Author of New Book on Trump Says Politics Have Made Him Miserable: ‘He Would Be a Much Happier Person’

Ramin Setoodeh, co-editor in chief of Variety, is out with a new book on Donald Trump and the reality TV show that turned him into an international star.

Apprentice in Wonderland: How Donald Trump and Mark Burnett Took America Through the Looking Glass, which releases on Tuesday, is a tell-all of the show that paved the way for Trump’s shocking rise to national political figure and, eventually, 45th president of the United States.

In an interview with Mediaite, Setoodeh spoke about the book, for which he secured several on the record interviews with the former president – more than any other reporter since he left office.

“Trump and I talked four times in person and then two other times over the phone,” Setoodeh said, adding the former president “was very excited about this book, his legacy.”

“He believes a big part of his legacy is The Apprentice. And this book really goes back and looks at the TV show that changed the world.”

Setoodeh argued the show was a necessary component of Trump’s rise to the White House.

“If it wasn’t for The Apprentice, Donald Trump would not have been president in 2016,” Setoodah said. “If it wasn’t for The Apprentice, he wouldn’t be the Republican nominee in 2024. If it wasn’t for The Apprentice, he wouldn’t be seen as this folk hero for the working class. This no nonsense, fun, funny, interesting, humorous business mogul.”

“The show really created this legacy and catapulted him to the White House and made millions of Americans believe that he was a great leader, good at governing, compassionate, smart, intelligent, and very successful in business,” he added.

Setoodeh revealed Trump was happiest when he could reflect on his days at The Apprentice and at his most upset when asked about his time as president of the United States.

“I actually do think that personally and professionally, he would be a much happier person if he had stayed on the show and he hadn’t entered into politics,” Setoodeh said. “Because politics is something that he couldn’t control in the same way that he was able to control his image as a reality TV star.”

Setoodeh also revealed that in a candid moment, Trump appeared to admit he lost the 2020 election.

The author explained that one day, when he was watching clips with Trump, they watched a video of Geraldo Rivera on the show.

Trump “was talking about how he and Geraldo had a falling out,” Setoodeh said, as “Trump is very fond of reliving and revisiting a lot of his feuds.”

“As a reality star, feuds are very important to driving ratings,” Setoodeh added. “And so he really does like dissecting how he has fallings out with people and how they betray him.”

Trump then recalled a moment in November 2020 when Rivera appeared on Fox News to say Trump should concede the election.

“Trump wasn’t interested in that,” Setoodeh said. “And so as he’s telling the story, he did say to me the words ‘when I lost the election.’ As soon as he said those words, he backtracked and said, ‘when they said I lost the election, I actually won the election.’”

Setoodeh said “it was a real candid moment which shows to me that he does maybe deep down acknowledge the fact that he lost and all these election denials that he’s putting out there are also part of an act.”

Setoodeh compared Trump’s conspiracy theories about a stolen election – and their influence over his base – to a reality TV character selling viewers on an alternate reality.

“Donald Trump really, truly is a reality star,” Setoodeh said.

That reality, he added, is why the media has such a difficult time covering Turmp.

“When the media tries to cover him as a politician, when the media tries to impose all these standards that we have for political figures and for previous presidents, all those come falling down because he is a reality star,” Setoodeh said. “He is a showman in the same way that if there were political reporters trying to interview Lady Gaga or the Kardashians, they wouldn’t be able to actually pin them down on policy or what their style of governing is like.”

He added: “Trump is a product of television, and he loves to be on television, and he loves attention and he loves creating drama. But all these paradigms that we have for covering politics don’t necessarily work for him. And all these years later, we still really haven’t figured out how to successfully cover Donald Trump.”

Watch the full interview above.

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