'I helped create a monster': Ex-NBC executive apologizes for making Trump a star
John D. Miller, a former executive at NBC, has written a lengthy apology for his role in making Donald Trump into a massive television celebrity through the hit reality TV show "The Apprentice."
In an editorial published by U.S. News and World Report, Miller began by saying that "I want to apologize to America" because "I helped create a monster."
He then explained how "The Apprentice" used highly selective editing to make Trump appear much more intelligent, thoughtful, and decisive as a business leader than he is in real life.
"To sell the show, we created the narrative that Trump was a super-successful businessman who lived like royalty," he wrote. "That was the conceit of the show. At the very least, it was a substantial exaggeration; at worst, it created a false narrative by making him seem more successful than he was."
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Miller also said that for years he knew about Trump's many disturbing personality traits, including his vindictiveness and his serial lying.
"I learned early on in my dealings with Trump that he thought he could simply say something over and over, and eventually people would believe it," he said. "He would say to me, 'The Apprentice' – America’s No. 1 TV show.' But it wasn’t. Not that week. Not that season. I had the ratings in front of me. He had seen and heard the ratings, but that didn’t matter. He just kept saying it was the 'No. 1 show on television,' even after we corrected him. He repeated it on press tours too, knowing full well it was wrong. He didn’t like being fact-checked back then either."
Miller also said that he never imagined Trump would embark on a career in politics where he would go on to tell relentless lies about Haitian immigrants, the deadly COVID-19 pandemic, and the outcome of the 2020 election that he lost to President Joe Biden.
"While we were successful in marketing 'The Apprentice,' we also did irreparable harm by creating the false image of Trump as a successful leader," he added. "I deeply regret that. And I regret that it has taken me so long to go public."