New York

MICHAEL Bloomberg, who for months quietly laid the groundwork to run for president as an independent, will not enter the 2016 campaign, he said on Monday, citing his fear that a three-way race could lead to the election of a candidate he thinks would endanger the country: Donald Trump.

In a forceful condemnation of his fellow New Yorker, Mr Bloomberg said that Mr Trump had run "the most divisive and demagogic presidential campaign I can remember, preying on people's prejudices and fears". He said that he was alarmed by Mr Trump's threats to bar Muslim immigrants from entering the country and to initiate trade wars against China and Japan, and he was disturbed by Mr Trump's "feigning ignorance of white supremacists", alluding to Mr Trump's initial refusal to disavow support from David Duke, a former Ku Klux Klan leader.