(Newser)
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Donald Trump says his much-derided $5 million offer is no publicity stunt: "It’s a serious, very serious offer." In fact, Trump says he's "received tremendous praise," he told Piers Morgan last night. When Morgan suggested that "everyone knows" Obama would never do so, Trump disagreed, Mediaite reports, saying, "I can’t imagine that for $5 million that he wouldn’t do it." Obama, Politico notes, laughed off the offer on his Tonight Show appearance thusly: It “all dates back to when we were growing up together in Kenya," the president cracked. "We had constant run-ins on the soccer field. He wasn't very good and resented it. When we finally moved to America, I thought it would be over."
Morgan asked Trump about the "difference between Mitt Romney's refusal to release his tax returns" and "the president not being inclined to release his college records." Trump said the difference was "massive," since Romney has released some returns, whereas Obama hasn't released his transcript. Trump also suggested exchanging Romney's "beautiful and perfect" tax returns for the college records. Asked about former New York Times columnist Frank Rich's tweet that he'd offer $10 million to a Romney-backed charity for the tax returns, Trump dismissed Rich as a "failed theater critic." Politico rounds up other tweets on the topic:
- "I will give $50 to the charity of Donald Trump’s choice if he stops trying to make this election about himself," noted California Sen. Barbara Boxer.
- "If at any point you seriously considered Donald Trump for president, please study the error of your ways in quiet, private contemplation," said the National Review's Jim Geraghty.
- And from Trump: "Third rate @politico took every negative tweet or response they could find & put it out—when in fact the response is incredibly positive." And later: "I just learned that @politico has no credibility—total phonies that don’t report the truth. A puppet of Obama?"
