Was Trump’s presidential bid just a publicity stunt?

Was Donald Trump's abortive run for the US presidency a cynical stunt cooked up with NBC to create publicity for the next series of his reality TV show Celebrity Apprentice?

As ludicrous as the suggestion may sound, this is the claim that one of the TV network's own members of staff is making after the extravagantly coiffured billionaire announced yesterday that he will not be challenging for the Republican party's nomination for next year's race.

That Trump, who had led the field of possible GOP candidates until he was brutally roasted by President Barack Obama at the White House Correspondent's dinner late last month, made the announcement at the roll-out of NBC's autumn TV schedule only adds grist to the conspiracy mill.

"I will not be running for president as much as I'd like to," Trump told the assembled press. "Ultimately, business is my greatest passion, and I am not ready to leave the private sector."

The timing of the statement was predicted to the day by MSNBC anchor Lawrence O'Donnell, who on April 20 criticised his employer for its relationship with Trump.

O'Donnell called his erstwhile colleague "NBC's Charlie Sheen - the greatest individual embarrassment in the history of the network," and foresaw that the property mogul's phantom run for the White House would end at the same time that the latest series of his show was announced.

During his brief political campaign, Trump had stirred up a moribund group of Republican presidential frontrunners with his trademark brand of straight-talking and a tenacious campaign to force Obama to release his birth certificate to prove that he actually was born in the United States.

Obama's eventual decision to do this took some of the wind out of Trump's sails, as did the billionaire's increasingly ridiculous bluster.

An interesting aside to Trump's withdrawal from the race to challenge Obama next year is that it comes soon after another GOP favourite, Mike Huckabee, also stood aside.

While Trump was in the camp of the 'birthers' - those questioning the president's American roots - Huckabee had also made noises about Obama's background in recent months, incorrectly claiming that Obama "grew up in Kenya".

Whether Obama's birth certificate forced them out of the race, or more likely the realisation that post-Bin Laden any attempt to dislodge a resurgent Obama would be an exceptionally tough task, it's leaving the Republican's pool of talent for 2012 looking distinctly shallow. ·