Donald Trump Defends Obama 'Bombshell'; Gets Mocked on Late Night TV (Video)
The “Apprentice” star appeared on CNN to defend his $5 million offer as a “tremendous” opportunity for the president. Jimmy Kimmel said the plan sounded like a Lex Luthor scheme.
Donald Trump thinks he’s made President Obama an offer too good to refuse.
After teasing a big announcement concerning the president earlier this week, Trump revealed he was offering a $5 million donation to the charity of Obama’s choice, with the condition that the Commander in Chief release both college records and applications and passport records and applications.
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Trump touted the offer during an interview with CNN’s Piers Morgan Wednesday night, expressing confidence the president would take him up on his offer.
“It’s a tremendous thing for the president,” Trump said. “He gets to spend and give $5 million to a charity of his choice, and all he has to do is release papers that will sort of explain a little bit about the president.”
When Morgan expressed doubt the president would go along with the plan, Trump countered.
“I think he will do it,” Trump said. “There will be nobody happier than me if I can sign that check.”
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Though the announcement made Trump the target of ridicule on Twitter (read some of Hollywood’s zingers here), Trump said he’d received “tremendous praise for the most part.”
Among those mocking Trump Wednesday were the president himself, who said during a taping of NBC’s The Tonight Show that Trump’s beef with him dated back to their days growing up in Kenya.
Trump has expressed doubt the president was born in the U.S.
"We had constant run-ins on the soccer field," Obama told Jay Leno. "He wasn't very good and resented it. When we finally moved to America, I thought it would be over."
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Trump’s late-night ribbing continued on ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live, with Jimmy Kimmel saying of the offer: “It seems like a trap Lex Luthor would set. ‘So what will it be, Superman? The orphans, or your secret identity?’” He added: “Donald Trump seems to think the President is a contestant in some kind of imaginary game show he’s hosting.”
In his interview with Morgan, Trump denied the offer was a publicity stunt, and reiterated his point that this was a “very serious offer.”
“I can’t imagine that for $5 million that he wouldn’t do it,” Trump said
Watch Trump’s CNN interview below, via Mediaite.
Philiana Ng and Tina Daunt contributed to this story.
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