Trump Vs. Obama: Round Two

The war between billionaire business man Donald Trump and President Barack Obama has entered its second stage. After Trump took credit for forcing Obama to release his birth certificate, Obama made some cracks at Trump at the Press Corps dinner on April 30. One such comment was that Trump could concentrate on more important things, like finding out "where Tupac and Biggie are." (Actually, we know where their bodies are... We don't know who killed them. Perhaps a US President should know a little more about pop culture before making a false reference.) Those comments were not enough of a retaliation for Obama. Instead, he had to demonstrate to Trump what he can really do with his power.

On Sunday night (5/1/11), a news flasher scrolled across the bottom of the television screen reading, "President Obama will make an important statement to the United States shortly." This news flasher started at 10:25pm. For some people, it would seem as though it were any other presidential interruption. However, to Donald Trump, it was a clear retaliation. After all, coverage of Obama's "statement" began at 10:45pm'"The exact time that the fight in the boardroom on "Celebrity Apprentice" between Nene Leakes and Star Jones was about to begin. Obama did not take to the air until 11:35pm EST.

When regularly scheduled programming was interrupted (not just NBC's "Celebrity Apprentice," mind you), even the newscasters had no idea what they were going to report. One NBC correspondent even said, "President Obama is about to make a statement about something." At 11:03pm, three minutes after "Celebrity Apprentice" would have ended, the announcement was made that Osama Bin Laden was killed and its body is in US custody. Obama did not appear in the East Room until 11:35pm, 50 minutes after the initial interruption.

Yes, it is fantastic news that Osama Bin Laden is dead. However, the timing of Obama's announcement is rather suspicious. Why would Obama make such an important announcement at 11:35pm EST on a Sunday night? Why would the news interrupt regularly scheduled programming at 10:45 if he wasn't going to speak for nearly an hour'"Especiallyif they didn't even know what they were going to report? Exactly when was Bin Laden killed? Why wouldn't he make this announcement in the morning, when more Americans '" ESPECIALLY Americans in New York '" are awake and watching television?

Obama didn't even address the important questions about Bin Laden's death. He said that he was killed sometime on May 1 in a firefight with US military at a compound in Pakistan. He said Pakistan assisted with the mission to kill Bin Laden. He said that he was tipped off about Bin Laden in Pakistan back in August of 2010, and it took eight months to follow the lead. It remains to be seen whether or not more details about the mission and Bin Laden's death will be released.

The issue here is not whether or not the news that was reported was newsworthy. Clearly, the death of Osama Bin Laden is important to all citizens of the United States of America. The timing of the interruption, immediately after Trump asked Star who she would want on her team, came at a moment worthy of being featured on a sitcom. Star started to answer Trump with, "I definitely'"" and was cut off by the special news report that President Obama has something to say to the American people. Then, it wasn't even said until 50 minutes after the interruption.

It will be interesting to see what Trump's reaction will be to Obama's interruption. If he attacks Obama, people may feel that Trump isn't a patriot. It may be spun that Trump feels that the end of "Celebrity Apprentice" is more important than the news that public enemy number one was finally eliminated. The knee-jerk reaction of some bleeding heart liberals would be that Trump is being petty and egocentric. Facts are facts: Obama interrupted Trump's show (and many others that he doesn't have a beef with) and didn't make his announcement until 50 minutes later. That is not how presidential addresses work. Furthermore, Brian Williams even apologized that Obama had made THREE "false starts" to his announcement. Something tells me that Brian Williams knows that this was just another battle in the war between Trump and Obama. nearly 20 minutes were wasted trying to guess what Obama was going to announce. Another 32 minutes were wasted getting opinions from talking heads. Obama's statement was less than five minutes long.

Yes, it was an important statement. Was the statement strategically made by Obama at this time just to show Trump how powerful he is? One may never know... Unless Trump funds another investigation to find out exactly how long Obama knew about Bin Laden's death...