Donald Trump, toying with a run for the Republican presidential nomination and popping in the latest polls, will make his pitch to a tea party gathering in Boca Raton on Saturday.
The Donald is scheduled to deliver the keynote speech to the third annual South Florida Tax Day rally at Sanborn Square, 72 N. Federal Hwy. The event starts at 1 p.m.
"This is big," said Sid Dinerstein, chairman of the Palm Beach County Republican Party. "The country needs him in the mix."
Trump, a New Yorker who maintains a Palm Beach residence, has performed this kind of presidential mating dance before. He flirted with running in 2000, 2004 and 2008.
The perceived weakness of the Republicans' 2012 field has rekindled interest in Trump -- and the flamboyant self-promoter isn't bashful about fueling speculation.
Turning up on talk shows, Trump belatedly jumped on the "birther" bandwagon, questioning whether President Barack Obama was born in this country.
He has sounded off against same-sex marriage, flipped from pro-choice to pro-life and has opined on Charlie Sheen while sparring with Whoopie Goldberg on daytime TV. His scheduled speech at a Lincoln Day dinner in Iowa this June got more tongues wagging.
Some pundits have theorized that Trump's pastiche of social conservatism and celebrity populism positions him for a GOP presidential bid. Dick Morris, a former Bill Clinton adviser, recently declared, "I think he has a good shot at the nomination."
Everett Wilkinson, head of the South Florida Tea Party, which is sponsoring the April 16 event, notes that Trump easily won a straw vote his group conducted last month. Trump grabbed 33 percent (293 votes); Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee were the only candidates to pull percentages in the teens.
However, in a larger online poll conducted during the Tea Party Patriots convention in Phoenix last month, Trump finished far back in the pack.
Trump's bankroll is, of course, formidable -- though his financial standing may not be all that's advertised. The real-estate and casino mogul claims to be worth $2.7 billion, but he lost a 2009 libel suit against an author who claimed Trump was only worth $150 million to $200 million.
"We proved our case," Trump insisted obliquely at the time. Trump could not be reached for this article.
Billionaire or not, the bouffant blond businessman has an outsized ego that practically demands attention -- for better or for worse.
Long before launching in his 2004 reality show, "The Apprentice," Trump had an eye on the world's biggest political stage. In 1988, his "people" asked a New York Republican operative, "How quickly can you get 'Trump for President' signs done?"
The New York Post reported that the idea was dropped the next day.
Trump's mercurial -- sometimes erratic -- style continues to raise questions this time around.
"Will he run? Legitimate polls show he is viable," says veteran GOP consultant Roger Stone, who pointed to a recent poll showing Mitt Romney leading Trump in New Hampshire by a relatively narrow 27 percent to 21 percent.
On Wednesday, a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll showed Trump tied with Huckabee at 17 percent. Romney led a nine-candidate lineup with 21 percent, but Trump's 96 percent name recognition and his field-leading 20 percent support among self-identified tea partiers give him a GOP base to build on.
Dinerstein said that Trump's stepped-up public appearances point to a presidential run.
"Everything he is doing, taking speaking engagements he's never taken before, even at nonprofits -- put it all together, and I'm thinking he's in," said Dinerstein, who also will speak at the Boca rally.
"The country is in a unique place right now," Dinerstein added. "In times of crisis, all countries want a strong leader, and he's a flat-out patriot."
Trump's political stock could rise if he succeeds in hiring Tony Fabrizio, the GOP guru who handled media for Bob Dole's 1996 presidential campaign and Rick Scott's winning gubernatorial bid last year.
Tea party activists interviewed by Sunshine State News expressed widely varied views of Trump, ranging fromhopeful enthusiasm to deep skepticism.
One political operative said that the 64-year-old Trump may be banking on Florida, which is vying to maintain its status as the first big presidential primary.
"Odds are, all but a few candidates will be out after Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. If he makes it to Florida he has a lot of New York transplants in South Florida who he could appeal to," this source said on condition of anonymity.
But the New York-bred businessman may have far less appeal in Central and North Florida, where bedrock social conservatives represent a majority of the GOP primary vote.
Ultimately, no one is really sure what Trump stands for. In 2008, he called George W. Bush a "terrible" president. In 2010, he said Obama "has a chance to go down as a great president."
Conservative radio talker Rush Limbaugh, who also lives in Palm Beach, has lightly tweaked Trump about his fiscal bona fides. On a recent show, Limbaugh laughingly suggested that Trump is a tightwad who "doesn't pay for anything."
Wilkinson, who says he is not working for Trump, said The Donald's address is expected to reveal "his thoughts on how to get our country moving again and the need for further tax reduction."
One thing is certain: The TV news cameras will be rolling.
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Contact Kenric Ward at kward@sunshinestatenews.com or at (772) 801-5341.
