While it is satisfying to report that my prediction came true, and Trump has finally dropped out of the race, this is a colossal downer for anyone who writes a blog, and especially a downer for me. I can't blame Trump for quitting, since he can make $50 million doing that stupid TV show for a little while as opposed to making next to nothing for the gigantic hassle of being President. Still a downer though. Man. I was hoping that Trump and Palin would make all my dreams come true and turn the White House into their love nest and get married, but now there's probably no hope of that, or even any hope of Trump and Palin having a clandestine affair. Can you imagine the photographs that would accompany these stories? And the coverage of the Trump/Palin wedding? Why can't anything good ever happen to me?
Instead, we get the boring cut and dried reality (in Trump's case, blow dried) where Trump was never seriously considering a run, and the whole thing was a stunt to drive up his ratings and his price for re-signing to do "Celebrity Apprentice." Knew this months ago, but was hoping against hope that it would happen for real. Now back to wondering why anyone would think Trump was a good businessman, or even a businessman at all. We'll have to wait and see how the lawsuits against Trump's pseudo "developments" play out to have any more fun with him. Damn!
Donald J. Trump announced on Monday that he would not seek the presidency, a development less important for the Republican field or his national political future — if he ever had one — than for what it said about a media culture that increasingly seems to give the spotlight to the loudest, most outrageous voices. Trump chose a new contract with NBC, home of “Celebrity Apprentice,” over a bid for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.
Mr. Trump spent months earnestly portraying himself as a potential nominee for a party whose coalition includes family values activists, antigambling religious leaders and deficit hawks, some of whom might just have blanched at his two divorces, casino holdings, penchant for debt financing and formerly liberal positions on some issues.
To some degree he succeeded, using a combination of attributes that made him uniquely qualified to capitalize on the times: Near-universal name recognition (enhanced by his prime-time berth on NBC as the host of “Celebrity Apprentice”), gobs of cash and two decades of experience putting his outsize personality to use in the service of headline creation, starting in the pre-Internet era with the New York City tabloids.
“The media made him, the media kept him, the media kept promoting him,” said Stuart Spencer, a former political strategist for Ronald Reagan. Speaking of the proliferation of news outlets interested in politics, Mr. Spencer, 84 and admittedly fascinated by the new landscape, lamented, “There’s no referee anymore to evaluate what are serious issues and what are serious candidates.”
Mr. Trump and his aides said he was dead serious about making a run. But, they said, before Mr. Trump could figure out whether the White House was his golden ring, he was confronted with the pile of gold NBC was offering for a continued role in “Celebrity Apprentice.”
As much as associates said Mr. Trump wanted to keep his political options open longer, the network needed him to make a decision by Monday, when it was announcing its fall television schedule to major advertisers in its annual presentation in New York. “Celebrity Apprentice” is one of its most important programs, and the network would not be able to line up sponsorship commitments as easily with Mr. Trump as a “maybe.”
A senior NBC executive said the network believed it had convinced Mr. Trump to stay on as of last week, though there was a brief period of doubt over the weekend after former Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas said he would not run. “Donald started saying: ‘Huckabee’s out. Maybe I should stay in this thing,’ ” said the executive, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Television industry executives with knowledge of his negotiation said Mr. Trump’s new contract could bring him as much as $30 million over all, and other estimates published Monday put that figure at upward of $50 million.
[The New York Times]
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