Could Donald Trump really be president?

Donald Trump speaks to the media at Pease International Trade Port in Portsmouth, N.H., on April 27, 2011. (Photo: …With some polls showing him ahead of other possible GOP candidates and with his supporters continuing to rally, it's time we asked ourselves: Could Donald Trump really win the White House?

With the release of Obama's long-form birth certificate today, the White House has shown that they're taking Trump seriously, whether they meant to or not. "If there is a politician who understands less how conservative politics have operated in this country over the past three decades than Barack Obama, I can't imagine who that might be," says Charles P. Pierce, author of "Idiot America: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free." "Donald Trump now has been legitimized as a candidate. What was a political freak show has now become a legitimate political issue."

A poll by the conservative news site Newsmax.com has Trump far outpacing other possible republican contenders with a whopping 55 percent of the vote in a field shared with Mike Huckabee, Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, Tim Pawlenty, Mitch Daniels, Mitt Romney, Haley Barbour, Bobby Jindal, Michele Bachmann, and Ron Paul. Romney took second place in the Newsmax poll, with just 10 percent of the vote. (The ongoing poll, which requires people sign up for free daily email alerts in exchange for voting, does not seem to have a limit on how many times one can vote; more than 1 million people have weighed in so far.)

When pitted against the president, a February survey by Newsweek and The Daily Beast showed Obama only narrowly leading Trump, 43 percent to 41 percent. Trump also took second place in a recent Public Polling Survey of possible republican candidates, coming in closely behind Romney.

Even so, Americans still seem to think he'd be awful in the Oval Office-a new USA Today/Gallup poll found that 50 percent of Americans, including 31 percent of Republicans, think that Trump out make a "poor" or "terrible" president.

So how to explain his popularity in the polls? Some say it's all about protest. Others are intrigued by his birther inquiries. And many of his supporters insist that they like him for his business savvy. "Why not an entrepreneur for President? Donald Trump is the epitome of an American capitalist who wins!" the website Vote Trump 2012 enthuses.

But his strategy for running a company may not translate to running a country. For one thing, Trump's companies have filed for bankruptcy four times, ABC News reported, most recently in 2009.

"I've used the laws of this country to pare debt," he told George Stephanopoulos in an interview earlier this month. "We'll have the company. We'll throw it into a chapter. We'll negotiate with the banks. We'll make a fantastic deal. You know, it's like on 'The Apprentice.' It's not personal. It's just business." ("Throw it into a chapter" refers to Chapter 11, a bankruptcy code used for reorganizing companies.)

"Here's a guy who's failed so miserably so many times and it's not as though he had to claw his way back after seven years in credit hell" like a middle-class consumer would, Douglas Heller, the executive director of Consumer Watchdog, told ABC. "He just said. 'OK, this isn't my problem anymore.' For him, it's just been a platform to the next money-making scheme."

Last week, Trump suggested that he'd release his tax forms and other financial documents if Obama made his long-form birth certificate public. "Maybe I'm going to do the tax returns when Obama does his birth certificate," he told ABC's George Stephanopoulos in an interview. According to the Federal Election Commission, all candidates for federal office must file disclosures of their personal finances. But some political experts aren't holding their breath.

"Trump's not a legitimate candidate, because he's not really going to run," Democratic strategist Julie Roginsky said. "I've always thought that this was just a ploy for his renewal negotiation with NBC. His contract is up and they're renegotiating for the next three seasons. The higher the ratings, the more leverage Trump has."

"This will all be going away in mid-May," Roginsky predicted.

At a news conference in New Hampshire today, Trump hinted at the same thing when asked about when he might announce his candidacy.

"I have a very, very successful show on television, the number one show on NBC," he told the crowd. "I have a show called 'The Celebrity Apprentice.' I cannot announce until that show is over. I just can't do it. I'd love to do it for you, but I just can't do it."

"When the show is over-and the finale will be on May 22nd-when the show is over, I will then be free to announce," he continued. "I think you will be surprised at a number of things, but I think you will be surprised at what my announcement is."





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