FILE - In this Jan. 24, 2014 file photo, Donald Trump speaks in Des Moines, Iowa. Trump announced plans Wednesday to form a presidential exploratory committee. "I am the only one who can make America... (Associated Press) 
 
 "I am the only one who can make America truly great again," the Republican businessman and reality television star declared in a statement announcing the move. 
 
 While a step short of a formal campaign launch, the formation of an exploratory allows him to begin raising money and hire staff as he weighs a White House bid. Trump said he's already hired political aides in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, which host the first three contests on the presidential nominating calendar. 
 
 "I have a great love for our country, but it is a country that is in serious trouble," Trump said in a wide-ranging statement that called for rebuilding the nation's infrastructure, improving border security, strengthening the military and improving the economy. "Americans deserve better than what they get from their politicians who are all talk and no action." 
 
 The outspoken Republican has long hinted at presidential aspirations, but he appears more serious this time. He recently said he would not renew his contract with NBC for his reality show, "The Apprentice." 
 
 Trump is scheduled to appear in New Hampshire later in the week. ||||| Trump tries to salvage the brand The Republican nominee ditches the campaign trail to hawk his new hotel and to talk up his executive credentials. 
 
 With 13 days until Election Day, Donald Trump tried Wednesday morning to simultaneously burnish his business and political brands, both of which are badly tarnished. 
 
 Drawing more than 200 members of the media to his opulent new Washington, D.C., hotel for an “official opening” that comes more than a month after the property opened to the public, Trump framed the renovated downtown post office as a testament to his abilities as an executive. 
 
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 “My theme today is five words: under budget and ahead of schedule,” Trump said (using six words). 
 
 Trump, who political forecasters now give just a 10 percent chance of winning the presidential election, is in a last-ditch fight to resuscitate his campaign and a business brand that has suffered from his presidential run. As Trump and his offspring lavished praise on themselves for completing the project, rooms at the hotel were being offered at $404 a night online, a discount of roughly 50 percent. 
 
 “Today is a metaphor for what we can accomplish for this country, the same kind of thing,” Trump said Wednesday morning. “I’m tired of the excuses from our politicians. I’m tired of being told what cannot be done. I’m tired of people asking Americans to defer their dreams to another day but really what they mean is another decade. We can achieve our dreams for this country and we can do so more quickly than anyone ever thought possible. There is nothing we cannot accomplish." 
 
 Eschewing the angry bombast and vitriolic attacks that define his rally speeches, Trump stood on a dais inside a packed ballroom agleam in gilded mirrors and crystal chandeliers and sought to strike a tone so uplifting and aspirational that it seemed a betrayal of his own campaign’s motto to make the country “great again.” 
 
 “The United States is great. It’s great. Its people are great. There is no task or project too great. There is no dream outside of our reach. Don’t ever let anyone tell you it cannot be done,” he continued, diverging somewhat from his campaign’s “Make America Great Again” slogan. “The future lies with the dreamers, not the cynics and the critics. Everywhere I go in this country, all I see is untapped potential waiting to be set free, and the biggest element of all is our incredible people.” 
 
 Trump’s decision to attend a ribbon-cutting at his D.C. hotel raised eyebrows, with the candidate’s time at a premium in the final stretch of a presidential race that, by his own admission, he is currently losing. He told the crowd he was heading straight to North Carolina following the ceremony in the hotel’s grand lobby, seemingly in recognition of complaints that the morning photo op seemed more about his personal brand than his campaign, which has sunk over the past week beneath the weight of myriad allegations of sexual assault. 
 
 Speaking to CNN’s Dana Bash in the lobby, Trump became testy when asked why he’s taking time out of his swing-state tour to hawk his hotel. 
 
 “I did yesterday eight stops and three major speeches, and I've been doing this for weeks straight. I left there for an hour and a half. I'm going to North Carolina right now and then to Florida, then up to New Hampshire,” Trump said flatly. “For you to ask me that question is actually very insulting, because Hillary Clinton does one stop and then goes home and sleeps, yet you'll ask me that question. I think it's a very rude question, to be honest with you.” 
 
