One long-running series, though, went unmentioned, according to journalists in attendance: Donald Trump's "Celebrity Apprentice."

[embedtweet id="333993815142719490"]
[embedtweet id="333986328171671552"]

The reality competition show was also left off a grid depicting NBC's schedule in fall 2013 and spring 2014, suggesting that it would not be returning for another season next year.

Donald Trump had previously tweeted that the show had been renewed.

[embedtweet id="333714410088566784"]

A representative for Trump, special counsel Michael Cohen, emailed Salon: "You need to do just a little research to learn quickly that you are absolutely wrong. Celebrity Apprentice has been renewed again." Reached by phone to ask about the disconnect between Trump's claims on Twitter and the upfront presentation, Cohen said: "There's no disconnect. It's been picked up." He cited a Huffington Post piece saying the show had been renewed. That piece was an aggregation of a Hollywood Reporter story -- one that cited Trump himself as its source.

Continue Reading...

Continue Reading...

[embedtweet id="328917254009913345"]

NYMag's Joe Adalian pointed out that at 10 PM, the show technically was No. 1 -- but that represents only a chunk of the two-hour episode:

[embedtweet id="328918723538870273"]

Zuker, who had to have known he was trolling Trump, then became ensnared in a Twitter battle with the human tramp stamp:

[embedtweet id="328693238707933184"]

Continue Reading...

In response, Trump tweeted on Tuesday:

[embedtweet id="324165224502534145"]

[embedtweet id="324167784118505474"]

[embedtweet id="324167991963041792"]

Matthews' remarks had been picked up by a number of conservative news sites, who took issue with the characterization. "Chris Matthews seems hell-bent on trying to blame the Boston Marathon bombing on a domestic terrorist, preferrably a conservative one," wrote Noel Sheppard of Newsbusters, for example, who also pointed to comments Matthews made about the attacks possibly being linked to Tax Day.

Here's the clip, via Newsbusters:

Continue Reading...

The celebrities competing for the approval of Donald Trump can get big cash payouts for their favorite charity. Each episode sees corporations, celebrity guests, or private citizens putting up money that ultimately goes to whichever competitor managed the winning team.

There’s no way for General Motors, or for the celebrities and civilians hit up for donations, to know exactly where the money will go: that’s decided toward the end of the episode. Indeed, last season’s premiere saw model Patricia Velásquez deeply upset; she’d worked with fundraising contacts to raise money for a charity with which she was deeply associated, but because her team lost, the money all went elsewhere.

And some of the charities, according to an audit of selected charities performed by independent evaluator Charity Navigator at Salon’s request, may be less-than-ideal custodians of charitable donations. While many of the charities are unimpeachable, future donors might still pause before throwing money at “Apprentice” before knowing where it’ll end up. (We reached out to Donald Trump's camp to ask about how they vet charities for "Apprentice" and have not heard back.) Here's a look at some "Apprentice" charities that we flagged for Charity Navigator's review -- and that fell short of the evaluators' best practices.

Continue Reading...

Whether that figure was entirely, consistently accurate is up for debate, but Thatcher is definitely remembered among those who knew her as one who, "when everyone else went off to bed, went off to work.” In that regard, she put herself in the company of Napoleon Bonaparte, who said only "a fool" needed eight hours of sleep, and Winston Churchill, who was frequently a four-hour-a-night man himself. In contrast, Thatcher’s weaksauce successor John Major "found it difficult coming after her because the civil service had got used to a prime minister who never slept, and he used to sleep eight hours a night."

Continue Reading...

And the phrase seems a fitting way to describe how a wealthy, global elite manages to bypass the often harsh inequalities that exist at many of the most expensive, members-only golf clubs around the world.

The well-to-do who can afford the expensive course fees only rarely recognize just how vastly different life is for those who toil on the grounds or carry the golf bags and live below the poverty line. GlobalPost set out to explore this divide in the highest realms of golf, from the Gary Player-designed course on the desperately poor outskirts of Myanmar’s capital Yangon to the Trump International Golf Club in a deeply divided West Palm Beach, Florida.

