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Trump: I Don't Need Campaign Contributions

Photo by John Pemble
Newly announced Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks to a crowd at Hoyt Sherman Place in Des Moines on June 16, 2015.

Billionaire real estate magnate Donald Trump made his first Iowa visit Tuesday, after officially declaring his candidacy for president earlier in the day. The Republican told a crowd of roughly 450 people at  the Hoyt Sherman Place auditorium in Des Moines that his wealth would keep him independent of special interests while serving in the White House.

"I'm running for president as a businessman, I don't need campaign contributions, I don't need money to fly in. I fly in very nicely," says Trump. "They want ambassadorships, they wants deals, they want this. So these guys  aren’t free to do the right thing...They have to do what’s right for the people who gave them money to get elected." 

Forbes Magazine estimates Trump’s net worth to be $4 billion. By comparison, 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney had a reported net worth of $250 million.