Donald Trump has taken over the Miss Universe Organization and called a truce with his former media partner, broadcast network NBC, the presidential candidate said on Friday.
Just purchased NBC’s half of The Miss Universe Organization and settled all lawsuits against them. Now own 100% -- stay tuned!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 11, 2015
“Just purchased NBC’s half of the Miss Universe organization and settled all lawsuits against them,” Trump tweeted. No further details of the transaction were released.
The casino baron-cum-presidential candidate has brawled publicly with his former employer after the broadcaster (and Spanish-language sister network Telemundo) said in June that it would no longer broadcast the Miss USA or Miss Universe pageants following the Celebrity Apprentice host’s lengthy tirade about Mexicans.
Trump declared his former employer to be in breach of contract and his lawyer, Alan Garten, told CNN that Trump would be “taking action against NBC” and pointed out that there was “no morals clause” in the Celebrity Apprentice contract.
“I think they are weak,” Trump said of NBC in an interview with Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly in June, “and I think they are afraid of the issue at the border.”
After a separate cancellation of his pageants, Trump also filed suit against Univision on 30 June and went out of his way to publicly humiliate the network’s top news reporter, Jorge Ramos, in a press conference in August, telling him to “go back to Univision”. Politically minded Hispanic Americans have responded by christening Trump “Hitler”, among other epithets.
Despite his claims Trump does not appear to have ever filed suit against NBC or parent company NBCUniversal with respect to the Miss Universe or Celebrity Apprentice contracts, and now it appears he never will.
Trump is scheduled to appear on NBC’s The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon on Friday evening.
