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An NBC executive has recently published an open letter to the public apologizing for helping create the "monster" known as Donald Trump—through the reality TV show The Apprentice, hosted by the former President for the first 14 seasons.
The television executive revealed that he was the leader of the team that marketed the show which, according to him, portrayed Trump as more successful than he was in reality, Knewz.com has learned.
The reality show was co-produced by Trump as well, along with Shark Tank creator Mark Burnett and veteran Hollywood action hero and former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Most of the show's seasons featured 14 to 18 aspiring businesspeople who would compete for the ultimate prize—a one-year $250,000 starting contract to promote one of Donald Trump's properties.
"To sell the show, we created the narrative that Trump was a super-successful businessman who lived like royalty," wrote John D. Miller, the former NBC and NBCUniversal chief marketing officer. "That was the conceit of the show."
"At NBC, we promoted the show relentlessly. Thousands of 30-second promo spots that spread the fantasy of Trump’s supposed business acumen were beamed over the airwaves to nearly every household in the country," the NBC marketing executive further stated.
"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. I never imagined that the picture we painted of Trump as a successful businessman would help catapult him to the White House."
Miller believes that the larger-than-life businessman image created and perpetuated by the show was one of the primary reasons behind his unwavering supporter base, although his interactions with the actual person made him privy to several of the former President's notable flaws.
Speaking about the successful businessman image of Trump portrayed on The Apprentice, the NBC executive wrote that "at the very least, it was a substantial exaggeration; at worst, it created a false narrative by making him seem more successful than he was."
"In fact, Trump declared business bankruptcy four times before the show went into production, and at least twice more during his 14 seasons hosting," claimed Miller.
He added that the "imposing board room" shown on The Apprentice, where Trump could be seen firing contestants, was a set built for the show, because "his real boardroom was too old and shabby for TV."
Miller further stated:
"Trump may have been the perfect choice to be the boss of this show, because more successful CEOs were too busy to get involved in reality TV and didn’t want to hire random game show winners onto their executive teams."
"Trump had no such concerns. He had plenty of time for filming, he loved the attention and it painted a positive picture of him that wasn’t true."
One other major flaw the NBC executive pointed out was that Trump was heavily prone to flattery and had an "unfillable compliment hole," which made him vulnerable to manipulation, although he was manipulative himself.
"World leaders, including apparently Russian strongman Vladimir Putin and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, have discovered that too," he wrote.
On the other hand, Trump was also incredibly thin-skinned, according to Miller, and aggressively went after his critics seeking retribution. He pointed out that this nature of Trump has still remained, pointing out the former President's comments about using the National Guard and United States military to "round up" his political enemies.
Trump had also previously hinted at his plans of exacting revenge on those he holds responsible for his persecution and the resultant 34-count felony indictment – which Trump has repeatedly labeled "unfair" and the "weaponization of the Justice Department" – if he takes Office for a second term.
However, Miller also pointed out another significant flaw that can be considered rather "un-Presidential"—Trump's lack of judgment.
He recounted an incident from the wrap party of the reality TV show's third season, where Trump had suggested an idea for the upcoming season: "He told me we should make a team of Black players compete against white players."
"I explained that sponsors wouldn’t want to be associated with a show that pitted races against each other. But he could not understand why this was such a bad idea," Miller added.
Trump's apparent lack of judgment was also evident in an incident shared by one of his former top employees, Barbara Res.
Res, the lead engineer on the construction of the Trump Tower and the former Executive Vice President of the Trump Organization, penned a memoir of her days under the former president's employment in 2020, entitled Tower of Lies: What My Eighteen Years of Working With Donald Trump Reveals About Him.
In an interview with MSNBC in June, she shared that the former President had once made a "shocking" joke about "Nazi ovens" in front of Jewish executives.
"We had just hired a residential manager, a German guy… And Donald [Trump] was bragging among – to us executives, there were four of us – about how great the guy was and he was a real gentleman, and he was so neat and clean," Res recounted.
"And he looked at a couple of our executives who happen to be Jewish, and he said, ‘Watch out for this guy – he sort of remembers the ovens,’ you know, and then smiled," she told MSNBC.
According to the NBC marketing exec, Trump's habit of "stretching and abandoning the truth" is not new and not something he devised for his presidential campaigns, as he would often officially declare The Apprentice the "No. 1 show on television" in the country, even after he was corrected.
"I had the ratings in front of me. He had seen and heard the ratings, but that didn’t matter... He repeated it on press tours too, knowing full well it was wrong. He didn’t like being fact-checked back then either," Miller stated.
"Exaggerating ratings is one thing, but spreading falsehoods about relief work of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, about immigrants eating cats and dogs, about the deadly COVID-19 pandemic, about him winning the 2020 election or countless other lies is far more dangerous."