Continue Reading...

As travel arrangements were set,

Rafalca had reason to fret,

When Romney explained,

To get to the Games,

She'd be strapped to the roof of the jet!

Pete DeVriese

Oakland, Calif.

The Romney's were off with a start.

Regrettably, Seamus had farts.

So into the crate,

If he makes it that's great.

If not, Mitt will sell off the parts.

Michael Peterson

Willowbrook, Ill.

Mitt’s not vulgar, profane or salacious.

He would never offend! Good gracious!

But in unctuous perfection,

He seeks his election,

In a manner sublimely mendacious.

Quentin Sullivan

Haverhill, Mass.

Paul Ryan is sure that it's true.

All abortions are wicked to do.

Not for rape, or incest,

Even death - Paul knows best.

For a zygote's worth much more than you.

Paul Bamborough

Norway

RNC speakers begin to assemble,

And their rhetoric starts to dissemble.

From Rubio to Ryan.

There'll be no shortage of lyin'.

Causing fact-checkers all over to tremble.

Jim Brown

Scarsdale, N.Y.

Continue Reading...

"The lawsuit was temporarily withdrawn to be amended and refiled at a later date," Michael Cohen, Trump Executive Vice President and Special Counsel, told TMZ.

Maher's orangutan comment and subsequent challenge had been a direct jab at Trump's October announcement, in which the real estate mogul challenged President Obama to release his college transcript in exchange for $5 million donation to a charity of his choosing. Maher then jokingly challenged Trump to prove he is not the offspring of an orangutan, which everyone took to be a joke, except human joke Donald Trump. When the Donald offered up record of his very human birth, Maher didn't pay up, and Trump sued, saying he “had an obligation to sue for charity.”

Continue Reading...

Of Palin, Stewart opined: "I know where Sarah Palin came from. Someone cast a spell on a YouTube comment and it came to life":

Continue Reading...

Malkin provoked the attack when she dredged the past with Trump:

[embedtweet id="314802856387543043"]

[embedtweet id="314804763105558528"]

A battle ensued:

[embedtweet id="315104019880239105"]

[embedtweet id="315104436479459328"]

[embedtweet id="315158640199872514"]

Trump also tweeted back his characteristically flat insults: "At least dummy is true!" and "You were born stupid!" at Malkin.

Continue Reading...

Now, the Donald is at it again. On Sunday, Cuban's team, the Dallas Mavericks, lost against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Trump tweeted:

[embedtweet id=313745912906276865]

[embedtweet id=313746254502957056]

Trump then asserted that he is "much better looking" and "far richer" than Cuban, who plays golf with "the power of a little girl," "is physically weak," "pathetic," and a "weak man with a big mouth."

Donald Trump's tweets:

[embedtweet id=313765384668983296]

[embedtweet id=313765753960681473]

[embedtweet id=313766543899115521]

[embedtweet id=313767716878159873]

[embedtweet id=313801831392374785]

[embedtweet id=313970051453710336]

Continue Reading...

Instead, after Trump's speech at CPAC at the end of last week, in which the real-estate magnate took Mitt Romney to task for not talking enough about his success, "Celebrity Apprentice" improved from the previous week both overall and in the prized 18-49 demographic. Indeed, the series won the 10 p.m. hour among that demographic by the largest margin of the season against "The Mentalist."

With just about everything else at NBC flatlining, Donald Trump -- and competitors including Dennis Rodman and Gary Busey -- shall stay employed for weeks to come.

Continue Reading...

The anecdote was typical of a speech filled with name dropping and inscrutable allegories about Trump’s wealth and the problems with America.

“If Mitt Romney made one mistake,” Trump said of the 2012 election, “it’s that he didn’t talk enough about his success.” According to Trump, Romney -- the man who lost the election in part by being an out-of-touch patrician -- should have talked more about his money instead of playing “defense” on it.

