The next season of The Celebrity Apprentice—make that The New Celebrity Apprentice—debuts on Jan. 2.
Guests—among them comedian Jon Lovitz, 1980s soft-rocker Boy George, and former reality TV star Nicole Elizabeth “Snooki” LaValle—will compete for money for their favorite charities by trying to impress host Arnold Schwarzenegger with “challenging, business-driven tasks, more focused than ever on technology and innovation.”
Just 18 days later, the show’s executive producer (and former host) Donald J. Trump will be sworn in to the highest office in the United States, taking an oath to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.” Trump, who earlier pledged he would get “completely out of all business operations,” will have an executive producer credit on the show, MGM, the show’s producer, told Variety on Dec. 8.
MGM is likely to pay Trump “in the low five-figures, at minimum,” per episode, Variety writes.
The deal, and Trump’s backtracking on shedding his own businesses while in office, is his latest unprecedented embrace of conflicts of interest that other US presidents have gone to great lengths to avoid.
MGM, a casino and hotel owner, is involved in domestic and international expansion that requires permits from government in the United States and around the world, and has recently ramped up its investment in China. NBC, the channel that broadcasts the show, will also be covering the president as a news story. The network pledged last June it planned to “cut all ties” to Trump over his derogatory comments about Muslims and immigrants.