The Star-Making Machine That Created ‘Donald Trump’

The New York Times runs an excerpt from Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father’s Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success:

“As he began playing a wealthy tycoon on television, Mr. Trump secretly put a plan in motion to tap into his father’s fortune again. Though he spent his life denying that fortune existed, deriding his father as a small-timer to make his own accomplishments seem more heroic, being born rich had been the first lucky break of his very lucky life.”

“Mr. Trump had mostly luck to credit for being discovered, at age 57, by Mark Burnett, then the hottest name in the hottest new television genre. With two groundbreaking reality hits under his belt — Eco Challenge and Survivor — Mr. Burnett was the darling of network executives, who were hungry for his next creation. His company, a well-oiled machine with a deep bench of producers, would handle the creative and business sides of the new show…”

“The Apprentice producers would also need to invent a version of Donald Trump that did not actually exist — measured, thoughtful and endlessly wealthy — a complete rehabilitation of his public image.”