Producers heavily edited 'The Apprentice' to keep Trump from looking like a 'complete moron', say authors

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: New revelations about former President Donald Trump's 'The Apprentice' threw light on how the producers worked to mask his bad quality hosting.

New York Times journalists Russ Buettner and Susanne Craig claimed the producers had to heavily edit the show to prevent the real estate mogul from looking like a "complete moron."

"Our job then was to reverse-engineer the show and to make him not look like a complete moron," a member of the production unit revealed to Buettner and Craig, as per The Independent.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporters' newly released book 'Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father's Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success' delves into the truth behind Trump's wealth and businesses. 

'The Apprentice' producers had to heavily edit the show due to Donald Trump's 'unpredictable' nature 

Russ Buettner and Susanne Craig further claimed that 'The Apprentice' producers would often edit the show to make the person Donald Trump selected to fire look bad despite the competitor's good performance.

In an interview with CNN on Tuesday, September 17, Buettner said that the firing of David Gould, an MD and an MBA graduate, who featured in the first season of 'The Apprentice', was unexpected.

According to him, Gould was a "really amazing guy who a lot of the producers thought was going to win that whole series, that season. He would just run the whole gauntlet. But Trump fired him the very first episode."

The co-author asserted that it initially took the producers and other crew by surprise, but they took advantage of Trump's "unpredictable" nature because that was a moment of entertainment and not reality.

"So that quality that was really bad for him in business was solid gold on the show. Then they would just re-edit everything," noted Buettner.

Trump hosted 'The Apprentice' consecutively for its first fourteen seasons before he embarked on his White House dreams.

The origin of 'John Barron'

Russ Buettner and Susanne Craig also investigated the former president using the name "John Barron" to address the media and portray himself as wealthier to be on the Forbes list.

"He even named his son Barron," pointed out Craig, adding the real estate mogul first started using the name when he began his stint with his father, Fred Trump, after completing his college education.

"We went back to old newspapers, and we found the name John Barron, where there [were] classified ads where he would be selling things, and it went back to the exchange number for the Trump house. So it was Donald. He was using it as a pseudonym," noted Craig. 

She went on to state that the former president used the name to hire maintenance workers and to sell his late brother Fred Trump Jr's boat.

Internet ridicules Donald Trump over Russ Buettner and Susanne Craig's claims 

Netizens brutally mocked Donald Trump over the author's claim that 'The Apprentice' producers heavily edited the reality show to stop the former president from having a reputation as a "complete moron." Some claimed the editing, however, did not help.

"Is there any way they can reverse the last 10 years so that <waves arms wildly> all of this didn't happen???" asked a person, while someone else declared, "Trump is a complete moron," another said.

An individual remarked, "They didn't do a good enough job for me. I watched the entire first season when it came out and it changed my view of Trump and not for the good. I thought he was an idiot and a creep and I actually felt bad for the guy who won." 

"Even though they made serious edits, Trump is still not a very smart person!!!" commented a netizen, with one more adding, "Of course he fired anyone that was smarter than him." 

An individual wrote, "DONNIE IS A MESS," while a person quipped, "Unfortunately, it isn't possible to edit his ridiculous rants in public when the whole world can see a potential POTUS is just what he appears to be."

This article contains remarks made on the Internet by individual people and organizations. MEAWW cannot confirm them independently and does not support claims or opinions being made online.