Rosie vs. Trump

It is not often you will see me take an interest in a verbal spat between two celebrities, but the war of words between Rosie O'Donnell and Donald Trump is too intriguing for me to ignore.

The whole thing started with the recent Tara Conner scandal, where a 20 year old Miss USA pageant winner goes out drinking in New York. Yawn.

Trump owns the pageant, so he decided to forgive Conner's indiscretion and let her keep her crown. Considering Trump's own personal indiscretions of the past, the least we can say is he is NOT a hypocrite.

Regardless, Rosie O'Donnell decided to go off on him during her show, "The View", which was aired Wednesday:

"[He] left the first wife – had an affair. [He] had kids both times, but he's the moral compass for 20-year-olds in America. Donald, sit and spin, my friend."

Rosie went on to compare Trump to a "snake-oil salesman on Little House On The Prairie. This is not a self-made man." She also said he went bankrupt, which Trump correctly denied. (Back in the 90's, Trump threatened personal bankruptcy before his creditors arranged a financial bailout. However, his business did file bankruptcy.)

Trump fired back:

"You can't make false statements. Rosie will rue the words she said. I'll most likely sue her for making those false statements – and it'll be fun. Rosie's a loser. A real loser. I look forward to taking lots of money from my nice fat little Rosie."

I won't go into the "who's right/who's wrong" aspect of this. Rosie said some things about Trump which were true, and she also said some things which were technically inaccurate. But I also think she was unnecessarily spiteful and mean to Trump.

While Trump is not "Mr. Warm and Fuzzy", he is a successful businessman who has seen his share of ups and downs. Trump should be applauded for what he has accomplished over the years. He has made mistakes, but he has also overcome them.

One can question his personal ethics, but at least Trump is not holding other people to standards which he does not hold himself. As for his business ethics, he is no Ken Lay, which is good. He has made many bad business decisions, but also many good ones. Considering his current wealth, it is safe to say his good decisions have outweighed his bad ones.

So why attack Trump? I caught some footage of the show over at CNN.com, but I couldn't tell if Rosie was saying ANYTHING about Tara Conner. It seemed like more of a rant against Trump. Her point seemed to be "how dare Trump sit in judgment of anyone". However, considering Trump owns the "Miss USA" franchise, isn't he ultimately responsible for it? If not Trump, then who?

The truth is Rosie has no clue about business, nor does she want to understand it (as evidenced by her history of business failures, which you can see in her Wiki). She sees "Donald Trump the man", conveniently ignoring "Donald Trump the businessman". A businessman has responsibilities, which is a concept foreign to Rosie's liberal elitism.

When Trump "forgives" Tara Conner, he is not "absolving her of sin". He is making a conscious business decision that Conner's personal activities have not damaged his business.

By tearing into Trump, Rosie is, in effect, saying "how dare he make a business decision about one of his employees".

For me, the whole Rosie vs. Trump situation comes down to liberal elitism vs. capitalism. While Rosie used some truths in her arguments, the fact she was attacking Trump in this situation proves her stupidity.


(Hat tip to People.com for the quotes)