Sneed: Trump says pageant will go on

SHARE Sneed: Trump says pageant will go on

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Trump ‘em . . .

The Donald is moving forward.

Real estate mogul/reality star Donald Trump, whose critical candor made headlines Monday when NBC and Univision severed ties with him based on his remarks on immigration, told Sneed via airphone Tuesday: “The show will go on.”

• Translation: “If I have to, I will foot the bill for the Miss USA contest despite the fact it was abandoned by NBC and Univision,” Trump said.

“It’s going to be expensive, but I’ll not have 50 beautiful young women between the ages of 19 to 25 — contest participants — left viciously, viciously behind and abandoned,” he added. “Therefore, I am going to move ahead by putting the pageant on anyway.

“What was done to them is a sad, sad thing and I am not going to let them get away with it,” said Trump, who called Sneed en route to New Hampshire to continue his fight for the Republican presidential candidacy. “I now occupy second place,” he said.

“We are moving forward as planned for the next two weeks, when the new Miss USA will be crowned on July 12.”

“I am filing a huge lawsuit against Univision, and NBC should be ashamed of itself for severing ties with me the way they did,” he added.

“It was just as I was about to speak at the City Club of Chicago yesterday, NBC announced they would no longer air the Miss USA pageant and were cutting all ties with me,” said Trump.

Trump’s “Celebrity Apprentice” will still air, but Trump will no longer host the show, which has received “great ratings,” he said. (“Apprentice,” the original show, hasn’t aired since 2008.)

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“I hear they loved my speech in Chicago and actually 5,000 people were turned away,” added Trump, who regaled folks at his City Club table with tales of his father before giving his speech.

“He was delightful and told us stories of when his father was a builder in Brooklyn and Queens and would take him to job sites at night with a coffee can to pick up discarded nails — which he would then make sure were reused,” said City Club President Jay Doherty.

“It’s true,” said Trump. “My father also liked a clean job site and would pick up sawdust. He taught us at a young age how to save and build and negotiate.”

And, yes. The Donald claims he will jettison his famous windswept hairdo if elected president. “If I’m working for the people, I will only have time to comb my hair back,” he chuckled.

P.S. When Sister Rosemary Connelly, who gave the City Club invocation Monday at the Trump luncheon, was introduced to the real estate mogul — she stated point-blank: “Don’t forget the poor.”

“Of course, sister, of course!” Trump replied.

Amen.

Just plain Joe . . .

A calendar date: If you were an admirer of the talented, quirky and popular former State Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka, who died last December after serving as a state representative, state senator, and the state’s first female treasurer . . . please join in supporting her son, Joe, a retired U.S. Army officer, at the Riverside Township Hall, 27 Riverside Road, in Room 4 at 7 p.m. Wednesday – while he fights an uphill battle to rename the hall in honor of his legendary mother. Be there.

I spy . . .

Singer Bono was spotted dining with two of his kids on a yacht named “Joint Venture,” docked at Burnham Harbor Tuesday around 4 p.m.  . . . Film director Spike Lee caught a U2 show at United Center Monday night and posed for a photo with Bono, who was wearing a hat emblazoned with the name of Lee’s new film, “Chiraq.” . . . Singer Gloria Estefan stopped by Chicago Cut Saturday with her husband, Emilio. The two are in town for a musical based on their lives, titled “On Your Feet!” playing at the Oriental Theatre.

Sneedlings . . .

Wednesday’s birthdays: Pamela Anderson, 48; Missy Elliott, 44, and Dan Aykroyd, 63.

Follow Sneed on Twitter: @Sneedlings

Tweets by @Sneedlings

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