WASHINGTON -- New York tycoon Donald Trump said Monday he won't run for president because the Reform Party is "self-destructing" and can't provide the support a candidate needs to win.
"You could only win the whole thing with a totally unified party," Trump said on NBC's "Today."After months of speculation about a possible candidacy, the colorful and controversial billionaire said he was dissuaded in part by the departure of Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura, who had been an ally of Trump's in the Reform Party squabbles. He also took a shot at former Republican Pat Buchanan, who is seeking the party's nomination, and his unlikely supporter, leftist activist Lenora Fulani.
"The Reform Party is a total mess," Trump said. "You've got Buchanan, a right-winger, and Fulani, a communist, and they've merged."
Trump's announcement ends a lengthy flirtation with the notion that the real estate developer could tap his fortune for a long-shot bid to capture the White House as a third-party candidate.
Trump said he would no longer consider running for president or vice president in 2000, even if Ventura or others got a new party off the ground. "In a number of years I might consider it," Trump said.
Trump met over the weekend with advisers to consider the option of running as an Independence Party candidate, but determined that there is not enough time to get on state ballots. Trump considered that option out of respect for Ventura, who had been the Reform Party's highest elected official before leaving the party -- he called it "dysfunctional" -- last week to reinvigorate his state's Independence Party.
The Reform Party feud culminated last Friday with the governor's departure and the ouster of a Ventura ally as the party's chairman.
A fractious Reform Party meeting Saturday in Nashville, Tenn., returned power to allies of party founder Ross Perot, who has not ruled out running for president a third time.
"The party is, as you know, self-destructing," Trump said. But he added this would be a bad year for the Reform Party, regardless, because the economy is doing well.
"The reform party can only really jell if times are bad," he said.
While he never formally entered the race, Trump made a handful of campaign trips, hinted broadly for weeks that he would run and issued comprehensive health care and federal debt-reduction proposals. He held a single-digit ranking in most public polls and was not given much of a chance of winning the presidency.
Trump's decision leaves Buchanan as the front-running candidate for the Reform Party nomination. Buchanan left the GOP after two failed presidential bids, eying the nearly $13 million in federal campaign funds that will be awarded the Reform nominee.
Trump estimates his personal net worth at $5 billion. Though independent analyses offer lower estimates, there was little doubt he was wealthy enough to make inroads toward the Reform Party nomination.
Many Perot allies encouraged Buchanan to bolt the GOP and join the Reform Party, in part because they hoped the conservative firebrand could help defy Ventura's wing of the party. With Ventura out of the way, Perot's allies are speculating that the Texas billionaire could seek the nomination himself.
Perot has neither confirmed nor denied the speculation.