Trump stipulated that “If Barack Obama up and gives his college records and applications, and if he gives his passport application and records, I will give to a charity of this choice — Inner City Children of Chicago, American Cancer Society, AIDS Research — anything he wants, a check, immediately for five million dollars.
“The check will be given within on hour after he releases all the records so stated. He’ll be dong a great service to the country if he does this.”
Trump’s claimed motive for doing this is to reveal something about “the least transparent president in history,” and he regards it as an offer the president can’t refuse. Nevertheless, it seems inevitable the president will accept the terms of the bargain and play that sort of game.
As David Plouffe, speaking on behalf of the president, responded, “Direct those questions to Boston, because Donald Trump is Mitt Romney’s biggest supporter, so he owns everything he says.”
What the peculiar offer is actually after might be a rhetorical move to counterbalance Romney’s undisclosed tax returns, which, like anything “hidden,” leads to wild speculation, turning a red herring into a white whale.
The trump card in this counter allegation will even the deal — if Obama releases all his personal information (he won’t), then Trump hasn’t lost anything he doesn’t have a lot of, money and face, but Obama’s critics will have a chance to gnaw and knit pick over the transcripts. However, if Obama ignores such deals as theatrics (he will) then there will be the ghost of a doubt, “What does Obama have to hide?”