President Donald Trump took time off from a long tirade against the impeachment proceedings to send out a tweet denying a report that he has been in talks to relaunch The Apprentice after he leaves the White House. “Fake News is reporting that I am talking to Mark Burnett about doing a big show, perhaps The Apprentice, after the presidency,” Trump tweeted. “This is not true, never had such a conversation, don’t even have time to think about it.”
The denial came shortly after the Daily Beast reported that Trump and Burnett, the producer of his former show, have spoken several times since he moved into the White House. According to the Daily Beast’s sources, Trump and Burnett had thrown around several ideas, and had numerous discussions about a politics-themed Apprentice. That show even had a tentative title, The Apprentice: White House.
The idea for that show would be to get it on the air shortly after the president leaves office “and take full advantage of Trump’s status as a former president of the United States and a newfound Republican kingmaker,” reported the Daily Beast. The report on the continued discussions about a possible post-White House show could go a long way to explaining why Burnett has long resisted pressure to release unaired footage from the show that some have long speculated would make Trump look bad.
Asawin Suebsaeng, the author of the original piece, defended the story on Saturday. “The president of the United States is 100 percent wrong there. The story is true,” he said. “He’s either forgetting multiple, key conversations he’s had over the past three years with Mark Burnett or he’s just straight up lying.”
