ASHINGTON - Real estate tycoon Donald Trump announced yesterday that he was forming an exploratory committee to help him determine if he could win a presidential race as a Reform Party candidate.
He said his first choice for vice president would be Oprah Winfrey.
''The only thing that could interest me is if I could win. I'm not talking about the nomination, I'm talking about the whole megillah,'' he said in a telephone interview from New York, where he plans to build the world's tallest residential building and where he lives in a marbled penthouse in a Fifth Avenue tower bearing his name.
Trump planned a dinner Thursday night with Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura, the Reform Party's leading elected official. Ventura, a former wrestler who won the governor's office in a 1998 upset, is trying to find a candidate he can back in what is shaping to be a fractious nomination fight.
''Do I like him for the Reform Party?'' Ventura said, when asked about Trump's announcement. ''It depends if he likes the Reform Party.''
He said he was not ready to make an endorsement in the 2000 presidential race.
Trump, a billionaire, said that unlike traditional exploratory committees, his would not raise money. Instead, it will provide political advice. Trump refused to identify his advisers but said he will decide whether to pursue a race in several months.
During an interview taped for broadcast on CNN's ''Larry King Live,'' Trump said Winfrey, the talk-show host, would be his first choice for running mate, although they have not talked about it.
''If she'd do it, she'd be fantastic,'' Trump said. ''I mean, she's popular, she's brilliant, she's a wonderful woman.''
Trump's announcement gives a fresh stir to an already topsy-turvy presidential race.
Pat Buchanan, concerned about Republican front-runner George W. Bush's commitment to conservative ideals, is widely expected to bolt from the GOP late this month to seek the Reform nomination. His campaign refused to comment on Trump's announcement.
Buchanan is backed by a wing of the Reform Party with ties to party founder Ross Perot, who ran under the Reform banner in 1996 and has not ruled out another campaign.
Meanwhile, former Connecticut Governor Lowell Weicker is considering running for the nomination of the American Reform Party, a splinter group. Ventura himself could launch a campaign despite earlier denials, and there has been talk of a candidacy by actress Cybill Shepherd.
The party's nominee will get $12.6 million in federal campaign funds.
A CNN-Time poll taken in July suggested Trump would be a long-shot for the presidency. He had 7 percent when matched against Bush and Vice President Al Gore, the Democratic front-runner.
Trump cited a different poll.
''The National Enquirer ... did a poll and said I'd win the election,'' he said in an interview on NBC's ''Today.'' The tabloid surveyed 100 people.
Trump, 53, is a registered Republican who until now has shunned politics except for contributing handsomely to candidates.
