DONALD TRUMP IS back in Ireland.
So far as we’re aware, there were no raven-haired musicians to greet the outspoken billionaire this time around – when his jet touched down in Shannon last night.
Clare FM reports that he was whisked straight off to Doonbeg to check in on the luxury hotel and golf course he picked up for the knockdown price of €15 million last year.
After talking up the resort in a Newstalk interview this morning, Trump was also asked about his presidential ambitions.
The businessman, who also flirted with a White House bid in 2012, before bowing out of the race, formed an exploratory committee to consider a run back in March.
He’s also been polling well among Republican primary voters in New Hampshire – with particularly strong support in “households with firearms” according to a poll carried out this week.
“We’re going to make a big announcement on the 16th of June,” Trump confirmed to host Ivan Yates, promising it would be “very dramatic” and would “make a lot of people happy.”
He added:
We’re going to have a wild time because the United States should be doing much better than it’s doing.
Asked to expand on those problems in the US, he cited an unreasonably high “real unemployment” rate, said Obamacare had been “a disaster” and maintained the military needed to be “rebuilt and restocked”.
We really have problems in the United States. Big problems. Whether its terrorism, whether its wars – nothing goes right.
Asked what he though of Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton’s bid, he said he expected her to get the nomination, but noted that “she’s got a lot of problems” – citing the recent email controversy.
The 68-year-old billionaire — best known in recent years for his role as host of The Apprentice, and his ‘birther’ campaign against Barack Obama – bought Doonbeg last February, renaming it the ‘Trump International Hotel & Golf Links, Ireland’.
His organisation had originally tried to buy the resort around five years ago – but the plans fell through. Trump swooped in with his chequebook at the start of this year, after receivers were appointed to Doonbeg’s previous owners – resort developers Kiawah Partners.
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