A former executive on Donald Trump’s reality show, “The Apprentice,” says he feels ashamed for his role in mythologizing a man he now says “would like to be a dictator.” Earlier this month, former NBC marketing executive John Miller wrote an opinion piece for U.S.
News & World Report in which he apologized to the country for helping to “create a monster.” Now he’s told Vanity Fair just how effective the show was in making Trump seem like a viable presidential candidate despite evidence to the contrary being in plain sight. “He didn’t have a real company” at the time the show premiered in 2004, Miller said.
“It was basically a loose collection of LLCs. They’d been bankrupt four times and twice more when we were filming the show. ′ The Apprentice’ helped him survive that.
People thought he would be a good president because I made him seem like a legitimate businessman.” Miller said that part of the deal to get Trump to participate was to rent two floors at Trump Tower in Manhattan. “One of the floors was used to create a false entryway into Trump Tower,” Miller explained.
“So when you came out of the elevator, there was this big fancy place and a receptionist that didn’t exist.” Miller said the show had to build its own boardroom because the one Trump really used was so “shabby” that no one would think it looked like “a big-time businessman’s boardroom.” Although Trump could be charming, Miller said, he was also very easy to m.
