Donald Trump Twice Dumped Republican Party

AUGUST 6--With Donald Trump headlining tonight’s first Republican presidential debate, perhaps the purported billionaire will be asked to explain his fluctuating voter history, which includes him twice dumping the GOP and spending most of the 2000s as a registered Democrat.

As previously detailed in these pages, the 69-year-old Trump has shown little loyalty to the party whose nomination he now appears to be seeking.

New York City Board of Elections records detail Trump’s registration history, which includes stints as an enrolled Republican, Democrat, and Independent. He even spent several months without a party before returning to the Republican fold in April 2012.

Here is a history of Trump’s voter registration since 1987:

* JULY 1987: Trump registers for the first time from his Fifth Avenue penthouse. The real estate developer, 41 at the time, reports having previously been registered from his boyhood home in Queens (though his prior party affiliation is unclear). Trump enrolls as a REPUBLICAN.

* OCTOBER 1999: Trump dumps the GOP and enrolls as a member of the INDEPENDENCE PARTY.

* AUGUST 2001: Trump enrolls as a DEMOCRAT.

* SEPTEMBER 2009: After eight years as a Democrat, Trump returns to the REPUBLICAN PARTY.

* DECEMBER 2011: Trump lasts two years before he again abandons the party of Ronald Reagan. He eschews the GOP in favor of siding with no party. On his registration form, “The Apprentice” star checks off the box marked “I DO NOT WISH TO ENROLL IN A PARTY.”

* APRIL 2012: Trump registers as a REPUBLICAN.

Prospective First Lady Melania Trump, 45, has not suffered from the kind of flip-flopping that has afflicted her husband. The Slovenian immigrant, a former model, first registered to vote in October 2006 and enrolled as a Republican, records show. Trump, who married The Donald in January 2005, has not changed her registration during subsequent years.