ROSIE, THE DONALD, AND BABS

January 15, 2007  

The ongoing spat between Rosie O’Donnell and Donald Trump is the gift that keeps on giving for the gossip columnists and the tabloids, and for that matter the mainstream media. Almost daily either Rosie or “The Donald” fires a fusillade of insults at the other. Recently, the tussle has involved the venerable Barbara Walters, co-creator of the daytime talk show, The View, where O’Donnell is her co-host. Some in the media decry the “personal attacks,” but they can’t seem to get enough of this story. How will it all end?

I won’t attempt a blow-by-blow narrative of the battle to date. The story develops too fast. If you haven’t followed every round of the fight just Google “Rosie and Donald” and an endless list of articles will pop up. A few facts, however, are worth noting.

It all started in December when O’Donnell lampooned Trump on The View. She mocked his comb-over, accused him of having gone bankrupt, and called his press conference, where he gave Miss USA, Tara Conner, a “second chance” after her “unacceptable” behavior in several New York City bars, a publicity stunt. The twice-divorced real estate mogul, proclaimed O’Donnell, had no right to be the “moral compass for 20-year-old America.”

Trump was not pleased. He fired back, calling O’Donnell “a woman out of control,” Trump told PEOPLE Magazine. “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.” He subsequently made disparaging comments about O’Donnell’s sexual preference.

Barbara Walters, a friend of Trump, became ensnared in the affair when she apparently tried to make peace. But when Trump claimed that Walters had made derogatory comments to him about O’Donnell, Walters denied it.  Following a confrontation with O’Donnell, Walters was forced to choose sides. She chose O’Donnell, calling Trump a “poor pathetic man,” on The View. Trump then called Walters a liar.

The skeptic’s take on this reality soap opera is that it’s all about ratings. The more the outspoken O’Donnell draws attention to herself on The View, the more the program’s ratings go up. Ratings for Trumps Miss USA Pageant and his series The Apprentice have been declining. Many argue that Trump counterattacked O’Donnell in the manner he did to deliberately draw attention to himself and generate interest in the season premier of the Apprentice. When the season premiered recently, its ratings were lower than last year’s, but it’s still too early to tell how this will affect the program’s ratings over the long haul.

Some commentators criticize O’Donnell and Trump for their incivility and the media for the way it’s covering them. They cite the nasty personal attacks as symptomatic of today’s uninhibited celebrity culture. They criticize the media for lowering its standards and devoting so much time to reporting the story, only encouraging the two celebrities to keep it up so they can cover it all the more.

When Trump talked with Bill O’Reilly on the phone on The O’Reilly Factor television program shortly after the initial spat, O’Reilly criticized Trump for not taking O’Donnell on at the intellectual level and for the personal attacks. Trump made it clear then, and he has not relented, that he intended to give O’Donnell a taste of her own medicine. She ridiculed of his comb-over. He ridiculed her waistline and her sexual preference.

Whether you see O’Donnell-Trump scuffle as a symptom of a larger problem in modern American society or just pure entertainment, it’s clear they have taken this kind of thing to a whole new level.

Comedians and talk show hosts have always taken pot shots at entertainers, politicians, and prominent public figures. Politicians and most public figures, however, chose not to retaliate in kind because it’s usually a losing proposition. If your status depends on your image, as in the case of a politician, you don’t literally or figuratively come down off the podium and punch the heckler in the mouth. It will cost you votes. If you’re the CEO of a major corporation or other public figure who depends on the good will of the stockholders or the board of directors, the same logic applies.

It’s not surprising, then, that O’Donnell didn’t expect the blowback that she got. Trump’s response was unusual and a surprise. Perhaps it shouldn’t have been. Donald Trump is in a different class of public figure. A wealthy, self-made, New York real estate tycoon, part time TV personality, and owner of a couple of beauty pageants, his antics aren’t likely to do him any damage. You may or may not agree with Walters that Trump is a “poor pathetic man,” but I doubt he cares.

Trump made a conscious decision to take O’Donnell on at the street level. He wanted to teach O’Donnell and anyone else who might be tempted to do what she did that there would be personal cost. Trump is a master manipulator. He carefully calculated the pros and cons of what he did before he did it.

The attacks have done some harm to both their egos. No one likes to be publicly ridiculed. Much of Trump’s outrage may be feigned, but would he have struck back so hard if O’Donnell’s comments hadn’t struck a nerve? You can tell from O’Donnell’s reactions and her outburst at Walters that some of the arrows The Donald shot at her hit the mark.

In any event whatever personal pain they may have experienced, most likely they will both profit from the experience. Trump is back in the headlines where he likes to be. The Apprentice and the Miss America Pageant should get a bump in the ratings. The View’s ratings are up and reports have it that ABC may again offer O’Donnell her own talk show.

The reason the O’Donnell-Trump feud has raised spats like this to a new level is that this one got so much coverage that there now others will it. And the media and the public will welcome them. The O’Donnell-Trump story will die out, eventually. But you can be sure, before long, a similar one will come along. 

Who will be the next Rosie and Donald? Who knows? But you can be sure that the next time someone like O’Donnell decides to stick pins in the voodoo doll of someone like Trump on national television, that person will be far less inhibited about retaliating in kind, whether it’s wise to do so or not.  “If The Donald can get away with it, why can’t I?" Each successive episode and each set of new players will strive to outdo their predecessors. Like Roman citizens in the Coliseum, the public will cheer and jeer and scream for blood. How will it all end? I doubt that it will.