tough, he's smart, he's sharp. He's not going to allow bad things to continue to happen to this country we all love."
Romney said in response: "There are some things that you just can't imagine in your life. This is one of them," adding that it means a "great deal" to have the billionaire's support.
The endorsement follows a bizarre period of time in which several major news outlets -- including the New York Times and Associated Press -- had initially reported that Trump had been planning to endorse Newt Gingrich. The former House speaker had been one of only two candidates to agree appearing at a debate the "Apprentice" host had planned, but which never came to pass. Romney declined attendance.
RELATED: The quotable Donald Trump
Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum (R) said he didn't think the Trump endorsement matters, but added on KDWN radio that if Trump "wants to endorse the person who's most in line with his thinking with respect to the major issue of this economic problem that we're involved in, he should endorse Rick Santorum."
For their part, Democrats seemed to take a degree of joy in the Trump spectacle.
"It really wouldn't be surprising if Donald Trump endorses Mitt Romney, because they both like firing people, and they both made millions doing it" Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, said on msnbc. "Donald Trump is such a cartoon character, no matter who he chooses, it's like Bugs Bunny endorsing ... It's really kind of a non-news event."
DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz tells MSNBC's Thomas Roberts that recent verbal missteps from Mitt Romney show that he has "no concern about people who are struggling."
It's reflective of the media whirlwind to have surrounded Trump's game of footsie with Republican politics over the past year.
Trump had initially thought about running for the GOP nomination last spring. He talked publicly about the possibility of running and even visited New Hampshire. The flirtation coincided with the broadcast of last spring's season of "The Apprentice" on NBC. (NBC is a co-owner of mnsbc.com, along with Microsoft.) Trump had initially promised to make clear his intentions in the show's season finale, but ultimately demurred, and made the announcement separately.
Trump had additionally been one of the most prominent figures to voice suspicions that President Obama had not actually been born in the United States, and, thusly, was constitutionally ineligible to be president. Obama eventually relented and released his long-form birth certificate on April 27, 2011, verifying he was born in Hawaii. Obama made light of the situation at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner on May 1, deriding the media for giving voice to “carnival barkers” like Trump, only to announce the next day that Osama bin Laden had been killed in a daring raid in Pakistan -- planning of which had been ongoing during the annual dinner.
But the discussion of "birther" theories over the course of last spring appears to have harmed Trump in the eyes of the public; Trump had a 26 percent favorable rating in a February 2011 NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, and a 29 percent unfavorable rating. By mid-May, the point at which the real estate magnate announced he wouldn't be running, a Suffolk University poll found that Trump had a 70 percent unfavorable rating, while just 18 percent of Americans had a positive opinion of Trump.
It's also not incredibly clear what, if any, impact the Trump endorsement will have on the trajectory of the race, in Nevada's caucuses on Saturday, or beyond. Romney had already led, at 45 percent, in a poll of likely Nevada caucus-goers released Thursday. He's followed by Gingrich at 25 percent, Santorum at 11 percent and Texas Rep. Ron Paul at 9 percent.
Still, the reality television star continued to play an out-sized role throughout the 2012 cycle. All the Republican candidates visited Trump through the course of last summer with the exception of former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman.
"I think his infusing himself into the dialogue really dumbs down and makes less consequential the very important issues that we must be discussing to get this country back on its feet again," Huntsman said on Fox News in December.
One of the most intensely covered media events of 2011 came when former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin went out for pizza with Trump in Manhattan during a stop on her bus tour of the Northeast, a journey meant to stoke speculation about her own presidential aspirations. When Romney visited Trump, he snuck in and out of the billionaire's headquarters without being captured by staked-out cameras.


So, the billionaire endorses the unemployed millionaire, who is the puppet-master and who is the puppet?
Wouldn't be surprised if they fired everyone in Washington and outsourced our government to India. Labor is much cheaper there and that's what it's all about: profits over quality.
Beavis & Butthead ....
What do you call two whores f#^()ng one another?
Politics.
