On a weekend when President Barack Obama triumphantly announced the death of Osama bin Laden, presidential arriviste Donald Trump said he had decided to run for the office and would announce it after his NBC show, “Celebrity Apprentice,” ends the season.
In a telephone interview with Bloomberg, the real estate tycoon – eviscerated by Obama at the White House Correspondents dinner on Saturday night – said he intended to announce his candidacy.
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“In my mind, I have already decided,” Trump, 64, said in a telephone interview with a Bloomberg reporter. “I am going to announce. But I can’t do anything until the show ends.”
The timing for such a statement was certainly unusual and probably unintended, as the entire nation celebrated an historic moment in Obama’s presidency – his announcement that a team of American soliders had killed arch-enemy Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda.
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The contrast with “Celebrity Apprentice” was hard to overstate. On Sunday’s episode, Trump fired (spoiler alert) Hope Dworaczyk.
Trump had been faring well in the polls for Republican potential nominees, but his withering treatment by Obama on Saturday night was considered a black eye.