In the mid-2000s, Donald Trump was on the verge of financial ruin, making it clear for everyone that he was not after all the greatest businessman on earth, contrary to what he would have liked everyone to believe. The New York Times reports, it was NBC’s reality show The Apprentice that kept Trump afloat.
The shocking tax story revealed that Trump made $427 million from his 50% stake in the show, and the licensing and endorsement deals the NBC reality series eventually helped him get his hands on.
The Apprentice debuted in 2004, allowing Trump to yell at contestants “You are fired,” while posing as a ‘smart’ businessman with great ‘negotiating deals,’ and even co-writing a book called Think Big and Kick Ass: In Business and Life.
Trump’s oozing confidence did eventually help him as several companies agreed to do business with him.
According to the NYT, Trump struck the biggest deal with a company accused of employing predatory tactics and exploiting its workforce called ACN. The company paid Trump $8.8 million, and in exchange Trump promoted its products on his reality TV Show.
A class action lawsuit is now underway against Trump, with one plaintiff saying she was convinced to sell ACN products after she “watched clips of ACN appearing on Celebrity Apprentice.”
During the financial crisis and an unprecedented spike in unemployment, Trump struck a $2.6 million deal with a vitamin company called Ideal Health that later changed its product’s name to Trump Network.
According to the NYT report, President Donald Trump paid only $750 in federal income taxes in both 2016 and 2017. What’s more, he did not pay any federal income taxes in 10 of the previous 15 years through 2017, despite earning $427.4 million from the Apprentice.
It seems, Donald Trump pulled himself back from the brink of financial ruin and irrelevance by hosting NBC’S The Apprentice from from 2004 until 2015.
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