Donald Trump Courts the Tea Party in Florida

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Donald Trump's (or "Sideshow Don" if you follow the New York Daily News) continued with his showstopping potential presidential campaign by addressing a Tea Party rally in Florida. But just hours before, in what CNN called "a hastily arranged news conference moments before a posh, poolside party" at his Palm Beach Mar-a-Lago estate, he made the bizarre argument that George W. Bush's worst trait as president was making Barack Obama look good. "George Bush gave us Barack Obama. If it weren't for George Bush, we wouldn't have Barack Obama."

At the Tea Party rally itself, down the road in Boca Raton, Trump said, "Most very successful people, the kind of people that we need running our country, don't want to be scrutinized and abused," according to the Associated Press. Nevertheless, he continued to make noises about a presidential campaign and the Tea Party seems to be coming on board, even abandoning its darlings like Michele Bachmann for The Donald in polls. "Our members are ecstatic,” Everett Wilkinson of South Florida Tea Party told The Daily Caller about Trump's attendance at today's rally.

For a glimpse of how it went, here's his introductory remarks from NECN:

It's difficult to pinpoint exactly where Trump's political beliefs lie. Nonetheless, one might think that Trump would be a more natural fit for liberals. After all, he's affiliated himself with Democrats and Independents in the past. He's a billionaire reality TV star with three marriages under his belt. Not to mention, he's called George W. Bush the worst President ever. And yet. Trump has been pursuing the Tea Party will all of the single-minded aggressiveness that he probably uses to pursue, well, anything he really wants.

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.