With the on-again, off-again tariffs and total economic sh*tstorm, one wonders why anyone ever thought Donald Trump had any economic sense. That’s because Mark Burnett transformed the six-time bankruptcy declaring tabloid star into a successful businessman character on the “reality” show The Apprentice. On today’s episode of Strange Country, cohosts Beth and Kelly talk about the ultimate deception that led over 70 million Americans to give the keys to a chaos agent for a second time.

Theme music: Big White Lie by A Cast of Thousands

Works Cited

Buettner, Russ, and Susanne Craig. Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father's Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success. Vintage Publishing, 2024. Accessed 22 March 2025.

Bushard, Brian. “Kwame Jackson Claims Trump Not ‘Comfortable Around Black People’: Apprentice Runner-Up Allegedly Called N-Word.” Forbes, 1 June 2024, https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianbushard/2024/06/01/kwame-jackson-claims-trump-not-comfortable-around-black-people-apprentice-runner-up-allegedly-called-n-word/.

Keefe, Patrick Radden. “How Mark Burnett Resurrected Donald Trump as an Icon of American Success.” The New Yorker, 27 December 2018, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/01/07/how-mark-burnett-resurrected-donald-trump-as-an-icon-of-american-success.

Keveney, Bill. “Arnold Schwarzenegger leaves 'Apprentice,' Trump says he was fired.” USA Today, 3 March 2017, https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/tv/2017/03/03/arnold-quits-apprentice-before-he-can-fired/98700892/.

Nussbaum, Emily. Cue the Sun! The Invention of Reality TV. Random House Publishing Group, 2024.

Reiss, Adam, et al. “N.Y. attorney general refuses to drop $486 million judgment against Trump.” NBC News, 10 December 2024, https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/ny-attorney-general-refuses-drop-486-million-judgment-trump-rcna183603.

Setoodeh, Ramin. Apprentice in Wonderland: How Donald Trump and Mark Burnett Took America Through the Looking Glass. HarperCollins Publishers, 2024.

Smith, Greg B. “Trump Org Presses Eric Adams for Wollman Rink Rights After City Hall Spurned $120M Nonprofit Gift.” The City, 15 March 2025, https://www.thecity.nyc/2025/03/15/trump-wollman-rink-eric-adams-central-park/.