Donald Trump will be announced as U.S. presidential candidate in June

Real estate mogul and TV personality Donald Trump, who has been considering a run for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, will make a major announcement on June 16 in New York, New Hampshire television station WMUR reported on Thursday.

The station said a source close to Trump confirmed the date of the event at New York's Trump Tower but stopped short of saying Trump would announce his candidacy then.

Trump, 68, told Reuters in March that he had formed an exploratory committee to determine whether to run and had hired staff in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. Those states will be the first to hold Republican and Democratic presidential nominating contests early next year.

Trump, known by the nickname "The Donald," said in the interview that as president he would spur job creation, for example, by cracking down on what he called China's manipulation of its currency, a practice he said that lately had been taken up by Japan.

He currently ranks ninth in a realclearpolitics.com average of polls of likely contenders for the Republican nomination. Only the top 10 contenders in polling will qualify for the first Republican debate on Aug. 6 in Cleveland.

Earlier on Thursday, former New York Governor George Pataki became the eighth Republican to jump into the race.