Many moons ago, when I was but an awkward middle school kid, The Donald filmed a music video. I can’t say he actually appeared in it, though, because, well … things got weird.
The Donald As ‘Mr. Big Stuff’
Who better to play “Mr. Big Stuff” than Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump (provided we’re talking about money, that is)? In 1990, the all-female glam band Precious Metal thought just that and asked Trump to appear in the video for their remake of the 1971 tune.
According to Mother Jones,
“The label’s press release noted that it was a ‘featured role’ that would net Trump a $25,000 donation by the band to the charity of his choice.”
Great! So Trump gets to hang out with some rocker women, play a giant douche himself in the video, the little-known band gets a boost, and a charity gets a fat donation. Win-win situation all around, right?
Not so fast. As Mother Jones put it,
“…All was well for a few months. Then things got Trumpy.”
(Sidenote: Has “Trumpy” been added to the Oxford English Dictionary yet? If not, someone needs to get on that.)
Trump Ups The Ante After The Fact. Oh, And He Came On To The Guitarist, Too
The man who has said he makes all the best deals decided, once all was said and done, that $250,000 was required instead of $25,000.
As Mother Jones put it,
“Once the video was done, Trump decided he’d been lowballed. His claim, according to the band, was that he’d been told his appearance was a cameo. But since he appeared throughout the video, Trump allegedly wanted the band to fork over $250,000 instead. Knauer, speaking to Billboard earlier this year, said the mix-up was a lie. ‘Trump had the script, he played all the parts, shot them,’ she said. ‘So later to say, “I thought I was only going to be in one part”—then why did you shoot all those parts? We were just a struggling band, wondering why he would do that to us. He full-on just lied.'”
There was also allegedly a little incident with the band’s lead guitarist.
“He also creeped out the band’s lead guitarist, Janet Robin. ‘I had a moment with him where he put his hands around me, his arms around me,’ Robin told the Huffington Post, ‘not around my shoulder but around, you know, my stomach area or whatever you want to call it. I thought that was a little strange.’
‘Oh my god, Janet, you have a tight body,’ she recalled Trump saying. Knauer remembered the same thing. ‘He was kinda hot for Janet,’ she told Billboard, ‘saying, “Oh my god, Janet, you have a tight body.” Janet is gay and was like, ‘Yuck, whatever, gross.'”
Raise your hand if you’re shocked by any of this. Come on, up high, so I can count them. Oh, no one?
Have You Ever Heard Of Precious Metal Before Today?
Of course, the struggling band could not meet Trump’s demands, and so the video was remade without The Donald. Trump’s appearance in the video had initially made national news, so his absence from it in the end product hurt the band. Their label was not happy, and the album on which this cover appeared wound up being the last one they ever recorded.
Watch the remade, Trump-free version of the video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mv8pzrEB_is
Featured Image via YouTube screen capture