We're going to listen to some wacko right-wing-nut-bag whose been through how many bankruptcies endorse another right-wing-nut-bag on the way to run the country's economy the same way he ran Bain the vulture and the companies it bought and destroyed for fun and profit.
Does anybody really care what Trump does or thinks? He's just a billionaire with bad hair. I have no use for him.
'He's not going to allow bad things to continue to happen
so where the F was Romney from 2000-2008?
ADVISOR REFLECTS ON ‘WORST DECADE IN 100 YEARS’
Martin picks one wild decade to reflect upon: from 1998, when the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index rose by 26.7 percent, “achieving a record setting fourth year in a row of gains in excess of 20 percent,’’ through February 2008, “the year in which the Bubble burst in utter chaos’’ leading to the Great Recession. Martin calls it “the worst decade, market-wise, in more than 100 years.’’ http://tinyurl.com/3g2csv5
Tax Cuts Offer Most for Very Rich, Study Says
WASHINGTON — Families earning more than $1 million a year saw their federal tax rates drop more sharply than any group in the country as a result of President Bush's tax cuts, according to a Congressional study.
http://tinyurl.com/ydk9tc
Wealth Gap Is Increasing, Study Shows
The rich really are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer, a new University of Michigan study shows. Rising inequality isn't new. But what happened under Bush is something entirely unprecedented: For the first time in our history, so much growth is being siphoned off to a small, wealthy minority that most Americans are failing to gain ground even during a time of economic growth -- and they know it.http://tinyurl.com/49jj89
Kleptocracy at work. Republican liassae faire doesn't bode well for average Americans, only the rich.
"Rump", what a pompus ass, buffoon, schmuck.... Who really cares what he thinks!! I cannot refrain from expressing my disdain every time I see this guy pull one of his stunts.
Emil
WE could swear that yesterday we read on the net that he was going to support the Newt. We thought that was just weird but hey politicians, and he is a politician like it or not, do weird things.
Its all about how much money Romney will steer to Trump IF he makes it to pres.....period
I don't fault Mr. Trump for a moment being rich. Just don't have a problem with that. However, for him to think for even a second that enough average Americans care what he thinks is at the best humorous.
WHAT A JOKE!!!!!!! Thats like me endorsing someone. Stick to realestate trump. Who ever has the most money wins the nod, and that is just sad...
Hmmmmm, this should be interesting. Is Trump trying to get the VP nod from Romney as Sarah is doing with Gingrich and Cain is doing with Gingrich too? No matter who gets the nod and nomination it will be a case of Dumb and Dumber in any of the scenarios. Obama is doing the best he can under the circumstances of the Republicans blocking every thing he tries. If they let him do some work the country would be doing a huge turnaround to the better. They are just afraid of the fact that he is better than they are. Two hundred plus years of American history shows that the country does much better economically under the Democrats and more people are working than under Republicans. Yes there have been some bad Democratic ideas but they fix the problem unlike the Republicans. History records prove this time and time again.
Cain/Sandusky in 2012. Who cares what they did in the past, as long as they are against abortion, the evangelical lunatics led by Groper Nutquist will vote for them.
They will surely get the base of the repukes-the abortion doctor killers, abortion clinic bombers, federal building bombers, those Baptists that protests at dead soldiers funerals that they deserved to die and the class of radical right wing cracked teanuts-the southern anthrax spreaders.
"bad" things eh? These rich boys sure have all the answers for the middle class don't they.
Bob- the country will be in much worse shape if Romney or Gingrich were to become President. You have to take into account that history proves the country always does much better under Democratics than under Republicans. The Republicans always lower the tax rates for the very rich and make the average American pay a higher percentage rate. You also have to admit that the Democrats are not the ones who started borrowing billions of dollars from the chinese to pay for the Bush/Cheney false war where no WMD's were ever found. Bush/Cheney and the other cronies ashcroft, Rumsfeld, and Rice needed to borrow the money from China so their companies that were assigned to support the troops could be paid. So Haliburton and other companies that were illegally assigned were paid with Chinese money and then all of the lying cronies made millions of dollars via their companies and was put into their personal accounts in their family members names. So thus thousands of US military who are average Americans died so these companies could make billions of dollars and the millions of dollars that went into their personal accounts can be called "Blood Money". So open your eyes and realize the stock market, jobs, and the deifict have always been better under Democratic rule. Right now the economy is getting better under Obama and this recovery was slowed down becuae of the Republicans blocking every move the President tried to make. So in the end it is the Republicans at fault for toddays economy and George and dick need to be tried for lying to the country.
