Peter King 'serious' about exploring run for president

Rep. Peter King says he's "serious" about exploring a possible 2016 presidential bid after the New York Republican visited New Hampshire last week.

“This is not a game I’m playing," King told The Hill. "I’m serious."

The former chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee said he plans to return to the first-in-the-nation primary state in early September to meet with voters and continue assessing his potential candidacy.

“I’m serious about looking at it, and we’ll see where it goes from there,” King said. “I have no intention of being there just for the sake of being there, so if I think there’s any real chance and support, then we’ll move forward."

On Fox News Saturday, King took shots at GOP Sens. Rand Paul and Ted Cruz, two would-be opponents in a potential Republican primary.

King said the ideological "isolationism" created by the pair is "damaging to the Republican Party, but most importantly, to the country."

The 11-term lawmaker added that he likely won't make a decision on a bid for the White House until early 2015.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump appeared on ABC's "This Week" Sunday to stir obligatory speculation about his own 2016 candidacy.

In an interview from Ames, Iowa, the real estate mogul questioned whether Cruz's Canadian birth would make him ineligible for the White House.

"If he was born in Canada, perhaps not." Trump said. "I don't know the circumstances. I heard somebody told me he was born in Canada."

Trump, the de facto leader of the so-called birther movement, would not give up the conspiracy theory that President Barack Obama may not have been born in the United States.

"Well, I don't know, was there a birth certificate? You tell me," Trump said. "You know some people say that was not his birth certificate. So maybe it was; maybe it wasn't."