Mark Burnett, veteran-television producer widely credited for lifting Donald Trump out of New York City’s D-list with “The Apprentice,” has been named as special envoy to United Kingdom. From BBC:
The president-elect, who takes office next month, has already picked billionaire donor Warren Stephens as his ambassador to the UK. While Stephens’s nomination requires confirmation by the US Senate, Burnett’s role needs no such approval. Burnett, 64, was raised in Essex and served as a paratrooper in the Army before emigrating to the US in 1982, when he was 22.
The BBC added, in a piece with no byline: “Burnett helped propel Trump, a real estate developer, to new heights of fame as he starred in The Apprentice from 2004-15.” The show debuted on this day in 2004, produced by Burnett—who was an eager Vladimir Putin collaborator.
AUTHOR FOOTNOTE
*Of course* Donald slid Burnett a cushy job—rewarding past collaborators is one of Trump’s favorite pastimes. (Just look at his list of pardons after he lost in 2020.) Many folks deserve blame for foisting Manhattan’s tabloid loser on America, but “Apprentice” producer Mark Burnett should be at the top of everyone’s list. Rosie O’Donnell, frequent target of Trump’s misogynistic attacks, has been vocal in laying blame at Burnett’s feet. Here’s Rosie, quoted in The Hill:
I blame Mark Burnett for creating a false narrative around this man… Nobody treated him with dignity and respect until this show came on. If you grew up in New York as I did, you remember when his planes were being repossessed off the runways of La Guardia, you remember the Trump Vodka, you remember Trump steaks and Trump University, it’s all an illusion—the man is not what he says to be or how the media portrays him.
Like Rosie, I grew up in Manhattan too. By the time 2015-2016 rolled around, I thought it was a cruel joke that this philandering charlatan would be nominated by the Party of Lincoln—and, later, I assumed there was absolutely no way Americans would enter voting booths and affirmatively pull the lever for him.
I was wrong on both counts (although Queens Mobster received a lot of assistance from Russia and other hostile nations in 2016, and all elections since). Would there ever have been a President* Trump without Mark Burnett’s fictionalized-NBC character airing all those years? Absolutely not. Take “Apprentice” out of the equation and Trump would be shunned as just another lunatic-sidewalk barker that needs a wellness check.
A special shout-out to NBC, too, who carried this program knowing full well their “Apprentice” show-pony was an avowed racist and shock jock who proceeded to make tons of money off the brand name Burnett built.
