The Donald Trump Romney Campaign Video You Nearly Saw

Romney Trump

If you thought that Clint Eastwood’s monologue to an empty chair at the Republican National Convention was bizarre, there was almost an appearance at the RNC that would have likely made Eastwood seem positively Shakespearean by comparison:

Real-estate mogul Donald Trump said Friday night that Mitt Romney’s team asked him to appear in a “commercial” for the campaign last year-but it never saw the light of day.

The video, he said, was supposed to run during the Republican National Convention and featured Trump sitting in his office with an actor who looked like President Obama. After telling the faux president “what a lousy job” he’s done, Trump said, he delivered his famous line to the actor: “You’re fired!”

Speaking at a conservative gathering in Washington, Trump boasted that Romney’s team loved the video yet never used it because it was “too controversial.”

(…)

The multimillionaire said he felt “slighted” that Romney’s staff stopped calling after the primary, so he was pleasantly surprised to get the phone call about filming a “great commercial.”

“The concept was (the actor) was sitting at my desk, and I was on the other side of the desk. And I was telling him what a lousy job he’s done. You’re doing bad here. You’re doing bad there. You don’t know what you’re doing,” he said. “(then) I say ‘President Obama, you’re fired!'”

“They never put it on,” Trump added. “The reason they didn’t put it on is because they thought it was too controversial. Controversy. It might not be politically correct. And it was very sad, and I didn’t do any work for him-I mean, I would have, but again they didn’t ask me-because I think they thought I was too controversial, more tough.”

“I think it would have brought down the house,” he added, offering high praise of the video.

If by “crashing down in an utterly absurd disaster,” I’d agree. If nothing else, this does seem to demonstrate that Romney’s campaign team was capable of making sane decisions from time to time. Running that video would have turned the entire convention into a massive joke.

FILED UNDER: 2012 Election, US Politics, , , , ,
Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. Caj says:

    Clint Eastwood was an embarrassment. But Donald Trump would have trumped Eastwood’s appearance no doubt. He would have been an empty suit talking to an audience of empty headed Republican voters! Donald Trump is so vain he thinks the world revolves around him. Let’s face it he’s so very rich! He has all the best hotels in the world! His reality show is the best show on earth! Why didn’t Mitt Romney have this mega star in a video? The answer is this: Even Mitt Romney knew that Donald Trump would have made things even worse for his campaign. I wonder though if Mitt Romney said, Donald Trump, you’re fired!

  2. al-Ameda says:

    Trump is STILL seething from the roasting he received at the 2011 White House Correspondents Dinner.

    That said, I’ve heard that the Obama campaign never released a video they made showing Mitt Romney giving Trump a $1.00 tip as he stepped out of the car elevator at the La Jolla residence.

  3. M. Bouffant says:

    OK, if it’s pile on Donald Trump time, I can play.

  4. merl says:

    Damn, that close. I would have voted for Willard for sure if only I’d seen that commercial. And if Hurricane Sandy hadn’t given the President an unfair edge.
    I hope he runs again in 2016.