The Donald. That grin on his face is there for about 538 reasons.

Donald Trump, never one to mince words, has a few to say to Booker & Sarah about his latest television venture, a behind-the-scenes look at beauty pageants aptly titled Pageant Place. In addition to being married to Melania, a fashion model from Slovenia, Trump owns the Miss Universe, Miss USA, and Miss Teen USA pageants.

Booker: I'm looking at this press release photo and it is you surrounded by a bunch of hot women. Who are the girls in this photo?
Donald: Well, they're Miss Universe, Miss Teen USA, Miss USA and also Tara Conner, who as you know, was last year's Miss USA.

Of course.
They're really beautiful and you know it's an idea that I got about two years ago standing backstage at the Miss Universe contest watching these incredibly beautiful women fighting like cats and dogs over location, over chairs, over hairdressers...over everything. I said, "What a great reality show this would make.” So I presented it to a few people and MTV just came up with some amazing ideas. The Miss Universe Pageant is one of the top shows anywhere in the world and one of the off shoots that I thought of would be backstage at the various pageants with Tara Connor… who is great. You know Tara? She might have been on your show actually.

Yeah, we talked to her not too long ago and she's been through a lot obviously. When all that went down and you had to like sit down and talk to her, did you ever think that you would end up making a show about what she's overcome?
I never did and frankly when I spoke to her the first time after she won, she was an alcoholic and she was a drug addict--other that she was doing wonderfully. She was really having a lot of problems coming into New York City and she went wild and everybody wanted her fired. After I met her, I didn't want to do that. We had a news conference that morning in Trump Tower and I have never seen so much press in my life. I decided to do what everyone thought I wouldn't do and keep her but she had to agree to go to rehab and you know all of that is covered in Pageant Place. She is a very compelling character. She's really beautiful.

And then you got Katie, Miss Teen USA, and she and Tara had some rough goings, did they patch things up?
Well, they said that they were kissing each other a lot. That was one of the things and I don't know if it was true or not but they were saying that and they sort of patched things up. It's interesting to see what happens. Actually, I brought Tara back because I thought she would be a great television character and the other girls--in particular--Miss USA, Rachel, as you saw during the recent Miss Universe she flipped over; she fell.

Yeah and they were booing her.
They weren't booing her, they were booing President Bush. That I can tell you.
 
But when you watch it back you don't understand that either you know.
Well, they were booing the country. She fell and the Mexican crowd, which was a huge crowd of people, they went absolutely crazy and started booing. She was devastated because she thought she was being booed.

Tara Connor only calls you Mr. Trump. Is that a rule?
No, and I don't know--but I'll tell you one thing--she's one hell of a beautiful woman.
 
Yes… and so is Sarah and she has a huge crush on you.
That's very good to hear. Don't tempt me.
 
What was up with Mark Cuban on the set of Dancing with the Stars insulting you?
Well, Mark Cuban has never gotten over the fact that I've called him a loser many times. He lives in one of my buildings in New York, by the way, which is sort of interesting. When The Apprentice went on, Mark Cuban tried to copy it with a show called The Benefactor and they were thrown off the air. When he got thrown off the air, I hit him hard because he was trying to create a little controversy by hitting me before his show went on. So, I hit him very hard when his show failed. I had a right to because he was…in order to promote his show he was trying to knock me. 


One of the biggest ironies here is that he lives in one of your buildings. Maybe you should change the locks…

Entire episodes of Pageant Place can be viewed at mtv.com and new episodes air Wednesdays at 9:30 CT on MTV.

The Booker & Sarah Morning Show can be heard weekday mornings 5:30-10 on HOT 96.