What is Trump's motivation?

[Mehmentum]

If his goals are option 2 or 5, he's certainly succeeded.

[yankeesfan]

I don't believe he genuinely wants to be president.  I think when that gets out he'll lose support and drop out.

As for why he's running, he's a narcissist.

[Yelnoc]

Voted "he wants the attention," by which I mean he thinks that the attention will generate more interest in Trump enterprises and bring more people to his resorts, his hotels, and his casinos. Actually being in contention is, I think, a surprise for him. I think right now, he and his staff are agonizing over whether to actually be a contender, to start collecting signatures and paying filing fees for ballot access, to draft substantial policy proposals, and to start laying an infrastructure in the the early primary states. I don't think The Donald actually wants to spend much of his own money, nor does he want to tap up his wealthy friends, but the way the polls are looking, he might think he can cost to a victory with minimal infrastructure.

[dudeabides]

He wants the attention. It's why he married a woman decades younger than him who he thinks (mistakenly) is pretty. It's why he did that God awful reality television series. It's why he constantly uses his twitter to make childish attacks on people. It's why he combs the hair he has the way he does.

[Likely Voter]

I posed this question in another thread recently. I really cant figure it out. I think maybe he started this thing as some kind of narcissistic publicity attention thing, but since then part of his strange brain has started to believe he could be president.  So far he is essentially running this campaign from Trump Tower, often literally phoning it in.

But to be a real candidate he will need to do the ballot access thing, and (presumably) the other normal things campaigns do: position papers/policy speeches, ground operations, and paid media. All of that of course costs money. One indicator that he is serious is that he has started fundraising (although I thought he said he wasn't going to do that)

[DavidB.]

President / attention, but there will be a point when he wants to watch the world burn (and probably also a point when he wants to watch the GOP burn).

[Famous Mortimer]

He wants the attention. It's why he married a woman decades younger than him who he thinks (mistakenly) is pretty. It's why he did that God awful reality television series. It's why he constantly uses his twitter to make childish attacks on people. It's why he combs the hair he has the way he does.

Haha, you called his wife ugly and then a sentence later criticize him for "childish attacks".

[Maxwell]

A combination of 2, 4, 5.

[pho]

Probably boredom. In one of his books, Trump wrote "The same assets that excite me in the chase, often, once they are acquired, leave me bored....For me, you see, the important thing is the getting, not the having.”

The Presidency is the biggest deal in the world, and Trump wants to close it.

[/]

He wants to both become President and get the attention.

This poll should have allowed more than one options to be selected.

[dudeabides]

He wants the attention. It's why he married a woman decades younger than him who he thinks (mistakenly) is pretty. It's why he did that God awful reality television series. It's why he constantly uses his twitter to make childish attacks on people. It's why he combs the hair he has the way he does.

Haha, you called his wife ugly and then a sentence later criticize him for "childish attacks".

There is a difference between posting on a forum and tweeting at people for starters. Secondly, I call it as I see it - his wife is, to use his terminology, highly over rated.

[Türkisblau]

Option 1 (Sane, not a loser)

[bedstuy]

Making American great again.

[Nortexius]

I think Donald Trump is genuinely worried about Americas future. In his business dealings with foreign businessmen he sees America being taken advantage of in a way that he would never allow himself to be taken advantage of. So while he feels great about his individual success, he keeps seeing the nation he belongs to and feels a great affinity for being humiliated by foreign nations.

Donald Trump is a nationalist who feels great grievances with the way America is being treated by foreign nations and that in my opinion is the underlying theme in his campaign and his political philosophy.  

[tpfkaw]

AOTA

[DS0816]

Donald Trump is running for president of the United States for two reasons: 1) He wants a stronger nation and 2) he is the most worthy Republican.

[Fuzzy Bear]

He wants the attention. It's why he married a woman decades younger than him who he thinks (mistakenly) is pretty. It's why he did that God awful reality television series. It's why he constantly uses his twitter to make childish attacks on people. It's why he combs the hair he has the way he does.

To some extent, wanting the attention and wanting to be President go hand in hand.  Whether or not Trump is the best Presidential candidate of the bunch is irrelevant to the question asked.  Trump, I believe, certainly believes that he could do the job as President, and he certainly has the executive experience necessary to be a credible candidate.  

Whatever people think of Trump's style, he's at least doing it up front and in the open.  Bush 41 signed off on a political consultant injecting racial stereotypes into the 1988 campaign with the Willie Horton ad.  (Horton was always known as Willam, but Lee Atwater made sure he was packaged as "Willie" while Bush 41 talked about a "kinder, gentler America.)  Eisenhower, Kennedy, and LBJ all cheated on their spouses, and Nixon was hitting the bottle heavy at the end.  As for Presidential wives, Nancy Reagan and Hillary Clinton both dabbled in occultic practices.  (Nancy ahd an astrologer and Hillary tried to channel Eleanor Roosevelt.)  Trump's a known quantity, and he does what he does in the open.  That's more than a lot of folks can say.

[Fuzzy Bear]

I think he see's politics as a game and correctly observed he's a superior player than everyone else going for it this round.  And I don't think he does anything to lose or is one to back away while he's winning.  He was looking for the next mountain to climb and this was it. 

As for hurting the Republicans or helping the Democrats, I don't think he cares.

I agree with your use of the word "politics". 

While I would vote for Trump if the FL GOP primary were held TODAY, I am not sure he is as enthusiastic about "governing" as he is about "politics".  Of course, much governing is politics, and Trump wouldn't be the first President who liked running for office more than managing in office if it played out that way.

[Donald Trump 2016 !]

I'm watching Trump on msnbc right now giving a press conference.

He genuinely sounds like he wants to be the President.

[Frodo]

I still think he's there as a saboteur. 

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Primarily for the attention, which is both gratifying to his ego AND free advertising. But I'm confident that if things break his way, Trump wouldn't exactly object to being President.