Donald Trump acknowledges that he has “a very tough decision” to make regarding his potential run for president as a Republican candidate, but he has a plan for how and when he may make it.
“I am thinking of saying on the live finale of ‘The Apprentice’ on May 22 that in a few days I will be making an announcement about my decision,” Mr. Trump, a real estate mogul and reality television show star, said in a telephone interview Thursday.
Mr. Trump’s pronouncements, made on various media outlets in recent weeks — many of which have resurrected the questions of so-called birthers about President Obama’s citizenship — have lately begun to be taken more seriously, especially as he has started eclipsing other potential Republican candidates in some polls.
Mr. Trump is watching those poll numbers just about as closely as he watches the weekly ratings for his show, “Celebrity Apprentice” — which is to say avidly.
He pointed to a CNN poll that had him tied for the lead with Mike Huckabee (and well ahead of the previous front-runner Mitt Romney), as well as an audience survey by the conservative news site Newsmax, which gave him a sizable lead over everybody, including President Obama.
But he repeated that he had a difficult decision to make because “Celebrity Apprentice” continued to do so well on NBC.
In what is television’s official poll, the Nielsen ratings, Mr. Trump’s show has been NBC’s top series over the last several weeks (the only NBC show that has beaten it over the course of the television season, “The Office,” has been in repeats for several weeks until Thursday night’s episode).
What may impress NBC program executives even more is the fact that “Celebrity Apprentice” has also become the strongest performer in network television in the 10 p.m. hour. For several weeks, it has been averaging about a 3.2 rating among prime time’s most prized viewers, those between the ages of 18 and 49, which is better than anything else on television in the 10 p.m. hour (at least with “Jersey Shore” off the air.)
This has been accomplished, Mr. Trump was eager to point out, even though NBC has given him little in the way of lead-in audiences. This last Sunday, he noted, he had to climb to first place at 10 p.m. while one network, CBS, got a boost from its coverage of the Masters golf tournament. “They had Tiger Woods for a lead-in,” Mr. Trump said.
Mr. Trump said he understood that that he could not use a network television show to formally declare his presidential intentions. So whatever he may say live on “Celebrity Apprentice” will first be vetted by NBC lawyers. “I believe I can say I will be announcing my decision in a few days,” Mr. Trump said. “But before I did that I would get the approval of NBC.”
NBC’s position, according to one member of its legal team, is that until Mr. Trump makes a formal announcement on whether he is running, or takes any concrete action to commence a run, no obligation to offer equal time to another candidate kicks in.
Mr. Trump said he was thinking of having a little fun in the finale. The live program will be a showdown between the last two contestants.
“I might ask the two finalists if I should run for president,” Mr. Trump said. “Of course, if they’re intelligent they’ll have to say yes, since I’m about to fire one of them.”
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