Republican frontrunner welcomes prospect of Bloomberg bid for White House

DONALD TRUMP, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, last night welcomed the possibility of an independent run for the White House from Michael Bloomberg.

The billionaire media mogul and former New York mayor, hinted over the weekend that he was considering a late entrance to the race, with friends saying he was prepared to spend $1 billion (£700 million) of his own money and would decide by early March.

Mr Trump said: “I know Michael very well, I’d love to compete against Michael.”

Mr Bloomberg, 73, who has a fortune of $37 billion, was a longtime Democrat who became a Republican to run for mayor in 2001, before switching to be an independent.

He is understood to have a cordial social relationship with Mr Trump but disagrees with his potential rival’s hard line stance on immigration.

Bernie Sanders, the socialist who is challenging Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination, said another billionaire entering the race would be “proof what I have been saying for a long time: this country is moving away from democracy to oligarchy”.

Mr Trump’s campaign was hit by another controversy over the weekend as he declared at a rally: “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters.”

Defending the comment later, Mr Trump said he was making a point about the loyalty of his supporters.

He said: “I love my people… these are people that will not leave.”

A new poll showed that Mr Trump was gaining support in Iowa, the first state to vote on Feb 1. In the Fox News poll, he had 34 per cent among Republican voters with Ted Cruz, the Texas senator, in second on 23 per cent, and Marco Rubio, the Florida senator, in third on 12 per cent.

In what was seen as a key endorsement in Iowa, the Des Moines Register announced it was backing Mr Rubio.