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Keller @ Large: Trump Launches Presidential Run With Self-Promotion, Criticism

BOSTON (CBS) -- "We need a leader that wrote 'The Art of the Deal,'" said "The Art of the Deal" co-author Donald Trump at his "presidential campaign" kickoff in the lobby of the Trump Tower in Manhattan. And that bit of utterly shameless self-promotion may be all you need to know about the Trump limousine…um, bandwagon.

Trump has flirted with running several times before, and it's hard to say if he's truly married to the idea this time or just dating. But the billionaire real-estate tycoon – invariably described as "short-fingered vulgarian Donald Trump" by Spy Magazine back in the 1980s – made it clear that he intends to bring his familiar rhetorical style to the race unvarnished.

Waving a document he claimed was a disclosure of about $9 billion in net worth, Trump declared "I don't need anybody's money, it's nice, I don't need anybody's money. I'm using my own money, I'm not using the donors money, I'm not using the lobbyists money, I'm using my own money. I'm really rich, Ill share that with you."

And Trump did not leave the high-rise hyperbole to others. "I will be the greatest jobs president that God ever created, I tell you that," he said.

The thousand or so Trump Plaza Casino employees left jobless when Trump's Atlantic City bet crapped out were not immediately available for comment.

Although Trump has flirted with Democrats and their policies over the years, enthusiastically supporting Obamacare and donating thousands to Hillary Clinton's campaigns, he is now in full right-wing pander mode, today offering a campaign platform of talk-radio red meat. His plan to stem the influx of illegal immigrants, whom he described as "rapists": "I will build a great, great wall on our southern border and I will have Mexico pay for that wall, mark my words."

Trump described both fellow Republicans and Democrats as without a "clue," and mocked the recent bicycle accident suffered by Secretary of State John Kerry. "[He] goes into a bicycle race and falls and breaks his leg at 72 years old. I won't be doing that, and I promise you I will never be in a bicycle race, that I can tell you."

Trump was due in Iowa late Tuesday, and says he'll bring his campaign to New Hampshire shortly.

Past experience suggests that if you're interested in hearing more, you'd best catch it sooner than later.

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