‘I want to apologize to America’: Former NBC executive deeply regrets creating ‘monster’ Donald Trump
Donald Trump rose to fame on The Apprentice, a reality TV show that gave him the catchphrase, “You’re fired!” Years later, he would leverage that fame to run for President of the United States and, as we all know, he won. It was disastrous for America and Trump is currently gearing up to once more change the country for the worse.
Now, the ex-NBC marketing executive who brought us The Apprentice is deeply regretful about how he “helped create a monster.” John D. Miller has written an op-ed for U.S. News & World Report where he apologized to America and explained how The Apprentice made Trump look like a far more competent businessman than he actually was.
“Trump declared business bankruptcy four times before the show went into production, and at least twice more during his 14 seasons hosting,” Miller said. “The imposing board room where he famously fired contestants was a set, because his real boardroom was too old and shabby for TV.”
Miller pointed out that most “successful CEOs” aren’t actually interested in reality TV, but Donald Trump was. And he especially liked how the showrunners massaged his ego. “The image of Trump that we promoted was highly exaggerated. In its own way, it was ‘fake news’ that we spread over America like a heavy snowstorm,” remembered Miller. “I never imagined that the picture we painted of Trump as a successful businessman would help catapult him to the White House.”
Miller had some choice words for the Trump he knew. The former president was, “manipulative, yet extraordinarily easy to manipulate.” Miller pointed out that this is clear to all from Trump’s interactions with people like Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un. And he also slammed Trump’s constant lying, namechecking Trump’s cruel misinformation campaign about Haitian migrants eating pets and his insistence that he won the 2020 election.
“I also learned from working with him that he has questionable judgment,” Miller went on. “At the wrap party for The Apprentice season three, he pitched an idea for the upcoming season. He told me we should make a team of Black players compete against white players. My first thought was: WTF?!” Obviously, this idea didn’t happen, but Trump continues to be racist and compare Black people to white people.
Miller ended his essay with another apology, as well as a secondary one for taking so long to come forward, and urged Americans to go out and vote for Kamala Harris. Hopefully, enough people will come forward and tell Donald Trump, once more, “You’re fired.”
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