Donald Trump returning to S.C. for Charleston conference

Real estate mogul Donald Trump will be returning to South Carolina for the third time since January.

Trump, who has been pursuing a 2016 presidential bid, will be in Charleston for the State Financial Officers Foundation annual meeting on April 13-14, according to the office of Republican S.C. Treasurer Curtis Loftis.

Also attending the Charleston conference is Carly Fiorina, former cheif executive of Hewlett-Packard, another potential 2016 Republican hopeful.

Other keynote speakers include author Travis Brown and former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft.

Trump, who has visited the S.C. Tea Party Convention in Myrtle Beach and The Citadel, plans to attend Palmetto State events in May, including the S.C. Republican Convention in Columbia and the Freedom Forum in Greenville.

Corey Lewandowski, a senior political adviser to Trump, has said the New York businessman has established S.C. staff for his potential bid. That includes Columbia public relations executive Ed McMullen and former state Sen. John Russell of Spartanburg, whose father was governor of South Carolina in the 1960s.

State Rep. Jim Merrill, a Berkeley Republican and former House majority leader, will be Trump’s political adviser in South Carolina, Lewandowski has said.

This story was originally published April 2, 2015 at 3:41 PM with the headline "Donald Trump returning to S.C. for Charleston conference."