"I am officially running for president of the United States and we are going to make our country great again," he said in a speech delivered from Trump Tower on New York's Fifth Avenue.
The 69-year-old is considered a wildcard candidate in an increasingly crowded pool of contenders seeking the presidency in 2016.
Denouncing US foreign and economic policy, Trump ridiculed America's current crop of politicians and vowed to reverse what he called US decline.
"When did we beat Japan at anything? They send their cars over by the millions and what do we do?"
The businessman, whom Forbes values at $4.1 billion, said "the United States has become a dumping ground for everybody else's problems.