 To any observer, the final stretch of Trump’s campaign is taking the form of an infomercial — a nightly Facebook Live “newscast” featuring Trump surrogates and staff launched on Monday — that is selling a product as much as it is a candidate and blurring the lines that delineate official campaign business and activities like never before. The appearance at the downtown Washington hotel, which came a day after a campaign event at his Trump National Doral Miami golf resort in Florida, was the fourth one Trump has made as a presidential candidate. 
 
 Trump's retreat within his newest gilded temple actually began Tuesday evening, shortly after his flight from Tallahassee landed in Washington. As campaign manager Kellyanne Conway was holding court in the hotel lobby, going from table to table speaking with guests, the bells in the post office's old bell tower rang loudly, taking waiters and bartenders by surprise. The unexpected fanfare — the Congress Bells, a Bicentennial gift from England, had not rung since 2006 — soon made sense, as Trump entered the room with his sons, acting out a dramatic tableau seemingly to remind himself of his own success. 
 
 The ribbon-cutting had been billed specifically as a non-campaign event, even though it was listed on Trump’s campaign website. His campaign staff and advisers — including Conway, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) and former "Apprentice" contestant Omarosa Manigault — were in attendance at a news conference beforehand in the hotel’s presidential ballroom. The wireless password provided to reporters was “trump2016,” and an eight-page, color-photo pamphlet handed out at the event focused entirely on the hotel and made no mention of its owner’s White House bid. 
 
 While Trump was in Washington, D.C., his running mate, Mike Pence, was campaigning Wednesday in Nevada, a battleground state, and Utah, one of the country’s most reliably red states, where Trump has admitted that he is “having a tremendous problem.” Hillary Clinton, who has begun devoting more and more of her time on the campaign trail to boosting down-ballot Democrats, took the opportunity Wednesday morning to draw a contrast with Trump’s self-promotional show and to emphasize the hypocrisy of his anti-trade, “America first” message. 
 
 As she wound down her speech in Lake Worth, Florida, Clinton noted Trump’s appearance in Washington “to open a new luxury hotel.” Trump, she claimed, “relied on undocumented workers to make his project cheaper.” 
 
 “Most of the products in the rooms were made overseas, and he even sued to get his taxes lowered,” she continued, informing the crowd that at her next rally — in Tampa — she’d be appearing with José Andrés, the chef who pulled his restaurant venture from Trump’s Washington hotel in response to his caustic comments about Mexican immigrants at the start of his campaign last year. 
 
 Trump’s team has billed the project as evidence of Trump’s business acumen, with Conway remarking that “his under-budget, ahead-of-schedule hotel” would show the “the tangible accomplishments of Donald Trump.” Speaking to reporters before the event, Gingrich said anyone concerned that Trump’s visit to his Washington property was a distraction was missing the point. 
 
 “That's because they don't understand the message: It's under budget and ahead of schedule,” he said, repeating an apparent talking point for Trump surrogates. “That's a very important message because it means nothing in the current bureaucratic government tells you what a Trump administration would be like.” 
 
 But whether or not the hotel did in fact arrive ahead of schedule remains an open question. While signs on scaffolding outside the building billed the hotel as “coming 2016,” a news release from February 2014 for the Trump International Hotel & Tower in Chicago said the Washington hotel was supposed to open in late 2015. 
 
 A modest but persistent protest outside the hotel, illustrative of how the property is seemingly attracting as many gawkers as it has paying customers, grew steadily as the event drew closer, with the crowd numbering roughly 150 by the time the event was set to begin. The protesters marched in a large circle, chanting, "What do we want? Justice. When do we want it? Now." 
 
 Taking the stage before her father, Ivanka Trump acknowledged the launch of a new brand, Scion, the corporation’s initial attempt to downplay the "Trump" brand that has always been definitional. She lauded her father but also credited others involved in the hotel’s development, including Eleanor Holmes Norton, Washington, D.C.'s, congressional delegate and a Democrat. Norton supported the launch of the Pennsylvania Avenue project but did not attend Wednesday’s event. 
 
