Donald Trump ran The Apprentice for 186 episodes, popularized the phrase “You’re fired” as a cultural shorthand for boardroom dominance, and left the show in 2015 to run for president.
A decade later, Amazon is reportedly considering handing the franchise to its eldest son. Trump’s endorsement of the idea, delivered from the Oval Office on Thursday, was not exactly a ringing one.
When Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy asked Trump about reports that Amazon was eyeing Don Jr. as host of a rebooted Apprentice on Prime Video, the president confirmed he had heard the reports and offered his assessment:
“Well, I’ve been hearing it. Look, we had a great success – 14 seasons – and The Apprentice was a tremendous success. So I’ve been hearing that, you know, a little bit, so we’ll see what happens. He’s a good guy. He’s probably good. He’s got a little charisma going. You need a little charisma for that… so we’ll see what happens. Yeah, they told me about it. We’ll see.”
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The reboot conversations at Amazon began internally around the time Trump was being sworn into his second term in early 2025, with Amazon MGM Studios head Mike Hopkins spearheading the discussions.
Nobody has approached the Trump family yet, and the project is not in active development, an Amazon spokesperson confirmed, adding that any reporting on specific hosts “would be purely speculative.”
The Jeff Bezos-led company has been deepening its relationship with the Trump family.
The company paid $40 million for Melania’s documentary, which underperformed in theaters before climbing to number one on Prime Video after its streaming debut. The Melania documentary acquisition and the Apprentice reboot discussions are part of a pattern.
Jeff Bezos’s company has been cultivating its relationship with the Trump family with notable consistency since the second inauguration.
Don Jr. is not exactly new to the format. He appeared across more than 70 episodes of the original show as a boardroom advisor and guest judge.
So yes, technically he has experience telling people they’re fired.
His finances have also moved in a very different direction since those days.
Don Jr.’s net worth has reportedly jumped from roughly $50 million in late 2024 to around $300 million a year later, largely through cryptocurrency ventures including World Liberty Financial, which has generated at least $1.2 billion in cash for the Trump family.
Trump himself had a different candidate in mind when he left the show in 2015. “I said, ‘The best person to hire would be Ivanka Trump,'” he told Variety in 2024. “I didn’t press it. But I felt Ivanka would have been by far the best person you could hire.”
Featured image via Political Tribune Gallery
