Celebrity White House

One of the ideas kicked around by Burnett and the president was shooting a new version of the Trump-branded Apprentice, tentatively titled The Apprentice: White House, and to produce it shortly after the president leaves office. This time, however, the TV program would be explicitly politics-themed and take full advantage of Trump’s status as a former president of the United States and a newfound Republican kingmaker.

“There have been several discussions between Burnett and Trump about The Apprentice: White House,” a person with knowledge of the situation told The Daily Beast. “It is something Burnett thinks could be a money-spinner and Trump is very keen on doing.” 

—Asawin Subsaeng and Lachlan Cartwright/Daily Beast

11/5/19

Mark,

Can't begin to tell you how psyched the network is about The Apprentice: White House. There are a bunch of obstacles that need to be worked through before you get the green light but if you guys can make your end happen and I'm sure you can this is looking to be the greatest reality show of all time and I'm not even kidding. You and I are going to be richer than Mr. Trump by the time this thing is over. I mean we already are richer than Mr. Trump but richer than Mr. Trump thinks he is.

Points that instantly come to mind are:

• Location: We shot the original Apprentice in the real Trump Tower, I know it was a little tacky but it gave the show authenticity and it meant Mr. Trump didn't have to go outdoors to get to the set. I think for this project we have to have the real White House. We'll pay whatever it takes, obviously, and it's not your problem, we'll take care of it at our end when we figure out who you have to call, but there are other issues. First, after 2024 Mr. Trump won't officially be living there, as I understand it. If we shoot two seasons a year, that's two five-week periods when we'll need to move him back in, and this could interfere with the plans of whoever is holding the office. Best would be if we could install Don Jr. or Ivanka as actual official president at that point, obviously, but my lawyers tell me we can't guarantee that.


• Format: My understanding is that it's really somewhat more Shark Tank than Apprentice, with all the contestants being cabinet secretaries working on different projects, like building a 30-foot border wall, privatizing education, making peace in the Middle East, buying Greenland, etc., and each episode one of them gets top rank and a Medal of Honor or a pardon or something and one of them fucks up and gets fired, and at the end the last one standing has all the jobs, like Kushner or Mulvaney. I love this idea, it's incredibly compelling TV, but I'm asking myself are these real cabinet secretaries or what, like I think it only makes sense if they are. Can we ask the secretary of state or anybody with that kind of status to accept that they could get fired up to twice a year? Do they go back to their jobs after we finish shooting or do we find them some kind of post-government job where they get to go back to making real money? I don't think we want to keep them all coming back season after season, though it's always nice to have an Omarosa you can bring in when the storyline starts flatlining.


• Cast: In fact it would be great if we could have real celebrities for cabinet secretaries, from the start. Or people who have been on both sides, like Spicer. Could we bring back Spicer?


• Star: My biggest anxiety is Mr. Trump, to be honest. How much of him is going to be left in 2024? He's getting more and more orange as things are, on a daily basis. And unhappy. And the reason he's unhappy is he misses the business, and the success, and the money. The most unhappy I've ever seen him was when we told him we'd have to drop him as the campaign got going in 2015.

Long and short: It's a mistake to wait. I think this only really works if we do it WHEN HE IS THE LITERAL PRESIDENT. For all these logistical reasons, getting the White House relatively cheap and all the cabinet. As long as Mr. Trump is president they don't mind getting fired all the time, as you know, that's just how it works. I understand the legal issues that worried us in 2015 about having a principal performer moonlighting in national politics, but experience shows that we were too timid. In fact he can run hotels, take bribes, possibly shoot people on Fifth Avenue, though not Park or Lex, and nobody really minds.

And it will be so good for him, physically and psychologically! Just to be doing something he's good at, sitting in that chair and looking like he's in command. In fact we could pitch it to WH staff as a way of keeping him busy and out of trouble, and it would be true. They'd owe us forever!

Let's talk about a pilot during the upcoming campaign, in fall 2020, with campaign staffers instead of the cabinet—The Apprentice: War Room.

Best,

Bob

P.S. Gary Busey is interested in Treasury. Pass it on.