Donald Trump says Arnold Schwarzenegger has ‘died,’ revives old feud
There’s no feud ancient enough, so deeply buried in our memories, that Donald Trump is not willing to dig up and revive.
On Thursday, the president evoked the name of former verbal sparring partner Arnold Schwarzenegger. Why? Possibly because it was Thursday.
That’s not the official reason — just our guess.
During the White House social media summit, Trump brought up Schwarzenegger by saying that 71-year-old actor had died, according to People magazine.
“Arnold Schwarzenegger … You know what? He died … I was there,” Trump told reporters.
It wasn’t a literal death.
Hunter Walker, Yahoo News’ White House correspondent, cleared up what the president meant by tweeting it was a slight over Schwarzenegger’s inferior “Celebrity Apprentice” ratings compared to Trump’s.
The president was talking about Apprentice ratings when he quipped that Schwarzenegger “died.” Real life and death stuff.
— Hunter Walker (@hunterw) July 11, 2019
You might remember that the president and the action hero-turned-California governor-turned Trump successor on “Celebrity Apprentice” had a hissy back and forth a few years ago over the same, exact thing.
Luckily, Schwarzenegger decided to be the bigger man and walked away from this spitting match.
Just kidding. He didn’t.
Of course he didn’t. Schwarzenegger counterpunched after reading Walker’s tweets.
“I’m still here,” he tweeted. “Want to compare tax returns @realDonaldTrump?
I’m still here. Want to compare tax returns, @realDonaldTrump? https://t.co/lMQHsE1bQK
— Arnold (@Schwarzenegger) July 11, 2019
We just checked our calendar, and it isn’t 2017.
That’s when the feud between The Donald and Arnold was in full swing after Schwarzenegger quit after one season as host of “Celebrity Apprentice.” Schwarzenegger blamed the show’s original host for his departure.
“With Trump being involved in the show people have a bad taste and don’t want to participate as a spectator or as a sponsor or in any other way support the show,” he said at the time. “It’s a very divisive period now and I think this show got caught up in all that division.”
Trump then mocked Schwarzenegger’s ratings and tweeted that his departure from the show was not voluntary.
Schwarzenegger later got some measure of revenge after Trump’s approval ratings dipped.
“Oh, Donald, the ratings are in, and you got swamped,” Schwarzenegger said partly in an Instagram post. “Wow. Now you’re in the thirties? But what do you expect?”
And now the feud has returned.
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