Tuned In+Television | February 3, 2012

Election Watch: Romney Wins, Loses Trump Primary

By James Poniewozik

Mitt Romney gets the reality star's endorsement. But can he gain bona fides with The Donald's supporters without picking up his political baggage?

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Tuned In+Television | January 4, 2012

BREAKING: Donald Trump Announces… Celebrity Apprentice Cast

By James Poniewozik
Mitchell Haaseth/NBC

I know that the NBC publicity department exists to draw attention for NBC’s shows, not for Donald Trump’s political aspirations. I know that the fact that NBC announced the cast of the next Celebrity Apprentice, debuting next month, is probably just coincidence and not an effort by Trump to inject himself, again, into the conversation [...]

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Tuned In+Television | December 13, 2011

Donald Trump Fires Self As Debate Moderator, May “Consider” Independent Run

By James Poniewozik

Trump cancels because he may yet run for President as an independent candidate. Maybe he should have consulted with himself before announcing the debate!

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Tuned In+News Media | December 8, 2011

Dead Tree Alert: The Trump Primary

By James Poniewozik
Illustration by Mickey Duzyj for TIME

To the list of absolutely crucial wedge issues distinguishing the Republican primary candidates, this week added a new one: What is your position on Donald Trump? In my latest TIME column (subscription required), I look at the latest step in the reality-TV-ification of the Republican primary—Trump’s plan to moderate a GOP debate later this month—and [...]

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Tuned In+News Media | December 2, 2011

Celebrity Apprentice: Donald Trump to Moderate GOP Debate

By James Poniewozik
NBC

Sure, if they accept, they risk having America see them begging for the approval of a reality-TV host and birth-certificate-conspiracy pusher. But if they refuse, they risk having the base see them spurning the approval of their favorite reality-TV host and birth-certificate-conspiracy pusher.

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Tuned In+News Media | April 27, 2011

Congratulations, America, Donald Trump Is the Boss of You

By James Poniewozik

Today, with a precarious economy, rising gas prices and three wars under way, the President of the United States of America held a press conference to announce the release of his original birth certificate, to prove that he is eligible to hold his office and quell a controversy fomented by a reality-show judge who by [...]

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | April 26, 2011

Donald Trump Would Like You To Just Take His Word About the Missing Birth Certificate

By James Poniewozik

Donald Trump, the reality-show judge who is not running for President but would very much like you to believe that he is—see my colleague Alex Altman’s explanation as to why—went on Anderson Cooper 360 last night to enable America to pay attention to him on TV. The show had done a yet-again debunking of the [...]

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Tuned In+April 14, 2011

Electoral Sweeps: Trump Said to Plan Announcement of Prez Announcement on Apprentice

By James Poniewozik

According to Newsmax, Donald Trump will announce the next step in his political career on the season finale of his reality show. As did Jefferson and Churchill before him. Reports the conservative website, Trump will use the finale to announce a press conference a few days later, at which he will in turn announce his [...]

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Tuned In+News Media | April 7, 2011

Presidential Apprentice: Donald Trump's Birtherism, Sponsored By NBC

By James Poniewozik

Donald Trump‘s appearance on the Today Show this morning was a trifecta of self-promotion for NBC Universal. It gave a platform to the star of Celebrity Apprentice, one of NBC’s few minor hits. It gave Today a buzzed-about interview (MSNBC’s Morning Joe also had The Donald on this morning). And it helped publicize an new [...]

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | February 11, 2011

BREAKING: Donald Trump Begins Not Running for President

By James Poniewozik

Donald Trump is perhaps the most successful Presidential noncandidate our political system has ever produced. You may recall when he illustriously didn’t run for President in 1988 after fanning much media speculation that he would. He followed that up by dramatically not running for President with Ross Perot’s Reform Party in 2000. Now a dozen [...]

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | October 5, 2010

President Trump? Not If Snooki Runs

By James Poniewozik

Over at his redesigned The Page site, my colleague Mark Halperin has been reporting that someone commissioned a poll testing Donald Trump‘s name among a list of potential 2012 Republican Presidential candidates. And in an interview with TIME, Trump is not entirely denying being interested in running: “If I ever did, this would be the [...]

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Tuned In+January 4, 2010

Blago Moves to the Private Sector, on Celebrity Apprentice

By James Poniewozik

It seems like just a year ago that Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich was disgraced in a corruption scandal and making a tour of the media to try to restore his name. Oh, wait: it was just a year ago. Last summer, Blago tried to enlist on I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here (his [...]