Trump: I’m not a masochist

Republican frontrunner Donald Trump says he would drop out of the race for president if his polling dropped into the low single digits.

Asked whether, facing the prospect of losing primaries, he would decide that he would “step away,” the billionaire businessman and reality TV celebrity told CNBC.com in an interview published online Thursday: “Well, I’m not a masochist, ok?”

{mosads}“Right now I’m leading every poll and in most cases big,” Trump said. “And I’m leading Iowa, I’m leading New Hampshire, I’m leading South Carolina, I’m leading everything.

“That’s good,” he added. “[But] if that changed, if I was like some of these people at 1 percent and 2 percent, there’s no reason to continue forward.

“Now if I tank, you know, sure. I go back to the business. Why wouldn’t I?”

In the same interview Trump was asked about his controversial immigration policies, which involve deporting 11 million undocumented immigrants, and about his descriptions of Mexicans as rapists and criminals.

Trump refuted the suggestion by CNBC’s John Harwood that his campaign was appealing to “fearful, anxious, white Americans.”

“You know, my audiences are very – many, many blacks,” Trump replied.

Asked whether racial tension was the “jet fuel” of his campaign, Trump said: “I don’t think so, no. I don’t want it to be and I don’t think it is.”