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New Yorker

TV Producer Credited With Paving the Way to the Trump Presidency

Dec 28, 2018  •  Post A Comment

In a new in-depth feature, Donald Trump is portrayed as someone who was “a floundering D-lister” until he was resurrected on “The Apprentice” by TV producer Mark Burnett.

The profile of Burnett, running under the headline “How Mark Burnett Resurrected Donald Trump as an Icon of American Success,” was published on the website of The New Yorker ahead of its publication in the magazine’s Jan. 7, 2019, issue.

Author Patrick Radden Keefe makes the point in the piece that Burnett’s NBC reality series “The Apprentice” mythologized Trump as the ultimate titan, paving his way to the presidency.

When NBC severed ties with Trump in 2015 over Trump’s comments about Mexicans, the piece notes, Burnett did not sever his relationship with the man who had played the role of “heavyweight tycoon” in 14 seasons of “The Apprentice.”

“He and Trump had been equal partners in ‘The Apprentice,’ and the show had made each of them hundreds of millions of dollars,” the story notes. “They were also close friends: Burnett liked to tell people that when Trump married [Melania] Knauss, in 2005, Burnett’s son Cameron was the ring bearer.”

We encourage readers to click on the link above to The New Yorker to read the full profile.

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