Conservative business giant Donald Trump appeared on Fox News to give his two cents about the Donald Sterling scandal.
Although Trump did describe Sterling's comments as "horrible" and "disgusting," he also took up a new angle, calling girlfriend V. Stiviano—whose lawyer has denied that she released the audio of Sterling's racist rant—the "girlfriend from hell."
"It's terrible, he got set up by a very, very bad girlfriend," Trump told his hosts on the news station when asked his opinion about the situation. "Let's face it: That whole thing is—she's called the girlfriend from hell."
The billionaire accused Stiviano—who is half black—of setting up the Clippers owner by making a private conversation public. Host Brian Kilmeade had pointed out that some had taken Sterling's side because of that, and because Stiviano was "baiting him."
"It's so bad," Trump agreed. "She was baiting him, and she's a terrible human being. And he gave horrible answers, and disgusting answers. You're right, it's a private conversation. But it became very public.
"He could be pretty much out of it in terms of his whole mentality," Trump added, when another co-host, Steve Doocy, said that Sterling had asked his girlfriend to record what he was saying because he was forgetful. "The way she led him along. He should know, if he were there, if he was with it, he would know after one or two of those questions that she was answering and asking that there's something going on here.
"You look at the way he's being baited, just constantly being baited," he said. "I read part of a transcript, and it was ridiculous."
The mogul did acknowledge, however that NBA Commisioner Adam Silver will most likely have to take serious action.
"I don't know that he has much choice. I think he's going to probably have to do something where [Sterling] is expelled from the league in some form. I don't know what the mechanism is to do that … but I would imagine that they would probably do some form of that," he said. "He is on tape and the tape is horrible, and I don't think he's got an answer for it; there's really no answer. He seems close to incompetent."
"How could a guy say the kind of things … and how could he be led along by somebody who was so obviously looking to do harm to him?" Trump said.
Read more at The Root:
"LA Clippers Stage Silent Protest Against Owner's Alleged Racist Remarks"
"NBA Enabled LA Clippers' Owner and Now Must Oust Him"
"Donald Sterling's Long History of Racism and Offensive Remarks"