Trump called Obama campaign manager in 2010 begging to be the guy in charge of BP oil spill cleanup

As a businessman, Donald Trump begged President Barack Obama and his top advisor and campaign manager for a job.

McClatchy's national political correspondent David Catanese tweeted a page from David Axelrod's book revealing that Obama could have stopped Trump's presidential ambitions before they even started.

"'Listen,' Donald Trump said when I called him back. 'That admiral you have down there running this leak operation seems like a nice guy, but he doesn't know what he's doing. I know how to run big projects. Put me in charge of this thing, and I'll get that leak shut down and the damage repaired.'"

Trump has no experience in oil and gas, much less environmental cleanup, but in 2010 Trump wasn't in the best place financially.

As Forbes reported, Trump sells licenses to use his name and his on a series of things and his company manages non-Trump properties for a cost. In 2010, "iStar Financial, a lender to Trump Soho, struck a recapitalization deal with CIM Group after sales struggled soon after the opening," the report said. By July 2015, "Coco Beach Golf and Country Club, which paid a licensing fee to use the name 'Trump International Golf Club,' sought protection from creditors in the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Puerto Rico."

According to Axelrod, he ignored Trump's pleas for a job only to have Trump pitch another idea.

"'But I've got another thing for you. I build ballrooms. Beautiful ballrooms. You can go to Tampa and check one of them out for yourself.' Not being much of a dancer, I didn't quite know where this was heading. 'I see you have these state dinners on the lawn there in these shitty little tents. Let me build you a ballroom you can assemble and take apart. Trust me. It'll look great.'"

Read the excerpt below: