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As President-Elect of the United States, Donald Trump has spent a lot of time dodging accusations that his business interests and the interests of governing the American people are going to be at odds when he’s in the White House. Now it’s been reported by Variety (and confirmed by the Trump campaign) that Trump will be retaining his position as executive-producer of NBC’s Celebrity Apprentice while he’s in office.
Back in June of 2015, shortly after Trump announced his candidacy for President, NBC announced that it would be moving forward with the show without Trump as the host (a “new” version with Arnold Schwarzenegger stepping into Trump’s boardroom seat will premiere on January 2nd). But while Trump may have exited the host’s chair, he retained his position as executive producer (along with Mark Burnett). Now that he’s about to be President, while some may have expected him to put all his business interests aside and focus solely on the task at hand of being the President, that has not been the case.
Trump’s role on The Apprentice is likely to only be ceremonial, though he’ll certainly continue to make money off of the show. Still, Trump spokesperson Kellyanne Conway showed up on CNN this morning in order to defend a President’s right to do whatever he wants “in their spare time.” In her exact words:
Were we so concerned about the hours and hours and hours spent on the golf course of the current president? I mean presidents have a right to do things in their spare time, in their leisure time.
Between the NBC reality show and other business interests, Trump’s spare time appears to be filling up quicker than his cabinet is. The bigger conflict may well lie with NBC, which is currently set up to be in business with the President of the United States, whom they will be covering.
