As Donald Trump hosts a $60 million bloodbath on the White House lawn to mark his 80th birthday and coincidentally celebrate the United States’ 250th , so many of us keep wondering how our nation came to this.
There are many reasons, but most experts would probably agree that “The Apprentice” was a resurrection of sorts for Trump. From its first episode in January 2004, the NBC series rebranded him from the colorful but inept huckster he was to the savvy tycoon he portrayed.
For those who never saw the show: Each week, Trump assigned a task to two teams of contestants and decided which performed best. That team got a reward, while the other endured a grilling in his “boardroom,” where he “fired” at least one member.
Living in the New York area at the time, I had little respect for him and never bothered to watch the show. But when it started streaming on Amazon Prime last year, I checked it out and wrote about my attempt to learn what his voters had seen in him.
During the first season, its highest-rated, Trump played his part pretty well. He always had a knack of speaking authoritatively, even while spouting nonsense. And in the earlier episodes, he was more likely to stay on script.
Until NBC cut ties with Trump in 2015 for making derogatory remarks about Mexicans, the network continued to promote him as a benevolent dictator of a thriving business empire.
As time went on, though, the show occasionally revealed signs of the unfettered Trump we’re contending with now. Unfortunately, viewership declined with each new season, and the remaining audiences were enjoying a game show, not vetting a presidential candidate.
Nepotism
For the first five seasons, Trump Organization executives Carolyn Kepcher and George Ross monitored the contestants as they completed their tasks, interrogated them with their boss and weighed in on whom to fire. But Trump offspring Ivanka and Don Jr. eventually took over those roles.
Both had moved into jobs at the Trump Organization shortly after graduating from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, so their relationship to Trump Sr. seemed to be why they were deemed fit to judge people who’d managed to build careers on their own.
From what I saw, Ivanka could be tough on the contestants but generally yessed her father. And with his clean-shaven face and subdued demeanor, Don Jr. was almost unrecognizable in his early appearances.
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Hints of racism
At the end of Season 4, Randal Pinkett became the show’s first Black winner – and the first and only one Trump asked to share the honor with their runner-up (a white woman, in this case).
Pinkett shocked the live audience by refusing a proposition he later attributed to Trump’s reluctance to have a Black man win.
Conversely, Trump threw a hissy fit in Season 6 when Derek Arteta jokingly referred to himself as “white trash.”
“I don’t like it as a joke,” Trump ranted. “You know what, Derek? You’re fired. I think that is so stupid to say … Terrible.”
Illusions and delusions of grandeur
“The Apprentice” was all about this, with lots of name-dropping, limo rides, trips in a private jet and an imposing “boardroom” that NBC built for the show because Trump Tower’s was too shabby.
Still, his multiple bankruptcies didn’t stop Trump from cringeworthy boasts. In 2010, he announced to the Season 7 contestants, whose careers had been derailed by the Great Recession, that the project manager of each week’s winning team would meet with a top business leader.
“You’re gonna meet with one of the best of all,” he told the first week’s winner. “You know who that is? Me.”
A paper-thin skin and proud of it
“Nobody takes things more personally than me,” Trump proclaimed in Season 5. “When somebody says something about me, I hate him for the rest of my life … I never recover from it.”
Cruelty
Desperate to revive the ratings, producer Mark Burnett moved the show from Trump Tower to a Beverly Hills mansion for its sixth season, which aired in 2007.
The contestants weren’t informed about the new location until after they were chosen. And once there, they got an even bigger shock: Winning team members would enjoy the indoor amenities; losers would camp out in the backyard without electricity or hot water — while still having to look good.
To be fair, this plot twist was probably the brainchild of Burnett, who had struck gold with his previous series, “Survivor.”
But Trump, as executive producer, apparently went along with it, even though he was well aware that living in “soggy, disgusting tents” on “wet, horrible grounds” was “hell.”
Even there, nearly all contestants accepted the demands the show placed on them, but in my favorite scene, one of them quit.
Michelle Sorro might have been fired anyway, but I still admired her for telling Trump that “what I signed up for originally is not what I am dealing with now.”
I wonder how many people who voted for him in 2024 are feeling that way.
Canary note: Opinions expressed in any Op-Ed column appearing on this site are the views of the writer and are not necessarily the opinions of Coal Region Canary.
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