Presidential candidates and the news media underestimate Donald Trump at their peril.

Full disclosure: I want to play the Doral golf course that Trump owns in Miami. I am pretty sure that I am in if I can get the Union Leader to endorse The Donald.

Seriously. If Trump gets me on, with a cart, and with the gift of one or two of those things you use to fix ball marks on greens, then I have exactly three and a half words for Jeb Bush, Scott Walker, Rick Perry, John Kasich, Chris Krispy, Carly Fiorina, my friend Joe Biden, and all the other presidential wannabes who would covet our endorsement: You’re all fired!

Okay, the endorsement-for-golf stuff isn’t for real. (I couldn’t carry the water at Doral from the ladies’ tees so it’s not a course for me.) But the bit about underestimating Trump? That is serious.

The guy is the anti-politician. He has never run for office. His answers to questions on issues and government policy aren’t nuanced.

Ask him what to do about illegal immigration and he tells you he is the greatest builder in the world.

Say what?

Well, he says, I build great buildings, so if I build a wall across the border with Mexico, no one is getting over that wall.

Ask him what government department could be cut, and he goes on about ordering a lot of toilets and sinks for those great buildings of his and therefore he knows that the EPA is way over its head.

What?

Well, he says, the faucets go drip, drip and the toilets are so starved for water that you have to flush them five, six times, so you end up wasting more water.

Other candidates, and news media pundits, say answers like these aren’t thoughtful and that Trump is all hair, no cowboy, and therefore won’t be taken seriously. I’m not so sure.

People are so tired of glib talk and polished images and position papers that they may find to their liking a guy who goes against the grain and gets dissed by the talking head know-it-alls.

Does that mean they would vote for such a guy? I don’t know. But I believe we are about to find out. Trump is going to run.

Write to Joe McQuaid at Publisher@unionleader.com or on Twitter @deuecrew.