The Future President, Donald Trump

Lorne Michaels won't tolerate that crap. Neither should anyone else.

Don't like it? Don't watch it.

I haven't watched an SNL in 10 years or more...but I will watch tonight

New Yorkers were grateful when Donald J. Trump finished ahead of schedule and under budget in renovating the Wollman Memorial Rink, where the city had spent six years and $12 million trying to produce ice.

But even the Trump Organization, which controls a network of real estate developments and management corporations, did not expect to make a profit.

Yesterday, on a wet spring morning that would have been three months from the scheduled completion date if the city had not relinquished the project in Central Park, Mr. Trump announced that he had made a profit.

Closing the ice-skating rink until the fall, Mr. Trump said it had made a profit of about $500,000 on $1.5 million in receipts since re-opening in November. The money will go to several charities and will be used for public works projects. Profit a Pleasant Surprise

The executive vice president of the Trump Organization, Anthony B. Gliedman, who ran the renovation project, said the profit was about $450,000 to $500,000.

But the Parks Commissioner, Henry J. Stern, was more conservative, saying he thought the profit was about $400,000, although neither the Trump Organization nor the city Department of Parks and Recreation have final figures on the number of people who used the rink.

All three did agree that the profit was a pleasant surprise.

According to the Trump Organization, it spent $1 million to operate the skating rink since November. As part of its agreement with the city, besides giving most of its profit to charities and public works projects, the organization will also reimburse the city $50,000 for electricity use. In addition, some of the money will be given to the parks department.

The organization has already set aside $200,000 for three charities in New York City, a public works project and the rink's electric bill.

The remainder will be distributed by the city and the Trump Organization once a total has been made.

''It's so much beyond any expectation,'' said an ebullient Mr. Trump, who had said that he had hoped to just break even or turn a modest profit of about $100,000. ''This is a little different ending than most city stories.''

Mr. Stern agreed that the rink was ''enormously successful.'' Record Admissions

But the Trump Organization still has a lot of negotiating to do with the city if it is to continue to operate the rink. Mr. Gliedman said the two sides are far apart on some key aspects of the proposed concession contract, such as its duration and the fate of the Lasker Rink in Central Park near 103d Street.

The Trump Organization has asked for a 10-year agreement, Mr. Gliedman said, and the city has offered one for 4 years.

Mr. Stern declined yesterday to discuss the negotiations. ''We have a lot of negotiating to do,'' he said.

Mr. Trump took over the project in June 1986 after two city studies had concluded that the renovation was a failure. The city agreed to allow Mr. Trump to take over the project, with both agreeing that all profits would go to public works projects and charities suggested by city officials and approved by Mr. Trump.

Having fallen into utter disrepair during the New York City fiscal crisis, unable to make ice, the city’s Parks Department embarked on a total refurbishment of the facility in 1980, estimating it would take two years to complete. After six years and having flushed $13 million down the drain, the city announced they would have to start all over again and it would another two years to complete. Wollman Rink had quite visibly failed. The Wollman Rink fiasco amplified the public perception of the general incompetence of government and their inability to complete even the simplest projects.
Enter the Donald. In late May of 1986 the 39 year-old Trump made an offer to Mayor Ed Koch. Trump would step in and take over the construction and operation of the project for no profit and have it up and running in time for the holiday season. Koch tried mightily and quite snakily tried to reject Trump’s offer. A very public Trump-Koch feud ensued; Donald ultimately prevailed taking on the responsibility to finish the rink in less than six months for no more than $3 million. The city politicos could only hope that when Donald failed it would divert attention from their own incompetence.

Instead of failing, Trump finished the job in just four months at a final cost 25% below the budget. It wasn’t rocket science according Trump. It was common sense and “management.” But the incident also demonstrated Trump’s mastery and command of public relations and how to attract massive amounts of free press.

More than ratings, what the Donald Trump camp wants is media attention. That’s the crux of the campaign. He has become a front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination purely because the media generally has elected to treat everything he does or says as serious news. That’s the one advantage that Donald Trump holds over all of the other candidates. When everything he does is newsworthy, he sucks up all of the media oxygen out of the room, leaving little left for the likes of Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush, and other candidates who in a more conventional election cycle probably would have been doing a lot better at this point in the race.

With the caveat that I’m a registered Democrat, I cannot imagine how frustrating this must be for the likes of Chris Christie or Bobby Jindal to see this reality TV star becoming a potentially unbeatable front-runner precisely by doing the kind of things and saying the kind of things that would end a conventional presidential campaign. And by the way, that’s the difference between having Trump host and having almost any other presidential candidate guesting on or hosting the show. Trump is being rewarded not as a leader or a successful businessman but because he attracts media attention and ratings specifically for engaging in the kind of mean, petty, schoolyard bully behavior that is supposed to be discouraged in a civil society.

That's why you are still listed as one of the good eggs Frank.

Good grief...that is one terrible humor show.

I think there is great hilarity watching these clowns who are tying to pass this off as a ratings disappointment, when according to the overnights we need to go back 77 episodes to find a more popular outing for SNL. If that is not winning at popularity I dont know what is. And lets keep in mind getting ratings is getting more difficult all the time due to the fragmentation of the market, and due to younger people not watching TV at anything close to the rate there elders did as youth. Getting the number of eyeballs that Barkley got Jan 7 2012 is a good deal more difficult now.

Lets wait for the real numbers, which I think now tracks the people who time shifted their viewing and watched this a few days after. like today.