Not that I care to keep up with Donald Trump’s The Apprentice reality show, but is there a new season coming up? With all of his millions Trump really doesn’t need the free publicity, but he’d rather spend his money to promote himself as a public nuisance instead. Yep, The Donald is taking his Crazy Train Brain to the bank. On Monday the Cheeto-haired billionaire, in an appearance on Fox & Friends, teased that he had “something very, very big concerning the president of the United States…It’s going to be very big. I know one thing — you will cover it in a very big fashion.” Douglass Kass, a Florida-based investor who appears on CNBC’s talk show, Squawkbox, hinted in a tweet that Trump “will announce that he has unearthed divorce papers between the Prez (sic) and his wife.” Hardly an election-shattering revelation.This morning, however, the mealy-mouthed tycoon finally revealed his “something very, very big concerning the president of the United States.” Are you ready for it? Trump is hoping to bribe President Obama into releasing “his college records and applications…and if he gives his passport applications and records (Trump) will give to a charity of his (Obama’s) choice — Inner City Children of Chicago, American Cancer Society, AIDS Research…a check immediately for 5 million dollars.” The thrice-married mogul claims that “If (Obama) releases these records, it will end the question and indeed the anger of many Americans … they’ll know something about their president … their President will become transparent … like other Presidents.” (I’m thinking the “anger of many Americans” refers to birthers and teabaggers, because most of us couldn’t care less.)
According to a factcheck.org article debunking allegations of President Obama’s supposedly “sealed” records:
Obama’s college records are not “sealed” by a court order, as this graphic would have you believe. It would be illegal under federal law (the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974) for Occidental, Columbia or Harvard Law School to give any former student’s records to reporters or members of the public without that person’s specific, written permission. Obama hasn’t released them, but neither have other presidential candidates released their college records. George W. Bush’s grades at Yale eventually became public, but only because somebody leaked them to the New Yorker magazine. Bush himself refused to release them, according to a 1999 profile in the Washington Post.
So, there you have it: Donald Trump’s BIG ANNOUNCEMENT. Pardon me if I YAWN right now. No such challenge forthcoming, however, to Mitt Romney to release as many tax returns as President Obama has submitted (and, by way, Obama released more than he was required to). Now, THAT would have been a BIG ANNOUNCEMENT.