TJ Walker argues Trump's role as executive producer on The Celebrity Apprentice isn't a serious conflict of interest since he won't work on the show, only collect royalties. Walker compares it to how past presidents received post-election payments and says Trump's TV success is real, even if his broader business record is mixed.
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More controversy surrounding Donald Trump regarding the announcement that he will continue to be a named executive producer for the Celebrity Apprentice, the show he started many years ago in partnership with Mark Cuban. Critics of President elect Trump are saying this is a massive, massive conflict of interest, not to mention being unseemly. And how can he be executive producer and be president? Being president is a full time job. Now, those of you who have watched this program here on a regular basis know I'm not exactly someone who goes out of my way to defend Donald Trump or to cut him brakes. I do think in this particular situation, his campaign, his administration will have a pretty good answer. They're going, they are saying, and I think it's a compelling argument that, look, he's not actually going to be doing work on the show. It is simply an acknowledgment that he owns half the show and he'll continue to get royalties, he'll continue to get money off of it. No different, they would claim, than Barack Obama continuing to get royalties from books he wrote in the past once in the White House. And the fact that the fame Barack Obama received as president took a book that frankly didn't sell many copies and turned it into an international bestseller where he made millions. And I've read Barack Obama's books. They are good books. He's a good writer. But there's no doubt that he got rich not because the books were well written, although they were, but because of the fame associated with entering the White House. Now, Donald Trump may or may not exaggerate about his wealth, but I think there's no doubt that he does have some wealth and he is going to get more money from revenues, royalties from these shows. Here's why I don't find it particularly troublesome when you look at all of Trump's many business ventures, all the bankruptcies, the casinos, the ill thought out wines, vodkas, steak companies, the fake universities that were found to be fraudulent. The one area where I'd say he's actually been an innovator and actually been very good at his job was creating a TV show where he pretends to be a businessman. The Apprentice, even though hasn't been the number one show as he always claims, has been a wildly successful television show. You can't take that away from Donald Trump. And he has been instrumental in the show. I have no doubt that he devoted a lot of time, energy, thought, creative resources, developing the show. It wasn't just Mark Burnett, although Mark Burnett is clearly the superior producer when it comes to reality shows. So I don't think this is going to be an issue that really cuts against Donald Trump. The reality is there's so many other conflicts of interest that relate to Donald Trump's sprawling business empire. I don't think this is going to be one of them. He's not going to continue to work on the show. He did, in fact, create it. He does own part of it. He'll continue to get royalties from it, not unlike other politicians continuing to get book royalties. So I think this is an issue that's not going to cause a PR problem for Donald Trump. There will be plenty of other issues for that.