 Ivanka Trump was the only one of Trump's four children present to speak, and her remarks were also an effort in self-preservation and the salvaging of a personal brand as a successful and nonpartisan female entrepreneur after a campaign that she described as “one of the most interesting journeys of my life.” 
 
 In praising her father, she spoke of the countless Trump employees who have remained loyal over the years and support his latest venture. But in describing her father's vision when it comes to restoring old buildings, she also seemed to be imploring a broader electorate that largely views him unfavorably to see him differently. 
 
 “My father trained my siblings and me not to see things for what they are," she said. "But for what they could be.” 
 
 Gabe Debenedetti contributed reporting from Lake Worth, Florida. ||||| Businessman and reality TV personality Donald Trump is reportedly gearing up to launch a presidential exploratory committee Wednesday, a senior adviser told the New Hampshire Union Leader. 
 
 The formation of an exploratory committee is Trump's most decisive step yet toward running for the GOP presidential nomination, which he has flirted with for years. Trumps announcement comes ahead of a Thursday visit to New Hampshire, a key early voting state. 
 
 Trump began signaling last month that he was seriously considering a 2016 presidential bid. Ahead of a possible run, Trump addressed conservative activists last month at the Conservative Political Action Committee, where he sought to present himself as a Washington outsider with the business acumen to run the country. 
 
 "Washington is totally broken and it's not going to get fixed unless we put the right person in that top position. It's just not going to happen," he said at the time. "I'm not a politician, thank goodness. Politicians are all talk, no action. I’ve dealt with them all my life." 
 
 Real estate mogul Donald Trump is reportedly forming an exploratory committee to determine whether to run for president in 2016. (Reuters) 
 
 The Union Leader also reports that Trump will walk away from his hit reality show, “The Apprentice,” in order to focus on his presidential bid. The report also said Trump has begun hiring staff. 
 
 Despite his enviable name recognition and powerful brand, Trump has struggled to be taken seriously in the political arena. That is at least in part due to his high-profile feuds with various celebrities and politicians. 
 
 During Trump’s speech at CPAC, the businessman repeated past accusations that President Obama may not have been born in the United States during a question and answer session with Sean Hannity. Obama was born in Hawaii, and released his birth certificate in 2011. ||||| Listen to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump discuss some of his foreign policy positions with The Washington Post editorial board. "NATO is costing us a fortune," Trump said. "We're not reimbursed fairly for what we do." (The Washington Post) 
 
 Listen to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump discuss some of his foreign policy positions with The Washington Post editorial board. "NATO is costing us a fortune," Trump said. "We're not reimbursed fairly for what we do." (The Washington Post) 
 
 Donald Trump endorsed an unabashedly noninterventionist approach to world affairs Monday during a day-long tour of Washington, casting doubt on the need for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and expressing skepticism about a muscular U.S. military presence in Asia. 
 
 The foreign policy positions — outlined in a meeting with the editorial board of The Washington Post — came on a day when Trump set aside the guerrilla tactics and showman bravado that have powered his campaign to appear as a would-be presidential nominee, explaining his policies, accepting counsel and building bridges to Republican elites. 
 
 On Monday night, Trump delivered a scripted address in front of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, prompting ovations with pledges to stand by Israel and take a hard line on peace talks with the Palestinians. 
 
 Trump’s whirlwind day of appearances around the nation’s capital was intended in part to head off an establishment push to deny him the Republican Party’s nomination. But in the Post meeting, the billionaire mogul also made clear that he would not be beholden to the GOP’s long-held orthodoxies. 
 
 During the hour-long discussion, during which he revealed five of his foreign policy advisers, Trump advocated a light footprint in the world. In spite of unrest in the Middle East and elsewhere, he said, the United States must look inward and steer its resources toward rebuilding the nation’s crumbling infrastructure. 
 
 1 of 11 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × Donald Trump tours official Washington View Photos On a whirlwind day of appearances across the nation’s capital that culminated with a high-profile address on U.S.-Israel relations, the Republican presidential front-runner was noticeably measured. Caption On a whirlwind day of appearances across the nation’s capital that culminated with a high-profile address on U.S.-Israel relations, the Republican presidential front-runner was noticeably measured. March 21, 2016 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a news conference at the former Old Post Office Pavilion, soon to be a Trump International Hotel. Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue. 
 
