There’s a NDF (what I call the “No Duh Factor”) now in Donald Trump announcing that he isn’t going to run for President. But it is a bit of a surprise to now get virtual confirmation that he is — here it goes, I will finally say it, I avoid using this word in political posts since it is overused by partisans — a liar. It turns out that despite his suggestions not only will he not announce whether he’s going to run on the finale of Celebrity Apprentice but the episode was taped some time ago.
Reset your DVRs! You can make that Sunday night dinner with mom after all: Contrary to his own personally advanced hype, Donald Trump will not be making any kind of announcement about his presidential plans on the Celebrity Apprentice season finale.
The ratings-deflating news was delivered to National Journal on Tuesday by Sharon Pannozzo, publicity director for NBC Entertainment, who sounded a little miffed with The Donald’s false advertising.
“The show this weekend [part one of the finale] was taped back in November, and next week’s episode is also taped,” Pannozzo said. “So there will be no opportunity for him to do something like that.”
What? Didn’t Trump himself suggest to The New York Times that he’d be delivering the news—or at least news of when and where he’d deliver the news—of his presidential plans on the show?
“I am thinking of saying on the live finale of The Apprentice on May 22 that in a few days I will be making an announcement about my decision,” Trump told the Times. ”I might ask the two finalists if I should run for president. Of course, if they’re intelligent they’ll have to say yes, since I’m about to fire one of them.”
Not exactly, according to the show’s publicist. “There will be no announcement,” Pannozzo said. “It’s just misinformation on his part.” Pannozzo insists there will be no live segments of the show. Asked about Pannozzo’s comments, Trump spokesman Michael Cohen confirmed to National Journal: “Mr. Trump will not be making any announcement during the finale of The Apprentice.”
This is about as blatant a lie as you can get.
Even in politics.
Trump is not amusing. It’s truly hard to understand how he would have credibility anymore with anyone except possibly readers of NewsMax or those breathlessly waiting to read the upcoming book that will reveal how Barack Obama’s birth certificate is a fake. He and Sarah Palin admire each other (not surprising). But who would want to admit to wearing his clothing, be tickled pink about living in a condo or business with his name slapped on it, or even allow him to have a weekly spot on their network?
He could put out cologne, but who’d want something that smelled like a skunk?
More and more Trump resembles this guy:
FOOTNOTE: This is award-winning Robert Preston doing the famous “Trouble” song from “The Music Man”.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.