So it turns out Donald Trump got the joke after all. Or maybe he was the one who put one over on everyone else.
Either way, the reality-TV star and real estate mogul has concluded that the time has come to end it.
“After considerable deliberation and reflection, I have decided not to pursue the office of the presidency,” Trump announced in a statement Monday. But he added: “I maintain the strong conviction that if I were to run, I would be able to win the primary and, ultimately, the general election.”
No one ever knew for sure whether Trump’s flirtation with a 2012 bid was more serious than his earlier ones had been in 1988 and 2000, or whether it was simply his latest attention-getting, ratings-boosting stunt.
Had he run for the Republican nomination, it would have been the most ambitious brand-extension effort yet for a man who has slapped his name on, among other things, luxury hotels, country clubs, men’s clothing, bottled water, chocolate and the Miss Universe pageant.
Trump originally said he would not reveal his decision until next Sunday’s season finale of his NBC show, “The Celebrity Apprentice.” But another deadline may have overridden his showman’s impulses: Monday was the day that NBC, which has been struggling in the ratings, was scheduled to present its fall schedule to advertisers in New York.
Network executives reportedly had been pressuring Trump, whose show is one of the network’s most popular, to make his intentions clear. When he appeared onstage for what is known as “upfront” presentation, advertisers cheered.
Trump’s announcement came two days after former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee bowed out of next year’s race, during his own television show on Fox News Channel. Trump made a cameo on Huckabee’s show, which, in retrospect, may have been a clue.
Huckabee’s decision to forgo the race is likely to have a far greater impact on the field, considering that he was a serious contender four years ago and won the first-in-the-nation caucuses in Iowa.
The list of candidates is still taking shape in a GOP nominating race that appears as wide open as any in generations. Among those officially running are two former governors, Mitt Romney of Massachusetts and Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, and former House speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.).
A number of establishment Republicans are pleading with Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels to enter the contest, while tea party activists are still holding out hope that former Alaska governor Sarah Palin will jump in.
However unlikely the idea of a Trump presidency was, the force of his celebrity took him to the top of some polls. And he became a fixture on cable news channels and morning shows as he persistently stoked doubts that President Obama was born in the United States.
“Donald Trump was an anti-establishment figure who demonstrated the importance of taking the debate right to Obama — frontally and hard, which the eventual GOP nominee must do daily to win,” said Scott Reed, a Republican strategist.
The high point of his protocampaign — or the low one, depending on how one looks at these things — came in late April. Obama released a long-form version of his birth certificate just moments before Trump’s helicopter touched down in New Hampshire for his first visit as a possible candidate.
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