Sure, the presidential election in 2012 is a long way off. Scores of wacky and unpredictable things can happen between now and then. That’s what makes following politics so much fun.
But one possibility that keeps threatening to rear its comb-overed head is a Donald Trump candidacy. Though our Bedford neighbor and Celebrity Apprentice host hasn’t officially announced that he’s running, he certainly talks about it a lot and makes the usual PR rounds. These appearances are coupled with Trump’s trademark lack of modesty.
Take, for instance, what Trump said recently about handling Moammar Gadhafi. He boasts that he already gave the Libyan dictator what-for. Take a look:
“I think I probably have more experience of anybody,” he begins, talking about his fellow GOPers. “And by the way, I can tell you something else. I dealt with Gadhafi. I rented him a piece of land. He paid me more for one night than the land was worth for two years, and then I didn’t let him use the land.”
That land, of course, was in Westchester: the 213-acre Seven Springs estate in Bedford. Gadhafi wanted to pitch his “Bedouin-style” tent on Trump’s property in advance of a trip to the U.N. in 1999. While it seems from Trump’s quote that he took Gadhafi’s money and then gave him the big heave-ho, reports at the time made it seem like Trump “unwittingly” rented his land to Gadhafi, then kicked him out when he started getting bad press for it.
Then again, being able to spin a story from “I accidentally leased my land to a murderous dictator” to “I got one over on a murderous dictator by leasing land to him and not letting him use it,” is the mark of someone ready to make a presidential run.
Would you vote for Trump? Let us know in the comments.