 “At what point do you say, ‘Hey, we have to take care of ourselves?’ ” Trump said in the editorial board meeting. “I know the outer world exists, and I’ll be very cognizant of that. But at the same time, our country is disintegrating, large sections of it, especially the inner cities.” 
 
 Trump said U.S. involvement in NATO may need to be significantly diminished in the coming years, breaking with nearly seven decades of consensus in Washington. “We certainly can’t afford to do this anymore,” he said, adding later, “NATO is costing us a fortune, and yes, we’re protecting Europe with NATO, but we’re spending a lot of money.” 
 
 [A transcript of Donald Trump’s meeting with The Washington Post editorial board] 
 
 ‘Be more presidential’ 
 
 Throughout his unlikely campaign, Trump’s unpredictable, incendiary persona has been his rocket fuel. But with the nomination now within his reach, he is trying at times to round out his sharp edges to convince his party’s leaders — not to mention general-election voters — that he has the temperament and knowledge to be president. 
 
 This was one of Trump’s goals as he addressed AIPAC’s annual conference in Washington. For perhaps the first time in his campaign, Trump read from a prepared text on teleprompters — a device he has colorfully mocked other politicians for using. 
 
 On Israel, Trump mostly hewed to the party line, giving a full-throated defense of the nation and its interests and arguing that no candidate is a more forceful champion of the Jewish state. His eyes pinging back and forth between the teleprompter screens, Trump embellished his prepared text only to deliver a few criticisms of President Obama and his first-term secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential front-runner. 
 
 “When I become president, the days of treating Israel like a second-class citizen will end on Day One,” Trump vowed. He received enthusiastic applause from the crowd of thousands, and the much-rumored walkouts during his speech were either called off or went unnoticed in the cavernous Verizon Center arena. 
 
 GOP presidential hopefuls John Kasich, Donald Trump and Ted Cruz spoke on March 21 at the AIPAC conference in Washington, D.C. (Peter Stevenson/Reuters) 
 
 Earlier Monday, Trump sought to cultivate ties with his party’s establishment at a private luncheon he hosted on Capitol Hill. It was attended by about two dozen Republicans, including influential conservatives in Congress and prominent figures from GOP policy and lobbying circles. 
 
 Those with whom he met directly urged Trump to “be more presidential,” according to one attendee. This person, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to relate details of the closed session, described it as “a very serious conversation,” adding: “This was the Donald Trump who talks with bankers, not the Donald Trump who is on the stage.” 
 
 Trump also sought to showcase his business acumen and dealmaking prowess. He staged an afternoon news conference at the historic Old Post Office Pavilion, which his real estate company is turning into a Trump International Hotel, a few blocks from the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue. The candidate, flanked by employees wearing hard hats, led journalists on a tour of the construction zone. 
 
 Trump’s visit to Washington comes amid an intensified effort by some in the Republican establishment, including 2012 presidential nominee Mitt Romney, to deny him the nomination by forcing a contested convention at which the party could rally around an alternative. 
 
 At his luncheon meeting, Trump warned party leaders against using parliamentary maneuvers to block his nomination. He later told reporters that he had a productive conversation recently with House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) and that he has “many millions of people behind me.” 
 
 “Now, they can play games, and they can play cute,” Trump said of Ryan and other GOP leaders. “I can only take [Ryan] at face value. I understand duplicity. I understand a lot of things. But he called me last week, he could not have been nicer. I spoke with Mitch McConnell, he could not have been nicer. If people want to be smart, they should embrace this movement.” 
 
 Neither Ryan nor McConnell (R-Ky.), the Senate majority leader, attended Monday’s meeting with Trump. It was held at Jones Day, the law firm of Donald F. McGahn, a Trump campaign attorney, and was convened in part by Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), a key Trump ally. 
 
