Donald Trump would bomb if he ran as a Republican in the presidential primaries, veteran pollster John Zogby, CEO of Zogby Analytics, tells
Newsmax TV.
But Zogby says it's doubtful the billionaire developer and star of NBC's "The Apprentice," who is setting up an exploratory committee to study a possible run in 2016, will actually declare.
"He sees it as a way of raising issues, getting the limelight, but … he will be scrutinized in ways that he's never been scrutinized, or that, frankly, he doesn’t want to be scrutinized. I for one just don't take this seriously at all," Zogby said Friday on "The Steve Malzberg Show."
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Zogby also said a presidential run requires lots of local schmoozing and humble behavior.
"It's one-on-one, it's coffee, it's the VFW hall, it's answering every issue that people have on their minds, and it's humbling," Zogby said.
"Frankly, I don't know if 'humbling' and the word 'Donald Trump' can go in the same sentence."
Zogby is just as skeptical about former Vice President Al Gore, who is thought to be mulling a run as a Democrat after news that he'll attend a climate-change forum in Iowa this May.
"I don't take it seriously. He, too, is enjoying being a very, very wealthy man and being, frankly, above the day-to-day rigors of politics," Zogby said.
"At least he has going for him years of public service, vice presidency. He has stayed with an issue and written a successful book, and he came very, very close to becoming president of the United States.
"So, I would put more stock in an Al Gore candidacy than I would in a Donald Trump, but not too much in either."
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