Melania, Amazon’s $75m hagiography of the US first lady, was not only a critical flop but, to no-one’s great surprise, a financial one too. But that doesn’t seem to have stopped the firm from wanting to cement its relations with the Trump family even further.
Amazon has so far recouped an estimated $7.7m on the universally panned film, having paid a staggering $40m to acquire the rights, despite a lack of any serious competition, then shelling out $35m on marketing it.
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For most companies, that might be the last time they put a member of the Trump family front and centre of a major broadcasting project. But not Amazon, who are said to be planning a reboot of the US series of The Apprentice with… Donald Trump Jr in the role which eventually propelled his father into the Oval Office!
The Wall Street Journal has reported that Amazon is considering rebooting the show, which was hosted by the now US president between 2004 and 2015, for its streaming service Prime Video. The firm confirmed to Variety that “preliminary internal discussions about what’s next for The Apprentice” had begun since the media company acquired MGM, and with it The Apprentice franchise, fronted in the UK by peer Lord Sugar, in 2022. Don Junior is widely expected to land the main role.
At an Oval Office executive order signing event on Thursday, Trump damned his son with faint praise, saying: “Well, I’ve been hearing it. So we’ll see what happens. He’s good. He’s a good guy. He’s probably good. He’s got a little charisma going.”
Two years ago, Trump revealed he had already endorsed one of his children to be his successor on The Apprentice – but it wasn’t Trump Junior.
“I said, ‘The best person to hire would be Ivanka Trump,’” Trump told Ramin Setoodeh, in an interview for his book Apprentice in Wonderland. “I didn’t press it. But I felt Ivanka would have been by far the best person you could hire.”
But with Ivanka choosing to largely avoid the limelight during the Trump 2.0 presidency, Donald Junior, who is known to have his own political ambitions, may be propelled into the frame instead. Back in 2019, Junior attacked Hunter Biden for trading on his father’s name, telling Fox News: “When you’re the father and your son’s entire career is dependent on that, they own you.” Thank goodness Amazon only hires on merit!
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