The usually sharp-minded Michael Falcone and Amy Walter at ABC News’ The Note embarrassed themselves today by allowing themselves to be manipulated by notorious celebrity presshound Donald Trump into spreading his totally self-serving, self-promoting nonsense that he is considering running for president. Trump, who is trying very hard to pump life into his nearly exhausted Celebrity Apprentice TV program, floated his most reliable piece of journalist bait, and claimed, as he has in the past, to be studying becoming a candidate for president, telling Ashleigh Banfield in an interview on “Good Morning America” that “I have never been so serious as I am now.” Well, that wouldn’t be hard–he’s never been serious at all.
With shocking credulity, Falcone and Walter continue to jump at the biscuits that Trump tossed Banfield (I don’t blame her for this; she’s just doing her job. The other two are abetting this charade on a supposedly serious newsletter.) Says The Note: “And he’s willing to put his money where his mouth is. Trump said that if he runs, a decision he plans to announce in June, and if he’s doing well, he would spend as much as $600 million of his own fortune on the race. Does he have that much to spare? “I have much more than that,” Trump said. “That’s one of the nice things. I mean, part of the beauty of me is that I’m very rich. So if I need $600 million, I can put $600 million myself. That’s a huge advantage.” What’s more, Trump told Banfield that if he doesn’t win the GOP nomination, he would consider running as an independent. Oh, and by the way, he “loves the Tea Party” too.”
All of this is nonsense, particularly the part where he says he could personally underwrite his campaign to the tune of $600 million. We’re not talking about Michael Bloomberg here. In 2010, Forbes estimated Trump’s worth to be $2 billion, down from $2.9 billion in 2006, and his rank on the Forbes list of the stinking rich has fallen from #314 in 2006 to #368 in 2008 to #488. With the recovery plodding along, with real estate still not fully recovered, Trump would have to uncharacteristically foolhardy to spend that kind of money, even if he were to win. I don’t think Ivanka would let him.
But here’s the bottom line: why would he run? He had no ideas. He has no ideology. He has a lot of brash opinions, some of which make for good listening. He isn’t an idiot. He says he’s running in order to save the country. Well, Trump is no fool: he knows it’s infinitely better to be the man on the white horse than it is to actually be president (as President Obama has discovered: better to be the hope than to be the reality.) Trump is already president of the country where he lives, which is located on the front page of the New York Post. He’s not moving, but by pretending he might, he co-opts reputable journalists into helping him get reelected in headlines.