Donald Trump couldn’t pass up the opportunity to say, “You’re fired” to an underling — even when the man offered to resign.
Furious over a snarky Buzzfeed article about his political aspirations, the developer took a page out of his TV show, “The Apprentice,’’ and booted the adviser who had urged him to do the interview.
“I told [Trump] when he fired me, ‘Sir, I’m willing to offer you my resignation.’ He didn’t accept that,’’ 32-year-old political consultant Sam Nunberg told The Post. But “this is not unfair, honestly,’’ insisted Nunberg, who lives on the Upper East Side. “I failed Mr. Trump, and that’s the long and short of it.”
Trump, 67, told The Post that he had first been approached by Buzzfeed writer McKay Coppins about possibly doing a sit-down interview earlier in the month, when the mogul was in New Hampshire. Trump was there to deliver a political speech widely seen as being aimed at running for president in 2016 and not for New York governor this year.
Trump said his first reaction was not to do the interview, saying, “I understand what Buzzfeed is.”
“But Sam said to me, ‘This guy is a friend of mine. It’s going to be a great story. I have confidence it will be fair.’ So I actually did the interview as a courtesy to Sam.
“But I said to Sam, ‘If this guy writes a fair story, that’s fine. But if he writes a wise-guy story, you’ll be fired.’ And I said to Sam, ‘OK?’
“And Sam said, ‘OK.’ ’’
Coppins’ scathingly critical story appeared last week under the title, “36 hours on the Fake Campaign Trail with Donald Trump.’’
It included details of Coppins’ flight on Trump’s private jet to his luxurious mansion and private club, Mar-A-Lago, in Palm Beach, Fla., and depicts the developer’s alleged obsession with publicity.
After the article appeared, Trump acknowledged, “I called [Nunberg] in and said, ‘Sam, you’re fired!’ ”
Trump said the article was filled with “inaccurate reporting’’ and presented flippant or out-of-context remarks.
Coppins has said he stands by the story.