I never watched The Apprentice, but I saw ads for it and I figured he was just playing an exaggerated asshole clown of a boss.

Believe it or not, I always took it as the opposite. The first time Trump wanted to run he was laughed out of the primary. He had a long history as a narcissistic con man to anyone in the northeast and there’s no way he’d be elected. The entire point of “The Apprentice” was to rebuild his image.

Maybe some people took it as gospel laying an exaggerated asshole clown of a boss, but he was toned down from reality. His narcissism was toned down, he acted mostly morally, he appeared to know something about business. His entire image was much more palatable than the previous two decades of headlines

Unfortunately it succeeded