Donald Trump goes face to face with Jimmy Fallon on ‘Tonight’

Donald Trump made his late-night TV appearance as a presidential candidate Friday in a self-deprecating sketch on NBC’s “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.�

“I’m about to go out for my interview with Jimmy Fallon,� says Fallon, dressed in a suit and wearing the signature coiffure of the front-runner for the Republican nomination as he sits in front of a lighted dressing room mirror. “I’ll call you back after I comb my hair. Talk to you in three hours.�

Through that mirror he sees the real Trump.

“Wow, I look fantastic,� Fallon says.

“No, we look fantastic,� the real Trump replies.

“All right, me — we’ve got a big interview with Jimmy Fallon coming up,� says Fallon as Trump. “But let’s be honest. Fallon’s a lightweight. No way he deserves to interview me. The only one qualified to interview me is me.�

“Me interview me. That’s a great idea,� the real Trump says.

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After an exchange with the requisite Trumpisms of “huge� and “genius� sprinkled throughout, Fallon’s Trump says, “Sorry, I wasn’t paying attention. I was looking at my beautiful reflection. I’m like a Greek God that just took a bath in pumpkin spice latte.�

Trump sat for an actual interview with Fallon after the sketch. The host took Trump by surprise only once, when he asked the candidate whether he had ever apologized, even going back to his childhood.

“This was not supposed to be one of the questions,� Trump said before answering. “I fully think apologizing is a great thing but you have to be wrong.�

Trump did not rule out apologizing in the future. “I will absolutely apologize sometime in the hopefully distant future if I’m ever wrong,� he said.

NBC was one of the companies that cut business ties with Trump due to derogatory comments about Mexican immigrants when he announced he was running for president.

The network dropped Trump’s beauty pageants, which they had partnered on, and said the real estate mogul would not appear in future seasons of the reality show “Celebrity Apprentice.�

Even with Trump’s growing acceptance as a candidate who is leading in the polls, there are no plans to go back into business with him, according to a senior NBC executive who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

Twitter: @SteveBattaglio