Donald Trump is an idiot! And, if people in NV want to put their faith in a "LIAR" who will then take their vote and "ravage" their hope....well then they deserve exactly what they get! One prosperous man agreeing with another! The blind leading the blind....and anyone who agrees will be falling in the ditch by the wayside. They are not going to help the middle-class and the downtrodden!
Boycott this ass's TV show.
Don, regardless of his politics, his show is terrible. Without a doubt it's the worst show on TV. How any one can respect that pompous ass is unbelievable too me.
So now Trump, the egomaniac, believes Mitt is the best candidate? Strange, I watched several clips of Trump lambasting Mitt's candidacy. But today He throws him his support. What a phony. They deserve each other.
Trumps ego is mind boggling. He really believes everyone care about his personal opinion. Since he was not
given accolades the first time around he has aligned himself with the guy he 'thinks' has a chance. All he wants is to be in the spotlight and is hoping for the V.P. slot now.
I watch his TV shows because he is the biggest windbag around. The whole show is silly entertainment with nothing of value attached.
The man has built a ridiculous palace for an apt in N.Y., attached himself to gambling casino and golf courses and anything else to get attention. Why would he think anyone in their right mind would take him seriously and vote for him for ANYTHING as important as leading this country ?
The country has a man of quality as president now. Please let's give him more time to clean up the mess the last batch of repugs made of things. With some patience and cooperation from the right which has not been forthcoming it could be done.
The only chance the right wing radical cracked teanuts have of winning the presidency is to draft Harold Camping, the evangelical king. Although Harold failed to take the 500,000 braindead evangelical Children of the Corn that he brainwashed to believe that they would be taken away last Oct 21 to meet and stay with the man in the sky. Of course this did not come about, because Harold based his calculations on biblical "facts" which he now realizes were pulp fiction. He had these Jesus freaks give up all of their worldly possessions to him to put up billboards advertising Rapture Day.
What Harold did not though, is show the repukes how to brainwashed these poor fools into believing that they should vote for them if they promised these fools that they would ban abortion. That is all they really care about, besides having Creationism taught in all schools as the true science.
it takes a douchebag to know a douchebag - donald & mitt make a wonderful pair
Miss Piggy (from the muppets) was accused of being too liberal by Eric Bowleggs of Fox Lies. Miss Piggy said "and, well, Fox News thinks that they are a real news station"
What a combination. The Evil Mexican Mormon Tax Evading anti-Christ Cultist (according to Groper Nutquist and his priests) backed by Bankruptcy King Fox Top. That is one step better, however, than Herman (9Kampf) Cain being backed by Jerry Sandusky.
Amazing. Lyin Willard, the two faced repuke that would not go to Trumps debate now is in love with the guy because he is endorsing him.
I want lyin Willard to produce his birth certficate and the last 5 years of his tax returns, so we can see how much in taxes he evaded by using Swiss and Cayman Island bank accounts.
Dump the radical right wing cracked teanuts in Congress. The 13 percenters are worthless dunces.
Rumors are starting to come out now that lyin Willard was born in Tijuana with a baby bottle filled with Corona Light in his hand. I think that birther Trump should start accusing lyin Willard of not being an American citizen. Make sure he has his birth certificate and not a copy of it. We need to see the long form. It will be suspicous if it is written in spanish, especially if his first name was really Willardo and shortened when he moved here.
I believe the actual quote is "He won't let bad things happen to us super rich ignoramuses"