Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 09:40 pm
President-elect Donald Trump used his buddy network CNN as a foil to play tough guy against and distract the public from the alarming report by the CIA that Russia helped to get Trump elected. Yes, it’s another Saturday morning twitter meltdown from the thin-skinned and yet wily one.
Trump managed to move the goal posts about the huge conflict of interest and issue with his concurrent status as an executive producer of The Apprentice and soon-to-be-president of the United States, as well as throwing a fit about something that is now old news because hello, foreign interest puppet.
But as a break from the exceptionally disturbing Russia news, read Trump’s tweets and ask yourself if this sounds like a petulant teenager or a president:
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Reports by @CNN that I will be working on The Apprentice during my Presidency, even part time, are ridiculous & untrue – FAKE NEWS!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 10, 2016
I have NOTHING to do with The Apprentice except for fact that I conceived it with Mark B & have a big stake in it. Will devote ZERO TIME!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 10, 2016
Aside from the fact that Trump and CNN are playing a profitable game of bad guy good guy while CNN employed Trump’s own propaganda point person, the issue with Trump continuing to be a producer isn’t that he will be “working” on it.
In addition to simply being Palin-level tacky and bizarre to have a president involved in reality TV, the issue is the executive producer deal Donald Trump has with MGM and NBC.
The “Apprentice” franchise is a business interest of Trump’s and he promised he was leaving his “great business in total,” supposedly ending all of these conflicts.
An executive producer usually gets “points” (percentage points or net points) of the profit of each show on top of his or her per episode fee. If this is the case, the conflict is even more glaring than it first appears. It seems as if this is the case, given Variety’s comment, “Trump is also a profit participant on the ‘Apprentice’ franchise.”
This means not only does Trump get paid per episode, but he gets points based on the profits. So Trump has a vested interest in advancing the financial profits of the “Apprentice”. This could play out any number of ways, but one need only recall Sarah Palin passing a huge taxpayer-funded incentive for reality TV shows shot in Alaska (that included payment to the “stars”) and then quitting to star in several of them to begin to see the Using the Office for Personal Profit conflict.
The fact that Donald Trump pretends that he can’t see this is what should really alarm people. Of course, people are too busy being rightfully alarmed by his Russian connections to worry about how much he’s going to steal from the coffers for his own profit. The idea that Trump will use the office for personal gain isn’t really up for grabs, what is up for grabs is how much he will do this and whom/what will it harm.
In this case for example, opposing shows on other networks might feel the sting. Trump is nothing if not a petty, mob-style bully when it comes to “winning” in his “business” dealings. Trump might push some kind of taxpayer-funded incentive or have a secret rider attached to legislation (Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell seems happy to do Trump’s bidding even when it comes to burying the fact that Russia helped to get him elected, so to expect McConnell to care about the people is laughable at this point) to benefit his show.
Knowing Trump, he might invite the “Apprentice” to start shooting in the soon to be dripping in gaudy gold everything Oval Office.
Before people start screaming about President Obama’s book, Variety noted that while President Obama made royalties on a book while in office, those royalties were donated (for real, not just for show) to a charity that helps the children of disabled veterans.
Donald Trump is having great fun attacking anyone and anything that dares to criticize him, and the corporate (televised, not print) media is going along with it because it makes them stars and gets them eyeballs to be attacked by Trump. It’s a win-win relationship for them.
But it’s a win-lose relationship for everyone else.
Sure he’s attacking CNN, but this is all part of the big show. It’s what reality TV producers always push for – drama and conflict. Drama and conflict sell.
Welcome to the reality TV show president and his get-rich-off-the-selling-of-America corporate media. Oh, and by the way, reality TV was invented in part to get around the unions and thus get cheap labor. Full circle? You betcha.
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Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.
Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
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