The Apprentice and The Presidency: What Carried Over

Before he sat in the White House, President Trump occupied another desk- the one of judge, jury and executioner in his TV show ‘The Apprentice.’ Now, nearly a decade and a half after the show premiered, people are comparing Trump’s time in office to his time leading the show; tenures that started off well enough before faltering as time went on.

“Season one of ‘The Apprentice’ was a rip-roaring success,” Bob Thompson, a Trustee Professor at Newhouse and director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture, told Politico. Season two, however? Not so much. “The slide was pretty precipitous,” Thompson said, while also adding that now, no one is behind the scenes giving instructions to Trump. “Mark Burnett [the producer of ‘The Apprentice] made Donald Trump look rational, fair, decisive and strong, week after week after week.”