Media Career Of Donald Trump
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Before running for
President of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal government of t ...
in 2015,
Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...
pursued
celebrity Celebrity is a condition of fame and broad public recognition of a person or group due to the attention given to them by mass media. The word is also used to refer to famous individuals. A person may attain celebrity status by having great w ...
throughout his highly publicized real estate career and prolific appearances on television. His extravagant lifestyle, outspoken manner, and role on the
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reality show '' The Apprentice'' have made him a well-known public figure in American life for nearly half a century. Trump released several ghostwritten books, most notably ''
The Art of the Deal ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...
'' (1987). Starting in the 1990s, he was a regular guest on the ''
Howard Stern Show ''The Howard Stern Show'' is an American radio show hosted by Howard Stern that gained wide recognition when it was radio syndication, nationally syndicated on terrestrial radio from WINS-FM, WXRK in New York City, between 1986 and 2005. The sho ...
'' and other
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, joined the
professional wrestling Professional wrestling, often shortened to either pro wrestling or wrestling,The term "wrestling" is most often widely used to specifically refer to modern scripted professional wrestling, though it is also used to refer to Real life, real- ...
company World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment, and made several cameo film and TV appearances. From 2004 to 2015, Trump hosted '' The Apprentice'', a
reality show Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1990s ...
on
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in which contestants competed on business-related tasks. He later co-hosted '' The Celebrity Apprentice'', in which celebrities competed to win money for charities. In the media, Trump is a two-time
Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...
–nominated personality, he made appearances as a caricatured version of himself in television series and films (e.g. '' Home Alone 2: Lost in New York'', '' Zoolander'', ''
The Nanny ''The Nanny'' is an American sitcom that originally aired on CBS from November 3, 1993, to June 23, 1999, starring Fran Drescher as Fran Fine, a Jewish wikt:fashionista, fashionista from Flushing, Queens, who becomes the nanny of three children ...
'', ''
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air ''The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air'' is an American television sitcom created by Andy and Susan Borowitz that aired on NBC from September 10, 1990, to May 20, 1996. The series stars Will Smith as a fictionalized version of himself, a street-smart ...
'', ''
The Drew Carey Show ''The Drew Carey Show'' is an American television sitcom that aired on ABC from September 13, 1995, to September 8, 2004. Set in Cleveland, Ohio, the series revolved around the retail office and home life of "everyman" Drew Carey, a fictionaliz ...
'', ''
Sex and the City ''Sex and the City'' is an American romantic comedy, romantic comedy-drama television series created by Darren Star for HBO, based on Sex and the City (newspaper column), the newspaper column and 1996 book by Candace Bushnell. It premiered in th ...
'', ''
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'', '' Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps''.), and as a character (''
The Little Rascals ''Our Gang'' (also known as ''The Little Rascals'' or ''Hal Roach's Rascals'') is an American series of comedy short films chronicling a group of poor neighborhood children and their adventures. Created by film producer Hal Roach, who also pr ...
''). Donald Trump has also been alluded to or mentioned in many shows and films he has not appeared in. He has been the subject of comedians (most prominently as the subject of '' Comedy Central Roast of Donald Trump''), Flash cartoon artists, and online caricature artists. Trump also had his own daily talk radio program called '' Trumped!''. Trump also appeared in a number of television commercials for
Pizza Hut Pizza Hut, LLC is an American multinational pizza restaurant chain and international franchise founded in 1958 in Wichita, Kansas, by brothers Dan and Frank Carney. The chain, headquartered in Plano, Texas, operates 19,866 restaurants worldw ...
. The first of these commercials aired in the United States in 1995, and featured him and his ex-wife Ivana Trump promoting Stuffed Crust pizzas. The second of these commercials aired in the Australian market in 2000, and was for large 'New Yorker' pizzas the chain was promoting at the time. In 2002, Trump appeared in three
McDonald's McDonald's Corporation, doing business as McDonald's, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain. As of 2024, it is the second largest by number of locations in the world, behind only the Chinese ch ...
commercials featuring Grimace, for which he was paid $500,000. Other brands that Trump appeared in commercials for included
Pepsi Pepsi is a Carbonated water, carbonated soft drink with a cola flavor, manufactured by PepsiCo which serves as its flagship product. In 2023, Pepsi was the second most valuable soft drink brand worldwide behind Coca-Cola; the two share a long ...
,
Macy's Macy's is an American department store chain founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. The first store was located in Manhattan on Sixth Avenue between 13th and 14th Streets, south of the present-day flagship store at Herald Square on West 34 ...
,
Oreo Oreo (; stylized in all caps) is an American brand of sandwich cookie consisting of two cocoa biscuits with a sweet fondant filling. Oreos were introduced in 1912 by Nabisco, and the brand has been owned by Mondelez International since its me ...
, Serta,
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, and Visa Inc.. Trump has also been in commercials for his own products, such as '' Trump: The Game'' and
Trump Steaks Trump Steaks was a brand of steak and other meats that was licensed by Donald Trump. The brand was launched in May 2007 and was exclusively sold through The Sharper Image and QVC. Due to poor sales and a failure to live up to sales and product ex ...
, and Trump provided his voice for the
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video game '' Donald Trump's Real Estate Tycoon''. All of these commercials aired between the 1980s and the 2010s. Since the start of his political career in 2015, especially winning the 2016 presidential election and being inaugurated in January 2017 as the 45th president, Trump's personal celebrity was eclipsed by his public role as president or candidate. He was inaugurated again in January 2025 as the 47th president. Trump continues to dominate public discourse.


