For the first time since the foundation of the state, the President of the United States will also be an executive producer on a reality television series.
Donald Trump might have already been a household name in the US, thanks to his hotels and the like, but what brought him into the public consciousness was the hit reality TV show, The Apprentice. Trump was involved with the series right from the beginning, and helped television producer Mark Burnett get it off the ground.
Since then, he's been involved with the show in a number of ways and has significant ties to The Apprentice, a fact that was reported on by CNN and Variety. According to both reports, Trump will still be involved in the series in a reduced capacity and will maintain executive producer status on the show when it returns to TV screens in the near future.
Trump has already been listed as a profit participant in the show since 2004, when the show launched, and that will continue as he enters the White House to become President. Trump has promised to hold a press conference next week, in which he'll detail ways in how he's divesting himself from his various business to avoid potential conflicts of interest.
The Apprentice TV series is one of them, something Trump has taken to Twitter to defend against. In a now-deleted tweet, Trump slammed CNN's reporting as 'rediculous' (he's since deleted and corrected the spelling mistake). Variety believes that Trump is expected to make a five-figure sum per episode during the show's return, but Trump has said that he will not be involved in the show during its return in any capacity.
NBC, the television studio involved in hosting and producing The Apprentice, cut ties with Trump in July 2015 when he made comments that Mexican immigrants were rapists and criminals.
Via Variety