My pod today is based on this article by John D. Miller. Below is a transcription of my podcast that includes the article with some additional context.

Welcome to the podcast. It is September 17th, and I believe we have about 20 days left until the election. It’s getting down to the wire now! I started today with an emergency vet appointment, and I’ve been a little jammed for time. I wanted to record something for every day, but today I will do something different. It’s not something I normally do, but I want to share an article with you because I think many people might miss it—and if you’re like me, it will drive you crazy.

This is not my own content today. Normally, I write up my blog post and talk through it, but today I didn’t have time. Instead, I will take you into an article by John Miller, a contributor to U.S. News & World Report. The story is based on Miller’s experience working for The Apprentice.

If you’re on social media, especially Twitter, you may have seen Noel Cassler Comedy. Noel worked on The Apprentice, and for a long time, he has been speaking the truth about what really happened on the show and how things were packaged. He spills a lot of tea, to be perfectly honest. He’s tweeted a lot, and he’s also been interviewed and done the circuit. He had to be quiet for a while, but his NDA eventually expired.

Anyway, he shares a lot of behind-the-scenes details about The Apprentice. He’s the one who confirmed things like Trump wearing dentures and having incontinence issues. Apparently, he wears Depends. And honestly, if you’re that rich, wear whatever you need, right? Cassler has also talked about Trump’s drug use, claiming that he’s an Adderall junkie. Which is interesting, because you’d think he’d be skinnier if that were the case—but maybe he’s built up a tolerance after all those Studio 54 days.

Anyway, today John Miller, the former chief marketer for NBC, spoke out. And what he’s owning up to today—far too late, in my opinion—is NBC’s role in creating the myth of Donald Trump that much of the nation bought into. Now, I never watched The Apprentice. There was nothing about it that interested me, even though I’m a businessperson. It just wasn’t real, and I could see it was all manufactured. Miller regrets selling an illusion—no, I’m going to call it a myth, because that’s more powerful. In television, they’re used to creating illusions, but this was more than that.

To give you an example, there’s a family we’re friends with—they’ve created a myth about their life. They tell stories that aren’t true, but they believe them, and it’s fascinating. This family has even received free things because of this mythology they’ve built up about themselves, and sometimes it’s frustrating for the rest of us, because we know the truth.

What NBC did was create a similar myth about Donald Trump, and it was vast and deep. That’s why I want to share this article with you—because I think many people may miss it, and it’s important to see.

Miller, the former chief marketer for NBC, says that NBC is responsible for creating this myth. They built Trump up as a super-successful businessman, even though he had declared bankruptcy four times before the show went into production—and twice more during his 14 seasons hosting. Yes, 14 seasons! I had no idea it was that long, but cheap programming will do that.

The show was focused on creating an image of Trump that wasn’t true. The boardroom you saw on TV? It was a set, because his real boardroom was too shabby for TV. Real CEOs didn’t want to be involved in a fake reality show like this, but Trump had the time and loved the attention.

At NBC, they promoted the show relentlessly. Thousands of promo spots were aired, spreading the fantasy of Trump’s business acumen to every household in America. And that image of Trump as a successful businessman was highly exaggerated. In its own way, it was fake news, spread across the country like a snowstorm.

Miller admits that he never imagined this fake image would catapult Trump to the White House. He also shares some insights from his time working with Trump—he says Trump is manipulative, but also easy to manipulate. He has an unfillable need for compliments, and he is thin-skinned, going after anyone who critiques him. And we’ve all seen that play out, especially during his presidency.

Miller also recalls a particularly outrageous idea Trump had for The Apprentice: to pit a team of Black players against a team of White players. Miller immediately rejected the idea, explaining that sponsors would never want to be associated with a show that pitted races against each other, but Trump just couldn’t understand why it was a bad idea.

Ultimately, Miller deeply regrets the harm NBC did by creating the false image of Trump as a successful leader, and he’s coming forward now to apologize.

So that’s the gist of the article. I think it’s important for people to hear this, especially as we’re seeing so much manipulation and falsehood in politics today. This article shows just how much influence the media has in shaping public perception—and it reminds us to be critical of the images and narratives we’re being sold.

Thank you for listening today. I’ll be back tomorrow with my own content, and I appreciate your indulgence today. Hopefully, this article opens your eyes a bit more to what NBC did, and the consequences we’re still dealing with.

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