Books

Trump's first ghostwritten book, ''
The Art of the Deal ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...
'' (1987), was on the ''New York Times'' Best Seller list for 48 weeks. According to ''
The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...
'', "The book expanded Trump's renown far beyond
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
, promoting an image of himself as a successful dealmaker and tycoon." Tony Schwartz, who is credited as co-author, later said he did all the writing, backed by Howard Kaminsky, then-head of
Random House Random House is an imprint and publishing group of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1927 by businessmen Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer as an imprint of Modern Library, it quickly overtook Modern Library as the parent imprint. Over the foll ...
, the book's publisher. Two further lesser memoirs were published in 1990 and 1997. After leaving office the first time in 2021, Trump became the first former U.S. president in recent times to not quickly secure a book deal, which several members of his administration managed to do. Trump said that he had received and rejected two offers. But ''
Politico ''Politico'' (stylized in all caps), known originally as ''The Politico'', is an American political digital newspaper company founded by American banker and media executive Robert Allbritton in 2007. It covers politics and policy in the Unit ...
'' reported that none of the "big five" publishers had approached Trump, and that they were reluctant to do so because of his reputation for untruthfulness.


Professional wrestling

Trump has had a sporadic relationship with
professional wrestling Professional wrestling, often shortened to either pro wrestling or wrestling,The term "wrestling" is most often widely used to specifically refer to modern scripted professional wrestling, though it is also used to refer to Real life, real- ...
promotion World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment and its owners Vince and
Linda McMahon Linda Marie McMahon ( ; ; born October 4, 1948) is an American politician, business executive, and former professional wrestling promoter who has served as the 13th United States Secretary of Education, United States secretary of education since ...
since the late 1980s; in 1988 and 1989, WrestleMania IV and V, which took place at the Atlantic City Convention Hall, were billed in storyline as taking place at the nearby Trump Plaza. In 2004, Trump appeared for a live interview at WrestleMania XX, conducted by
Jesse Ventura Jesse Ventura (born James George Janos; July 15, 1951) is an American politician, political commentator, actor, media personality, and retired professional wrestler. After achieving fame in the WWE, World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE), he ...
, a former wrestler and former
Governor of Minnesota The governor of Minnesota is the head of government of the U.S. state of Minnesota, leading the state's executive branch. Forty people have been governor of Minnesota, though historically there were also three governors of Minnesota Territory ...
. In 2007, Trump participated in the "Battle of the Billionaires" storyline
feud A feud , also known in more extreme cases as a blood feud, vendetta, faida, clan war, gang war, private war, or mob war, is a long-running argument or fight, often between social groups of people, especially family, families or clans. Feuds begin ...
against Vince McMahon. Trump then headlined WrestleMania 23 that year. In 2009, Trump participated in a storyline in which he bought
WWE Raw ''WWE Raw'', also known as ''Monday Night Raw'' or simply ''Raw'', is an American professional wrestling television program produced by WWE. It currently airs Live television, live every Monday at 8 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) on Netflix. The show fe ...
from Vince McMahon, then re-sold it back shortly after. In
2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...
, he was inducted into the
WWE Hall of Fame The WWE Hall of Fame is a List of halls and walks of fame, hall of fame which honors professional wrestlers and professional wrestling personalities maintained by WWE. Originally known as the "WWF Hall of Fame", it was created in 1993 when An ...
in its celebrity wing.


Television and film

The 1992 Weather Is Good on Deribasovskaya, It Rains Again on Brighton Beach film's casino scenes were filmed at the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort (now the
Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City The Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City, formerly Trump Taj Mahal, is a casino and hotel on the List of boardwalks in the United States#Atlantic City, Boardwalk, owned by Hard Rock Cafe, Hard Rock International, in Atlantic City, New Jersey ...
). The scenario of the movie revolves around a KGB agent's activities in the US surrounding a sheikh. The movie title softly refers to Deribasovskaya street in Odessa, Ukraine.