Of course, Romney did “pretty well” in the money-making department, but it was nothing compared to what Trump made -- "$8 billion," he offered, apropos of nothing.

Continue Reading...

The Forbes list of billionaires is brimming over with oligarchs, monopolists, thugs, miscreants, and hustlers. Not to mention right-wingers, narcissists, and parasitic predators. The only thing missing is the king of Mexian drug lords, Joaquin"El Chapo" Guzman, whose assets were evidently too hard to calculate this year.

Putting together a list of the worst individuals in this group is a daunting task: How to choose, for example, between telecom monopolists? The richest person in the world, Mexican mogul Carlos Slim Helu, is certainly no friend of humanity, but Silvio Berlusconi, with his special brand of Technicolor depravity, managed to edge him out. There are hundreds of garden-variety jerks to choose from, along with several dozen egregious SOBs like GoDaddy’s Bob Parsons who deserve dishonorable mention. And there should be a whole separate list of Russian oligarchs. Alas, one runs out of space and time.

While not comprehensive, here, in no particular order, are some of the biggest creeps on the 2013 roster.

Continue Reading...

The role of the teacher gets bigger,

In ways that I simply can't figger.

Teach reading and writing,

And make math exciting,

But also be quick on the trigger?

Michael Cotler
Maplewood, N.J.

Bill Maher and The Donald are feuding,

For simian parents alluding.

With ego maligned,

Trump wants Maher fined,

When it's really the apes should be suing.

Bink Olney
Spokane, Wash.

There was a was a dreaded sequestration,

That menaced the fate of our nation.

So with courage and grace,

Congress hastened the pace,

Of their mutual masturbation!

John Gately
Cambridge, MA

Send entries to limericks@salon.com along with your name and hometown. The deadline is Friday at noon eastern and we’ll publish our favorites on Sunday. Poems may be edited for clarity or scansion. Good luck!

Continue Reading...

Via Michael Musto at the Village Voice comes an interview in gay magazine Next with Cyndi Lauper, the 1980s pop star who wrote the music for a new Broadway show, "Kinky Boots." The singer and former "Celebrity Apprentice" competitor has strong words for her former "employer," Donald Trump:

"I felt that what he said about the gay community was disappointing because a lot of gay people work for him,” she admits. “It’s just sad. I thought he could have done better for his country than just go to the lowest common denominator and stir up the crap. It’s our country, it’s not wrestling. If you try and make our president fail, it doesn’t matter who he is, you make our country fail."

Lauper goes on to say that Trump is motivated to criticize President Obama (whose birth certificate he has publicly demanded) on the basis of race: "Our country is in trouble and he keeps wanting to make [Obama] fail. Let’s call a spade a spade. The guy’s a black man and that’s your issue? What kind of idiot are you? Come on."

Continue Reading...

“Donald Trump is an American patriot and success story with a massive following among small government conservatives,” said Al Cardenas, the chairman of the American Conservative Union, in a press release. “I look forward to welcoming him back to the CPAC stage next week. Mr. Trump’s previous CPAC appearance was hugely popular among our attendees and we expect it will be even more popular this year.”

Conservatives on Twitter were less than pleased:

[embedtweet id="309038519173648386"]

[embedtweet id="309046451353305088"]

[embedtweet id="309039174772731904"]

[embedtweet id="309038181607669760"]

[embedtweet id="309036193927024642"]

[embedtweet id="309048885031092224"]

[embedtweet id="309046629728677889"]

Continue Reading...

"We're very happy with the 10 o'clock hour," Trump told Salon in an interview on Monday. "And after four episodes, it goes to 10 o'clock. So it's really the 10 o'clock hour."

"We beat everybody. We beat every other network," Trump said. "That's our hour. We serve as our own lead-in." (Last night on NBC, the first hour of "Apprentice" followed the newsmagazine "Dateline.")

Trump refused to brook questioning as to whether NBC -- which has collapsed in the ratings so far in 2013, slipping to fifth place after Univision in the February sweeps -- might not be the ideal home for a TV show.

Continue Reading...