Ben Carson, who said last month he'd never appear on "Saturday Night Live" because he thinks running for the presidency is serious business, would go on the show in about "two seconds" if producer Lorne Michaels would invite him, Donald Trump said Wednesday.
But that probably won't happen, he insisted to CNN's Chris Cuomo on the network's
"New Day" program.
"If they asked him, nobody would watch," Trump said. "They are about ratings and current culture. I saw that where Ben Carson said, 'Oh, I'm too serious to do 'Saturday Night Live.' I said, 'Man, give me a break.'"
Trump, who will be on the
NBC comedy show this weekend, said that initially he was invited on for a skit, but when the idea was taken up to Michaels, the producer asked if he'd do the whole thing.
"They came back and called me, would you host 'Saturday Night Live?'" Trump told Cuomo. "And I said, I would. It's an honor."
Trump also said Carson "probably wouldn't do '60 Minutes' either because it's not serious enough." However, he told Cuomo that when he did the landmark show himself, on the same night Russian President Vladimir Putin was on, the show's ratings soared.
But as far as SNL, probably every president in the past 30 years has done the show, said Trump, but only if they're invited.
"What Ben Carson said is a lot of bunk and you know it," he said. "To do it you have to be invited. And to the best of my knowledge, Ben Carson has not been invited. And probably won't. He would do it in two seconds."
Also on Wednesday's often-contentious interview with Cuomo, Trump said of Carson:
"Ben will not be able to deal with China. He will not be able to deal with Iran. He will not be able to deal with any of the countries that are really abusing our country.
"He will not be able to deal with Japan. Frankly when you talk about energy, he has lower energy than Jeb Bush.
"I don't know where Ben comes from. If Ben got in, you would say oh, my God, we have ourselves a problem."
He also took on Bush and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio:
"I'm a different guy than Jeb Bush who said Marco is terrific, he's a wonderful person. He's a dear, dear friend. He's such a wonderful person. Three months ago I said they hate each other. I turned out to be right. They hate each other. To be specific, they hate each other.
"Marco is extremely disloyal to Jeb Bush and everybody said Marco will never run because without Jeb, Marco would have never been where he is . . . When he ran, it was shocking to people, especially to the people of Florida. It was shocking that he ran. By the way, I think those people are right. He should have been more respectful to Jeb Bush."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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