In a fitting turn of events, the outcome of the 2016 election may now rest with a reality television mogul. Mark Burnett, British-born, is one of the most recognizable names in the business, having created both Shark Tank and the genre-defining Survivor. He’s also the mastermind behind The Apprentice, the NBC show where contestants vie for Donald Trump’s approval.
According to a former Apprentice producer, “there are far worse” outtakes from the show than the damning 2005 Access Hollywood clip that surfaced last week, in which Trump brags to host Billy Bush about kissing women and grabbing them “by the pussy” sans consent. In other words, assault.
Of course, strict legal red tape binds Burnett’s ability to simply release the footage, including a rumored $5m fine. A statement from his production company – owned by MGM – also cast doubt on whether Burnett himself has physical access to the clips, claiming he “does not have the ability nor the right to release footage or other material from The Apprentice”. In what might be the worst possible scenario, the tapes could belong to Trump himself.
If Burnett legitimately has no access to the tapes, then he can’t be held responsible for not publicizing them. But if they are indeed bad for Trump, and if there’s any way at all for him to get them out to the press, it is – as civil rights lawyer Gloria Allred and many others have argued – “in the public interest” to do so.
“What’s holding Burnett back, insiders explain, is nothing more than the keen business acumen, airtight contractual arrangements and salesmanship that have propelled him to the top of his profession,” Politico reports. Mind, Burnett is worth $450m, a fortune built in no small part off of Trump’s celebrity. For a man that has made millions off of the GOP candidate’s rise to prominence, handing the tapes over the public is quite literally the least he could do. Neglecting that responsibility would display the same kind of selfish thinking that plagues Trump and the rest of the 1%: ranking personal success above collective ruin.
White British immigrants like Burnett, of course, will be some of the best off should Trump come to power. He’s threatened to round up and deport some 11 million undocumented immigrants, and called for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what the hell is going on”. What started as a joke could be a painful reality for millions, ripping families apart and criminalizing whole swaths of the population, people of color in particular. If he wants a preview for what these policies might look like in action, he needs only look towards home. Conservative prime minister Theresa May and her cabinet have promised to reduce migration by “tens of thousands” in Britain, punishing those who provide housing and banking services to undocumented immigrants.
Depending on what happens on 8 November, May might find herself with an ally across the Atlantic. Though the Access Hollywood clips have put a bigger dent in Trump’s chances than any scandal yet, his nine point lag could still shrink before election day.
If Trump does win, he’ll have Burnett to thank. NBC public relations head Jim Dowd called The Apprentice and its ratings success “the bridge to the campaign,” winning Trump an audience in middle America that the real estate mogul had never before reached. Before the show, Trump admits in his 2011 book Time to Get Tough, most people “thought I was a barbarian”.
Reality television molded Trump into the ratings and polls-obsessed performer that we know today, and created a new generation of Americans ready to be entertained by him. The GOP – with its decades-running vendetta against women of people of color – allowed him to step right into the party’s candidacy, swapping over 40 years of dog-whistle politics for an attack hound bent on going after those already on the losing end of Republican policies.
Burnett helped create Donald Trump – the man, the myth and the legend, all neatly wrapped into one leathery package. It’s only right that he chips in to help bring him down.