washington in america anybody can be president thats one of the risks you take joked american politician adlai stevenson sometimes described as the greatest president us never had an already packed field of white house aspirants got even more crowded on tuesday with real estate mogul donald trump a perennial presidential hopeful announcing that he too would run for president in 2016 trump will run as a republican becoming the 12th aspirant shooting for the party nomination although his political affiliation is incidental he represents wealth extravaganza and outsized hairdo and promises of turning america into manna he has toyed with and threatened to run for president so often in the past going back to 1987 that no one would take him seriously but on tuesday he took the plunge from his lavish trump tower in new yorks fifth avenue so ladies and gentlemen i am officially running for president of the us and we are going to make our country great again he told a gathering in a rambling speech that meandered from the threat from china to job creation in the us to the iraq war donald trump walks on stage to speak during the iowa republican partys lincoln dinner on may 16 2015 in des moines iowa ap photo he said his republican opponents including jeb bush dont have a clue about running the country although most of his opponents have been governors and senators while suggesting his wealth and the way he had gotten rich by beating china all the time made him fit to lead the country our country is in serious trouble we dont have victories anymore said the man who is called the donald and is lately better known as reality show host trump is polling about last in the gop presidential hopefuls list but that was before he formally declared his candidature his 9 billion fortune could help bump him up to within the top 10 which will allow him to come on stage for a debate among republicans from then on all bets are off in a country that after all elected a freshman africanamerican senator as president