It’s actually kind of hard to believe that at one point in time Donald Trump was known to most as a humble reality TV star and that was about it. Sure he wasn’t perfect, and there were definitely a few red flags back then but, for the most part, he was relatively harmless to society (if not individual women…).
Maybe you’ve heard of the butterfly effect, it’s the idea that everything is connected. One small action can have catastrophic consequences further down the line – a butterfly flaps its wings on one side of the world and the air displaced creates a hurricane on the other side, or something like that. Well, this is a pretty good example of the butterfly effect in action. Who could have known that centering a reality game show around Donald Trump would lead to the political mess the U.S. is in now? Not the NBC producer who helped craft Trump’s image that’s for sure.
Trump’s personality was an invention
Writing for USNews.com, NBC’s former chief marketer, John D. Miller has taken responsibility for his part in the creation of the monster we know today as Donald Trump. Miller led the marketing team for The Apprentice, the NBC show that made Donald Trump a household name. According to him, the idea was to sell a narrative that Trump was a rich and successful businessman even though that was anything but the truth.
Trump had already declared business bankruptcy numerous times before the first episode and did so again at least two more times during the show’s run just in case you were in any doubt that the successful business mogul image was anything other than a marketing gimmick. However, Miller’s narrative did the trick, viewers bought into the idea that Donald Trump was a successful and smart businessman when in reality, a successful businessman would never let a bunch of inexperienced game show winners onto their executive board.
Of course, Donald loved the attention and loved being treated like a success, perhaps this little taste of power was what sparked the urge to run for president? Regardless, the show was marketed with this exaggerated image of Trump, a lie broadcast to the entire nation and he played into the lie, or maybe he believed it wholeheartedly, who knows.
Miller worked pretty closely with Trump, so he was able to learn a lot about how the man works, “He has an unfillable compliment hole. No amount is too much. Flatter him and he is compliant.” Miller also observed Trump’s compulsive lying long before it became common knowledge.
he thought he could simply say something over and over, and eventually people would believe it. He would say to me, “‘The Apprentice’ – America’s No. 1 TV show.” But it wasn’t. Not that week. Not that season.
This is something we’ve seen Trump do god knows how many times during debates, rallies, and interviews. It doesn’t matter what the facts say, Trump will just keep on repeating his own version of the truth. Of course, nowadays the stakes are much higher, lying about ratings for a reality game show is a little different to lying about the results of an election.
Clearly Miller feels like he is partly to blame for the creation of this monster. “While we were successful in marketing “The Apprentice,” we also did irreparable harm by creating the false image of Trump as a successful leader.” Many still believe the false narrative to this day, but none feed into this lie more than Donald Trump himself it seems.
Published: Oct 18, 2024 07:51 am