President-elect Donald Trump introduced Saturday that he needs Mark Burnett, the British tv producer who created “The Apprentice,” to function particular envoy to the UK in his second time period.
“With a distinguished profession in tv manufacturing and enterprise, Mark brings a novel mix of diplomatic acumen and worldwide recognition to this vital position,” Trump mentioned of his longtime good friend in a press release shared on his Truth Social platform.
“Mark will work to boost diplomatic relations, specializing in areas of mutual curiosity, together with commerce, funding alternatives, and cultural exchanges,” Trump wrote.
“The Apprentice,” after all, was the NBC actuality present that launched Trump’s identify and model from the New York regional tabloid scene to nationwide and worldwide fame when its first season debuted in 2004.
Burnett is credited with burnishing the issues in Trump’s public picture by downplaying his varied failed enterprise ventures and enjoying up his actual property holdings, so the community may current him as an icon of American capitalist achievement.
On the time, Burnett had already been instrumental to the launch of the “Survivor” franchise in 2000. He went on to create the hit entrepreneurial present “Shark Tank” — which previously starred billionaire businessman Mark Cuban, considered one of Trump’s most high-profile detractors — and produced different hits like “Are You Smarter Than a fifth Grader?”
But the fact TV mogul has been largely quiet about his relationship with Trump within the time since he kicked off his 2016 presidential marketing campaign.
Within the weeks earlier than that yr’s election, Burnett endured a public roasting throughout late night time host Jimmy Kimmel’s opening monologue on the 2016 Emmys.
“Tv brings folks collectively. However tv also can tear us aside. I imply, if it wasn’t for tv, would Donald Trump be operating for president? No,” Kimmel mentioned earlier than pinning the blame immediately on Burnett, who was proven laughing within the viewers.
“We don’t have to observe actuality reveals anymore, as a result of we’re dwelling in a single. Thanks, Mark,” mentioned an unsmiling Kimmel.
Simply weeks later, Burnett was moved to issue a statement claiming that he by no means supported Trump’s presidential aspirations.
“I’m not now and have by no means been a supporter of Donald Trump’s candidacy. I’m NOT ‘Professional-Trump,’” Burnett mentioned in October 2016. “Additional, my spouse and I reject the hatred, division and misogyny that has been a really unlucky a part of his marketing campaign.”
The assertion got here days after Trump was revealed to have bragged that to be a celeb meant you had been free to seize girls “by the pussy.”
The diplomatic gig appears to point that Burnett and Trump have mended fences.
