Donald 'Bombshell' Fails to Blow Up
Oct. 24, 2012
Donald Trump today pledged $5 million to a charity of President Obama's choice, provided the president makes public his college applications and transcripts and releases his passport history, a far cry from the October-surprise bombshell Trump had promised.
Calling the offer a "major announcement," Trump released a video via Twitter at noon to much ballyhoo, and his online followers grew by the hundreds in the moments before the video was released.
"I have a deal for the president," Trump said. "If Barack Obama opens up and gives his college records and applications, and passport application and records, I will give to a charity of his choice, a check immediately for $5 million."
Trump, the New York billionaire real estate developer whose knack for self-promotion and showmanship have landed him a reality-television show, has needled the president in the past, calling him the "the worst president ever" and briefly threatening to run against him.
According to the user-submitted Urban Dictionary, the term "originally referred to the intentionally misleading words and actions that African-Americans would employ in order to deceive racist Euro-Americans in power, both during the period of slavery and afterwards."
As Politico points out, this isn't the first time the phrase has come up and inspired controversy. Several years ago, Andrew Cuomo, then New York's Attorney General, used the expression while campaigning for Hillary Rodham Clinton. "You can't shuck and jive at a press conference. All those moves you can make with the press don't work when you're in someone's living room."
Cuomo was promptly blasted by CNN's Roland Martin, who wrote, "'Shucking and jiving' have long been words used as a negative assessment of African Americans, along the lines of a 'foot shufflin' Negro.' In fact, I don't recall ever hearing the phrase used in reference to anyone white."