Talk shows

Starting in the 1990s, Trump was a guest about 24 times on the nationally syndicated ''
Howard Stern Show ''The Howard Stern Show'' is an American radio show hosted by Howard Stern that gained wide recognition when it was radio syndication, nationally syndicated on terrestrial radio from WINS-FM, WXRK in New York City, between 1986 and 2005. The sho ...
''. He also had his own short-form talk radio program called '' Trumped!'' (one to two minutes on weekdays) from 2004 to 2008. In 2011, he was given a weekly unpaid guest commentator spot on '' Fox & Friends'' that continued until he started his presidential candidacy in 2015.


''The Apprentice''

In 2003, Trump became the co-producer and host of the
NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...
reality show Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1990s ...
, '' The Apprentice'', in which a group of competitors battled for a high-level management job in one of Trump's commercial enterprises. The other contestants were successively "fired" and eliminated from the game. In 2004, Donald Trump filed a trademark application for the
catchphrase A catchphrase (alternatively spelled catch phrase) is a phrase or expression recognized by its repeated utterance. Such phrases often originate in popular culture and in the arts, and typically spread through word of mouth and a variety of mass ...
" You're fired." For the first year of the show, Trump was paid $50,000 per episode (roughly $700,000 for the first season), but following the show's initial success, he was paid a reported $3 million per episode, making him one of the highest paid TV personalities at the time. In total Trump earned a total $427 million in his time hosting the show according to tax records reviewed by the New York Times in 2020, which included $197 million from direct payments from the show, and $230 million from business seminars, licensing deals, and sponsorships related to the show, After 2011 Trump's earnings related to the show began to decline significantly from $51 million in 2011 to $21 million in 2014, and $3 million in 2018 due to a decline in ratings, his removal as host in 2015, and the cancelation of the show in 2017. Trump received a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a landmark which consists of 2,813 five-pointed terrazzo-and-brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along 15 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in the Hollywood, Los Angeles, Hollywood dist ...
for his contribution to television (''The Apprentice''). Along with British TV producer
Mark Burnett James Mark Burnett (born 17 July 1960) is a British television producer who has won thirteen Emmy Awards including ten Primetime, one Sports Emmy Award and two Daytime Emmy Awards. His other accolades include five Producers Guild of America A ...
, Trump also put together '' The Celebrity Apprentice'', where well-known stars compete to win money for their charities. While Trump and Burnett co-produced the show, Trump stayed in the forefront, deciding winners and "firing" losers.


Cameo appearances

Trump has made cameo appearances in eight films and television shows and performed a song as a '' Green Acres'' character with
Megan Mullally Megan Mullally (born November 12, 1958) is an American actress. She is best known for playing Karen Walker in the NBC sitcom '' Will & Grace'' (1998–2006, 2017–2020), for which she received eight Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outst ...
at the 57th Primetime Emmy Awards in 2005. Actor
Matt Damon Matthew Paige Damon ( ; born October 8, 1970) is an American actor, film producer, and screenwriter. He was ranked among ''Forbes'' most bankable stars in 2007, and in 2010 was one of the highest-grossing actors of all time. He has received va ...
claims that his extensive list of cameos is due to a demand that he be allowed to cameo in any movie that features one of his properties, and that these scenes are usually cut in
post-production Post-production, also known simply as post, is part of the process of filmmaking, video production, audio production, and photography. Post-production includes all stages of production occurring after principal photography or recording indivi ...
.


Screen Actors Guild membership

Trump became a member of the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists
SAG-AFTRA The Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists
in 1989. On January 19, 2021, the national board of the actor's union
SAG-AFTRA The Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists
voted to convene a disciplinary process to discuss Trump's expulsion from for his part in the
2021 storming of the United States Capitol On January 6, 2021, the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., was attacked by a mob of supporters of President Donald Trump in an attempted self-coup,Multiple sources: * * * * * * * * * * * * * two months after his defea ...
and a "reckless campaign of misinformation" that endangered other SAG-AFTRA members. On February 4, Trump resigned before the disciplinary process was scheduled to convene. On the financial disclosure form he had to file when he registered his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump stated that in 2022 he received a SAG pension of between $100,000 and $1 million and an AFTRA pension of between $15,000 and $50,000.


See also

*
Business career of Donald Trump Before running for office in 2016, Donald Trump, the 45th and 47th president of the United States pursued a career as a businessman, with a focus on renovating skyscrapers, hotels, casinos, and golf courses. His extravagant lifestyle, outspoken ...
* Political career of Donald Trump * Donald Trump in popular culture * Donald Trump in music * Donald Trump filmography * Bibliography of Donald Trump


References

{{Trump media Donald Trump
Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...