tagged w/ price control
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Donald Trump has surged in the polls to become the joint-first candidate when Republicans are asked who they would support for the 2012 presidential nomination.
The big CNN survey rise comes after he continued his bizarre potential campaign by taunting Barack Obama over oil prices, China and saying he’s his ‘worst nightmare’.
Mr Trump - fifth place last month - is now level with Mike Huckabee on 19 per cent and in front of Sarah Palin (12 per cent), Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney (both 11 per cent).
Mr Trump seems to have taken much of his nine per cent rise on March's CNN poll from Mitt Romney, after the former Massachusetts governor fell seven per cent.
But the poll was conducted before Republican heavyweight Mr Romney threw his hat in the ring and entered the 2012 race for the White House on Monday
Mr Trump said the President is ‘very much to blame’ for oil prices going up and believes the U.S. will ‘never, ever recover’ if they continue to rise.
He also said nobody wants to run against him if he stands for Republican presidential candidate, claimed China is ‘absolutely ripping off our country’.
Mr Trump told CNBC that he is concerned about rising oil prices, claiming the liquid is the ‘lifeblood of this country’ and that Mr Obama has no control of the situation.
‘He’s in bed with (OPEC),' Mr Trump said. 'He doesn't speak the way you have to speak to them and it's going to be a very sad day for the U.S. if oil goes up any further.'
The tycoon said he will decide before June whether to run for office, after a separate Wall Street Journal and NBC poll last week put him second behind Mr Romney.
Mr Trump also slammed White House senior advisor David Plouffe for calling his campaign a ‘sideshow’ and saying he has ‘zero chance’ of being hired.
This was a 'nasty statement (but) really very gratifying' as he must be ‘bothering’ Mr Obama on the issues surrounding his birth certificate and China, Mr Trump said.
‘I am bothering on China - China is absolutely ripping off our country, China's taking our jobs, taking our money and loaning it back to us,’ he told CNBC.
He also claims nobody wants to run against him and that Mr Obama is scared of him.
‘I don’t hear them talking about (Tim) Pawlenty or anybody else,’ he told Fox News. ‘They’re talking only about Trump. And I can tell you, I’m their worst nightmare.
‘I am not the person that they want to run against and they know it and I know it.’Donald Trump has surged in the polls to become the joint-first candidate when... more
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