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WASHINGTON — Vote for me ’cause mine’s bigger.
Donald Trump yesterday fired the opening salvo in a macho battle of bank accounts with rival presidential contender Mitt Romney, dismissing the former Massachusetts governor as a “small business” person and saying his own assets are “much, much” larger than his opponent’s.
Trump, whose approval ratings have rocketed upward since he started hammering President Obama, yesterday turned his fire on Romney, considered by many the front-runner in a divided Republican field.
“I’m a much bigger businessman and have a much, much bigger net worth. I mean my net worth is many, many, many times Mitt Romney,” Trump told CNN’s Candy Crowley yesterday.
Trump, who made his millions doing splashy real-estate deals and slapping his name on towering skyscrapers from New York to Atlantic City, then belittled Romney, saying that Bain Capital, the hedge fund where he made millions of dollars before running for governor, didn’t create any jobs.
“Well, Mitt Romney is a basically small-business guy, if you really think about it. He was a hedge fund. He was a funds guy. He walked away with some money from a very good company that he didn’t create. He worked there. He didn’t create it,” Trump said.
Trump claimed that he had created “hundreds of thousands of jobs.”
The real-estate mogul, whose popularity soared after he questioned Obama’s citizenship, has yet to officially enter the race. But he plans to announce his final decision after the final episode of his TV show.
He teased that the country would know the full extent of his wealth if and when he decides to get into the race.
Romney, who made millions running the hedge fund and as CEO of a Boston management consulting firm, is no financial slouch, having poured $45 million into his failed 2008 presidential campaign.
In 2007, Romney’s campaign disclosed that he was worth between $190 million and $250 million. His campaign didn’t respond to Trump’s broadsides.
By comparison, Forbes magazine estimated Trump’s net worth at $2.7 billion. He was No. 420 on this year’s list of the world’s billionaires.
But the mogul has been accused of overstating his wealth, and sued a New York Times reporter who wrote a book saying he was worth much less than $1 billion.
Trump has also said, “My brand alone is worth $5 billion,” a statement that Forbes tweaked. “Yes, the Donald is a billionaire. No, he’s not worth what he says he is,” the magazine wrote last year.
Trump has added to his bottom line by starring in “The Apprentice” and “Celebrity Apprentice” on NBC.
“I’ve built a great company,” Trump said. “And one of the beauties of, frankly, if and when I announce, sometime prior to June, you will see how big my company is, because it’s much bigger and much more powerful and much stronger than anyone really knows. So you’re going to see how good it is. You’re going to see how strong it is.”