Tab isn’t Enquiring on Trump
FORMER DONALD TRUMP allies like Fox News and NBC have been taking shots at the presidential hopeful since his bid began — but he has at least one staunch media ally. Industry insiders tell us Trump (inset) is “very close” with David Pecker, head of The National Enquirer and CEO and chairman of American Media, which means the outlet is unlikely to dig too deeply into his personal life as he campaigns.
This is an about-face for the Enquirer, which broke scandals that spectacularly ended the presidential hopes of John Edwards and Gary
Hart, among others. “Trump is a big friend of Pecker,” says our insider. “So no John Edwards-type investigations.”
Our source says that with Trump “protected” by the tabloid, “Some of the staff are furious. Trump’s such fertile ground, and it drives them crazy to not only be staying away from it, but running puff pieces for him.”
Trump and Pecker have certainly been known to scratch each other’s backs.
This week’s Enquirer features a piece under the screaming red banner: “Charismatic billionaire Donald Trump writes exclusively for the Enquirer.” In the column, headlined “America is being laughed at … and things must change!” Trump outlines his qualifications for the White House, including the fact that in his view, wife
Melania “would make a terrific first lady!” In 2010,Trump tweeted, “David Pecker would be a brilliant choice as CEO of TIME Magazine — nobody could bring it back like David!”
The Enquirer has been poison for some political hopefuls. In 2008 it famously uncovered Edwards’ love child. Hart had to pull out of the race for the 1988 Democratic presidential nomination when the mag ran a photo of a woman who was not his wife sitting on his knee on the yacht Monkey Business. In 2001, it sank one-time presidential candidate Rev. Jesse Jackson when it revealed he had an extramarital child.
Bob Dole got hit in 1996 when the mag interviewed an old mistress who’d resurfaced.
Pecker responded to Confidenti@l, insisting the mag will treat Trump as it would any other candidate. “It was The National Enquirer under my management at American Media Inc. that set the agenda on the Marla Maples scandal,” he said. “That in itself speaks volumes about our commitment to investigate reporting. What’s more, The Enquirer readership recently told us they wanted to read more about Donald Trump than any other 2016 candidate, and the subsequent coverage under Editor-in-Chief Dylan Howard and his team is exactly what our 6 million readers want and come to expect from the publication of record on presidential scandals.”