 Attendees included Heritage Foundation President Jim De­Mint, a former senator from South Carolina and a conservative movement leader, as well as Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), former House speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and former House Appropriations Committee chairman Bob Livingston (R-La.). A group of House members who have endorsed Trump also attended. 
 
 “We met with Senator Sessions and some of the great people in Washington,” Trump said. “We had a really good meeting. . . . They can’t believe how far we’ve come because, you know, I think a lot of people maybe wouldn’t have predicted that.” 
 
 ‘We are a poor country now’ 
 
 Trump began the day at The Post, where his on-the-record meeting with the editorial board covered media libel laws, violence at his rallies and climate change, as well as foreign policy. 
 
 For the first time, Trump listed members of a team chaired by Sessions that is counseling him on foreign affairs and helping to shape his policies: Keith Kellogg, Carter Page, George Papadopoulos, Walid Phares and Joseph E. Schmitz. All are relatively little known in foreign policy circles, and several have ties to the George W. Bush administration. 
 
 [Meet the men shaping Donald Trump’s foreign policy views] 
 
 Trump praised George P. Shultz, who served as President Ronald Reagan’s secretary of state, as a model diplomat and, on the subject of Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, said America’s allies are “not doing anything.” 
 
 “Ukraine is a country that affects us far less than it affects other countries in NATO, and yet we’re doing all of the lifting,” Trump said. “They’re not doing anything. And I say: ‘Why is it that Germany’s not dealing with NATO on Ukraine? . . . Why are we always the one that’s leading, potentially, the third world war with Russia?’ ” 
 
 While the Obama administration has faced pressure from congressional critics who have advocated for a more active U.S. role in supporting Ukraine, the U.S. military has limited its assistance to nonlethal equipment such as vehicles and night-vision gear. European nations have taken the lead in crafting a fragile cease-fire designed to decrease hostility between Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed separatists. 
 
 Trump sounded a similar note in discussing the U.S. presence in the Pacific. He questioned the value of massive military investments in Asia and wondered aloud whether the United States still is capable of being an effective peacekeeping force there. 
 
 “South Korea is very rich, great industrial country, and yet we’re not reimbursed fairly for what we do,” Trump said. “We’re constantly sending our ships, sending our planes, doing our war games — we’re reimbursed a fraction of what this is all costing.” 
 
 Such talk is likely to trigger anxiety in South Korea, where a U.S. force of 28,000 has provided a strong deterrent to North Korean threats for decades. 
 
 Asked whether the United States benefits from its involvement in Asia, Trump replied, “Personally, I don’t think so.” He added: “I think we were a very powerful, very wealthy country. And we’re a poor country now. We’re a debtor nation.” 
 
 Jenna Johnson, Paul Kane, Missy Ryan and David Weigel contributed to this report.
– Last we heard from Donald Trump he was embroiled in battle with a "malicious" Florida airport, but it appears he's now set his sights on a loftier goal: considering a 2016 POTUS run, the AP reports. Trump, who has hinted at running in the past, announced today that he'll be launching a presidential exploratory committee, contending in a statement that "I am the only one who can make America truly great again." He says he's already recruited political aides in Iowa, South Carolina, and New Hampshire (where he's set to make the rounds later this week) and has an advisory team set up in New York, the New Hampshire Union Leader notes. The Donald has even reportedly turned down another season of NBC's The Apprentice: "Nobody in the history of television has turned down a renewal," Trump's senior political adviser tells the Union Leader. Trump's priorities if he were to assume the US helm, per his statement: improving border security, boosting the economy, powering up the military, and rebuilding US infrastructure. "I have a great love for our country, but it is a country that is in serious trouble," he says. "Americans deserve better than what they get from their politicians—who are all talk and no action!" As the Washington Post notes, Trump will have to overcome certain perception hurdles, such as his constant Twitter fights with other luminaries and his continued insistence that President Obama prove he was born in the US (he brought it up again at last month's CPAC, per the Post). Trump retweeted messages of support today, including one fan who posted, "@realDonaldTrump the thought of you becoming president of the United States is the only thing that gives me hope for this country's future." (If he does run, will it be as an independent, a Republican, or … something else?)