New York Times

• 2014: New York Times columnist Jim Rutenberg described Trump as “an uncle in your family who … somteimes embarrasses you at family functions, but you still love him. “I returned from lunch on Tuesday to find that my colleague Jim Rutenberg had dropped a curious object on my desk: a note that was written with a Sharpie right atop our Clay Aiken interview from the Sept. 28 issue and that was apparently signed by a seismograph. Once I read it, I understood why the signature didn't even flirt with legibility - it didn't have to. It was Donald Trump's. He was disappointed that Rutenberg had apparently failed to ask Aiken about his time on ‘The Apprentice’; he was also disappointed in Aiken for not doing more to steer an interview about his run for Congress in that direction. Condensing and editing an interview every week means making tough decisions about what to do with a small amount of real estate - something Trump can relate to. And so it was with ‘The Apprentice’ and Trump. Rutenberg asked Aiken about both, but the exchange was cut for space. (Aiken said he liked Trump, comparing him to ‘an uncle in your family who you don't always agree with and sometimes embarrasses you at family functions, but you still love him.’) Aiken was loyal, and Rutenberg did his homework; if this was truly an error of omission, it was my own. “ (New York Times, October 3, 2014)