Donald Trump hosted 'The Apprentice' Season 12 only after a $500,000 payment from NBC

Donald Trump may be the President of the United States now, but he first rose to fame thanks to the NBC show The Apprentice. Donald Trump was the host for The Apprentice for the first fourteen seasons of the show. It was thanks to the show that Trump became a household name in America.

NBC insiders recently spoke to The Hollywood Reporter and shared details about how Donald Trump became popular thanks to The Apprentice. Moreover, the NBC sources also told The Hollywood Reporter about Trump's "serial bad behaviour" while he was the host of the show. NBC execs apparently bowed down to Donald Trump's attitude just so that they could get him on The Apprentice, as at that time the channel was not doing very well.

How Donald Trump was convinced to return to NBC's show The Apprentice

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Donald Trump actually planned to run for Presidency all the way back in 2011, which worried NBC execs as he was the face of their most popular show. According to NBC sources who spoke to Hollywood Reporter, higher-ups in the channel wanted to rehire Donald Trump as the host for The Apprentice as the NBC was struggling at that time. According to HR's report, NBC had to pay Trump around $500,000. Moreover, they also had to donate to the Trump Foundation. 

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This payment was way beyond what Donald Trump was initially promised. According to the HR sources, this was just one example of Donald Trump's serial bad behaviour. Despite being an employee of the NBC for years, Trump leveraged the company and forced them to pay him heftily. Moreover, most of the money sent to his Foundation was pocketed, and the Foundation was later shut down in 2019 by the New York attorney general for a "shocking pattern of illegality." 

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NBC insiders revealed that they hired Trump because they thought they "struck gold" with his animated personality. However, insiders called him a "nightmare" to work with and Trump always tried to get one of the showrunners fired. The source added that they had to "build all kinds of systems with producers" to make sure that the show continued to function normally. 

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[image source: Donald Trump Instagram]