Apprentice in Wonderland

August 5, 2024
This revealing inquiry from Setoodeh (Ladies Who Punch), coeditor-in-chief of Variety, scrutinizes Trump’s run as host of The Apprentice from 2004 through 2015. Setoodeh describes producer Mark Burnett’s conception of the show as “Survivor set against the backdrop of corporate America,” the ill-fated spin-off hosted by Martha Stewart, and the flagship program’s struggle to recapture its first season’s ratings success. However, the author’s detailed accounts of six interviews he conducted with the former president between 2021 and 2023 arguably make this most valuable as an examination of Trump’s post-presidency mindset. Trump offered to talk on the record with Setoodeh before the author had even reached out, indicating how eager Trump was to “relive his TV glory days.” Other details are more expected, such as Trump’s overinflation of The Apprentice’s viewership. Setoodeh’s evocative reporting presents the former president as the star of his own Sunset Boulevard, secluded and desperate to reclaim the spotlight (“There is something about the quiet inside Trump Tower that feels like a department store past its prime”). The author also snatches some newsworthy tidbits from Trump, most notably catching him admitting he lost the 2020 election before he immediately backtracked. While not as essential as Maggie Haberman’s Confidence Man, this earns its place in the ever-expanding pantheon of Trump reports.

August 15, 2024
The co-editor-in-chief ofVariety gets Donald Trump talking--a lot--about the reality TV show that led to his leap from New York media character to president of the United States. Much of the credit for the remaking of Trump from tabloid clown into America's most famous businessman and a viable presidential contender lies with Mark Burnett, a Brit who arrived in the U.S. in the 1980s with $600 in his pocket and rose to become king of reality television with his creation of the genre's first megahit, CBS'Survivor. Burnett (who mostly eluded Setoodeh's grasp for this book) conceived ofThe Apprentice as "Survivor in the City." As the first season progressed, Trump got bitten by the ratings bug; a page fromVariety recording the show's season 1 finale beating all comers for the night is proudly displayed on memento walls at both Trump Tower and Mar-a-Lago. It's an important document in Trump's world, "something that seems to carry as much value to him as the U.S. Constitution, if not more," Setoodeh suggests. Trump repeatedly boasts to Setoodeh thatThe Apprentice was more culturally significant than it actually was; in fact, it steadily declined in ratings, as most shows do from season to season. (The author fact-checks Trump's exaggerations and flat-out falsehoods throughout.) In addition to Trump, Setoodeh interviewed former contenders, Trump organization staffers, and network execs to capture the show's controversies and gossip-page scandals. Setoodeh is an amusing guide on this tour of Trump's and the nation's descent down the rabbit hole into a wonderland where politics and entertainment blend into each other and lies become truths, if you only believe. A vivid portrait of Trump as self-made (and made-in-the-editing-room) alpha male, both two-dimensional and larger than life.

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