http://www.nydailynews.com/news/poli...icle-1.2334807

Donald Trump heads to cover of Rolling Stone magazine, as support for mogul’s 2016 bid continues to rise
BY Adam Edelman
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Sunday, August 23, 2015, 12:23 PM

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is the runaway front-runner in polls for the 2016 GOP nomination.

He says he keeps getting richer, and now he’s got his picture … on the cover of the Rolling Stone.

Donald Trump on Sunday notched his third magazine cover story in two weeks, after reports emerged indicating that he would gloss the front page of the ubiquitous pop culture mag.

The iconic monthly periodical is slated to feature the surging 2016 Republican candidate on its cover in its next issue, due out in early September, CNN reported.

A Rolling Stone spokeswoman declined to comment on the report. But if true, the cover would be Trump’s third in two weeks.

Last week, amid an extraordinary surge in national polls, the real estate mogul appeared on the covers of Time magazine and The Hollywood Reporter.

Trump, meanwhile, said Sunday that he wasn’t concerned over who his opponent in a hypothetical general election might be — if he were to win the Republican nomination — responding to reports that Vice President Joe Biden was strongly considering jumping into the race.

“I think they’re the same,” Trump said during a telephone interview on ABC’s “This Week” after being asked to compare Biden with current, but trouble-plagued, Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton.

“I think that Hillary may be very damaged, however, because of the email thing,” he added. “But I don’t know, assuming she could get over that, which I just don’t know how she possibly can, but if assuming she could, I would say it would be pretty equal.”

Chatter over a potential Biden candidacy appeared to reach a fever pitch over the weekend after news emerged that the vice president had met privately with progressive powerbroker Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

Trump, on Sunday, also took aim, though, at his competitors for the GOP nomination, offering Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker a series of stinging backhanded compliments.

“I'm honored that he wants to copy me and he's a nice man,” Trump said of Walker, who many claim has subtly stolen many of the mogul’s positions on illegal immigration, including opposing birthright citizenship.

“I gave him campaign contributions when he was running for governor. I like him very much. But his state has not performed well,” Trump added on “This Week.” “I’m not worried because his state is really in trouble.”

“I mean, it’s a fantastic place, I love the people of Wisconsin, but if you look at what’s going on, they have a $2.2 billion deficit. They were supposed to have a surplus of $1 billion and they have $2.2 billion.

“There’s tremendous division throughout the state,” he said.

Trump’s remarks come after another national poll showed the outspoken billionaire with a commanding lead for his party’s presidential nomination.

A Reuters poll released over the weekend showed Trump getting the support of 32% of likely voters across the U.S. — a substantial rise from the 24% who supported him in a poll by the same group a week earlier.

His next closest competitor, according to the poll, was former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who got the support of 16%.