--- title: Celebrity Apprentice in the White House description: President-elect Donald Trump will remain as executive producer on his reality show, The Apprentice, after he takes the oath of office. canonical: https://time.com/4596533/celebrity-apprentice-in-the-white-house/ author: Zeke Miller article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-12-09T17:56:23.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T02:13:59.571Z article:section: Politics og:title: Celebrity Apprentice in the White House og:description: President-elect Donald Trump will remain as executive producer on his reality show, The Apprentice, after he takes the oath of office. og:url: https://time.com/4596533/celebrity-apprentice-in-the-white-house/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb24c27fcf0ec0da8/6986837dcd6848a30809364f/morning-must-reads1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Morning Must Reads og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Celebrity Apprentice in the White House twitter:description: President-elect Donald Trump will remain as executive producer on his reality show, The Apprentice, after he takes the oath of office. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb24c27fcf0ec0da8/6986837dcd6848a30809364f/morning-must-reads1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Celebrity Apprentice in the White House > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Dec 9, 2016 5:56 PM UTC  The early morning sun rises behind the US Capitol Building in Washington, DC. The early morning sun rises behind the US Capitol Building in Washington, DC.Mark Wilson—Getty Images by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Dec 9, 2016 5:56 PM UTC _President-elect Donald Trump will remain an executive producer on his former reality show_ _The Apprentice when the latest incarnation returns to the air in the New Year. In an interview with TIME, Trump boasted that he had selected Arnold Schwarzenegger as his replacement and that he maintained a significant financial stake in the program. Trump still hasn’t detailed how he intends to mitigate the mounting conflicts of interest facing his future administration, promising a fuller account on Dec. 15, but every indication is that he will maintain a financial stake in his company, even if on paper he’s not running it every day. That would still expose him to very serious questions about potentially enriching himself while president—which while likely not illegal, is certainly bad optics._ The final tally is in, and Trump and his allies spent about half of what Hillary Clinton and her allies did during the entire 2016 cycle. Trump’s more bare-bones effort invested massively online and left grassroots field organizing to the Republican National Committee. Clinton’s behemoth of an operation was by far more technically proficient, but ultimately suffered because of the candidate. Trump sticks with “Make America Great Again” as his inaugural theme. Obama orders a review of Russia’s role in hacks surrounding the 2016 election. And Clinton warns against fake news. _Here are your must reads:_ **Must Reads** [The Creeping Militarization of Donald Trump’s Cabinet](http://time.com/4596014/donald-trump-cabinet-military-mattis-flynn-kelly/) They may be smart, but are they right for top civilian posts, TIME’s Mark Thompson writes [Right to the end, Trump campaign spent less than Clinton’s](https://www.apnews.com/f09277aa6ad046329d25bb05f2f51bd2/Right-to-the-end,-Trump-campaign-spent-less-than-Clinton%27s) Final fundraising and spending totals show leaner campaign won \[Associated Press\] [Trump likely to pick McDaniel to lead RNC](http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/trump-zeroes-in-on-rnc-chair-pick-232397) But the decision process remains fluid, some transition officials caution \[Politico\] [Donald Trump Inaugural Reprises Campaign Slogan in Attempt to Unify Country](https://gma.yahoo.com/donald-trump-inaugural-reprises-campaign-slogan-attempt-unify-130606603--abc-news-topstories.html?soc%5Fsrc=mediacontentstory&soc%5Ftrk=tw) “Make America Great Again” will be Inaugural theme \[ABC\] [Donald Trump to Remain Executive Producer on ‘Celebrity Apprentice’](http://variety.com/2016/tv/news/donald-trump-mark-burnett-celebrity-apprentice-executive-producer-1201937420/) And he’ll get paid \[Variety\] [How Donald Trump’s Web of LLCs Obscures His Business Interests](http://www.wsj.com/articles/how-donald-trumps-web-of-llcs-obscures-his-business-interests-1481193002) The opacity of his holdings makes it impossible to gauge the full extent of potential conflicts he may face as president \[Wall Street Journal\] [Donald Trump: “We Chose Arnold” For The Celebrity Apprentice Reboot](http://time.com/4596637/donald-trump-apprentice-arnold-schwarzenegger/) He boasted about his involvement to TIME [Obama orders review into Russian hacking of 2016 election](http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/09/politics/obama-orders-review-into-russian-hacking-of-2016-election/index.html) President-elect Trump denies any ties \[CNN\] **Sound Off** “Presidents have a right to do things in their spare time.” —Kellyanne Conway to CNN on reports that President-elect Trump is keeping his Executive Producer title on _The Apprentice._ “I want people that made a fortune. Because now they are negotiating with you, okay? It’s no different than a great baseball player or a great golfer.” —President-elect Trump in Iowa on the billionaires he’s hiring for his administration. **Bits and Bites** [‘Lives Are at Risk.’ Hillary Clinton Warns Against Fake News](http://time.com/4596151/hillary-clinton-fake-news/) \[TIME\] [Conway on Trump ‘Apprentice’ role: He’ll do it in his spare time](http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/09/politics/conway-defends-trump-apprentice/) \[CNN\] [Donald Trump Meets With Ohio State Victims](http://time.com/4596361/donald-trump-ohio-state-victims/) \[Associated Press\] [After criticizing Trump policies, billionaire hedge funder warms to the president-elect](http://www.cnbc.com/2016/12/07/billionaire-paul-singer-moves-to-make-nice-with-donald-trump.html) \[CNBC\] [U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter Makes a Surprise Visit to Afghanistan](http://time.com/4596356/us-defense-secretary-ash-carter-visit-afghanistan/) \[Associated Press\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4596533/celebrity-apprentice-in-the-white-house/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4596533/celebrity-apprentice-in-the-white-house/"},"headline":"Celebrity Apprentice in the White House","datePublished":"2016-12-09T17:56:23.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T02:13:59.571Z","description":"Morning Must Reads: December 9","url":"https://time.com/4596533/celebrity-apprentice-in-the-white-house/","keywords":["Morning Must Reads"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb24c27fcf0ec0da8/6986837dcd6848a30809364f/morning-must-reads1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Zeke Miller","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb24c27fcf0ec0da8/6986837dcd6848a30809364f/morning-must-reads1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Morning Must Reads","caption":"Capitol","creditText":"Mark Wilson—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4596533/celebrity-apprentice-in-the-white-house/","name":"Celebrity Apprentice in the White House"}}]}] ```