Trump says he deserves credit for Romney's decisive Nevada win

Donald Trump said Monday that he deserved credit for Mitt Romney's decisive win in the Nevada caucuses over the weekend after the reality show host endorsed the Republican front-runner at a Las Vegas rally Thursday.

“There was a lot riding on that particular race in Nevada and it was interesting, because the numbers were much, much greater than you thought,” Trump said during an interview on Fox News. “And a lot of people are giving me credit for that. And I will accept that credit.”

Trump gave little insight into a chaotic week that initially had rival Newt Gingrich's camp claiming that the real estate mogul planned to endorse their candidate. Trump said he thought the confusion occured because every Republican candidate hoped he would be the one to win his nod.

“I like Newt a lot, but I think Mitt Romney is going to win the election against Obama,” Trump said. “I really believe that. I think Obama will not do well and won’t do as well as people are thinking he’s going to do, and I think that Mitt Romney is going to win the election. But there was a lot of confusion as to who I was going to endorse and frankly, that made things exciting!”

Trump described Romney as "impressive" and said he wanted to throw his support behind his candidacy while the GOP race was still undecided.

"The fact is that I decided Mitt Romney — he's a terrific guy. He's actually a much different guy on a personal level than what you see on television," Trump said.

Romney in a tweet Monday thanked Trump for his endorsement. "Thanks for your help in the NV victory MT @RealDonaldTrump Let’s make @BarackObama a one term president http://onetermfund.com #OneTermFund," he tweeted.

The television star also continued his harsh criticism of President Obama, saying he doubted the accuracy of new jobless figures showing the unemployment rate dropping to 8.3 percent and the economy adding 243,000 jobs last month.

"We keep talking about unemployment, and the numbers getting better, but we … recalculate the numbers differently today," Trump said.

The president's campaign team and leading Democrats lampooned the Trump endorsement last week, with Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Fla.) saying that the paring of Romney and Trump was apt because both "made millions firing people."

—This story was updated at 11:34 a.m.

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