Tuesday, June 16, 2015 | 11:08 a.m.
Donald Trump made official his bid for the presidency Tuesday, vowing to "make America great again" and bring back jobs from China, Mexico, Japan and beyond.
"The greatest social program is a job," said the billionaire businessman and reality TV star, who joins an already crowded Republican field. "I will be the greatest jobs president that God ever created."
Again and again, he said he has made more successful internationally deals as an individual businessman than the U.S. government.
Trump said he would not be indebted to donors or lobbyists.
"I don't need anybody's money," he said of a self-funded campaign. "I'm really rich."
He held up a financial statement and said he has a total net worth of more than $8 billion.
He promised to crack down on illegal immigration. "I will build a great, great wall on our southern border," he said, and "I will have Mexico pay for that."
Trump made the announcement in the marble-paneled atrium of his Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue. A few hundred spectators wearing identical T-shirts with his campaign slogan over their street clothes leaned in over the building's balconies, hooting and cheering. (Trump said "thousands" were in attendance.)
The music piped in was dramatic, including tracks from Broadway musicals "Cats" and "Phantom of the Opera."
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