Trump, Piers Morgan and the power of self-publicity

If ‘real recognise real’ – by far my favourite piece of modern American vernacular – then Donald Trump’s latest tiff with Piers Morgan seems final.

‘I don’t think you’re real’, the former President spits angrily in the excitingly edited promo for their upcoming interview, shortly before seeming to storm off set – a choice of words suggestive of a fundamental re-evaluation.

Did Trump until this surreal moment of tabloid TV consider Morgan – a person with whom he has spent many hours over more than a decade – a man of great honour and integrity? Did he feel he had been tricked into doing the interview on a false premise? Or was he saying simply – and far more cuttingly – that he no longer recognised something of himself in his former friend and protégé (remember, he named Morgan the winner of his first Celebrity Apprentice)?

If it’s the last answer – which I suspect it is – then I will certainly be tuning in with millions of others on Monday when the interview is finally aired to discover what can possibly have happened.