Donald Trump may have loads of current and future real estate, development, gambling and other interests potentially effected by the next election, but at his fourth fundraiser for Republican gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist, The Don insisted that had nothing to do with his strong support for Crist. “No, not at all,’’ the Don said Friday night at a $10,000 per person state GOP fundraiser at his Mar-A-Lago club in Palm Beach. “I don’t need anything from him, I don’t want anything from him. I think he’s a tremendous person, and I think he’ll be great for Florida, that’s it. And if he’s great for Florida, that’s good for me.’’

Between enthusiastic chit-chat about a Palm Beach code enforcement controversy over his 40 by 60-foot American flag (“That’s awesome,’’ said Crist), his new bestselling book, and his decision to fire Carolyn Kepcher, his former co-star on The Apprentice, Trump talked a little politics. The war in Iraq has been a “total and complete disaster,’’ he said, and “whoever is against the war should take control of congress. The longer it keeps going you prolong the agony.’’ He predicts and his friends John McCain and Rudy Giuliani will wind up as the Republican ticket together in 2008 and will face a very, very tough race from his good friend Hillary Clinton.
“She’s brilliant woman and she’s going to be a very, very formidable candidate,’’ the registered Republican said of his home state senator. “I Believe she’ll be the Democratic candidate and I think she’s going to be very, very formidable. Absolutely I think she can win, especially if the war’s still going on. Hopefully she gets more militant against the war…She’s a little bit down the middle, which I think is a bad stance.’’