Donald Trump’s new pipe dream about The Apprentice gives something away about the demise of his presidency
Donald Trump is about to go through the worst kind of reality TV show, as televised impeachment hearings against him are set to begin in just six days. Now it turns out Trump has been plotting a potential return to his former reality TV show, The Apprentice – and the story behind it gives something away about the demise of his presidency.
It turns out Donald Trump keeps calling up The Apprentice creator Mark Burnett and talking about doing a White House-style version of The Apprentice, which the Daily Beast says would take place “after the Trump presidency.” This tells us two things. First, Trump clearly regrets having cheated his way into the White House, and wishes he were back doing reality television instead. This tells us a lot about his mindset. But the timing tells us even more.
This is November of 2019. If you listen to the Team Trump party line, Donald Trump isn’t supposed to leave the presidency until January of 2025. Why would he be making plans with Burnett now about a TV show that supposedly wouldn’t even get off the ground for another five or six years? It just doesn’t make sense, unless Trump is thinking in much shorter terms, because he doesn’t expect (or doesn’t want) his presidency to last nearly that long. Daily Beast says these Apprentice talks have been going on for awhile. But the fact that it’s leaking now is a big deal, because Trump is likely the one who leaked it. He appears to want us to know that he’s thinking about the end of his presidency.
Of course Donald Trump can’t just resign now, or decide not to seek reelection, without ending up getting indicted and arrested on numerous state and/or federal charges. But if he’s delusional enough to think that anyone outside his drooling base would want to watch a new post-presidency version of The Apprentice (it would be canceled in six weeks due to lack of ratings), then perhaps he’s delusional enough to think he can beat the criminal charges at trial. At a time when Trump’s presidency and life are falling to pieces, he sure is suddenly focused on pipe dreams about what he might do after his presidency.
Bill Palmer is the publisher of the political news outlet Palmer Report