Brow Beat

Mark Burnett Doesn’t Support Donald Trump’s Candidacy, Just His TV Career and His Privacy

Mark Burnett and Donald Trump in happier times, at the 2004 Emmys.

Kevin Winter/Getty Images

As calls mount for The Apprentice producer Mark Burnett or MGM to release their hours of footage of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump—rumored to show Trump using racial epithets, along with his trademark horror show of sexual harassment—Burnett would like everyone to be very clear on one point: despite making a fortune keeping Trump in the spotlight by producing The Apprentice, he is “NOT ‘Pro-Trump.’ ” Here is Burnett’s full statement, released Wednesday:

Given all of the false media reports, I feel compelled to clarify a few points. I am not now and have never been a supporter of Donald Trump’s candidacy.  I am NOT “Pro-Trump.” Further, my wife and I reject the hatred, division and misogyny that has been a very unfortunate part of his campaign.

As Slate’s Seth Stevenson reported in June, Trump’s misogyny, which Burnett now rejects, was hardly a secret on the set of The Apprentice. “[Trump] was always very open about describing women by their breast size,” one crew member told Stevenson. Another remembered Trump saying of a contestant, “Her breasts were so much bigger at the casting. Maybe she had her period then.” Given the Republican nominee’s documented willingness to say horrible things at the workplace and the growing list of sexual assault allegations against him, it would be interesting to hear more from Burnett about the experience of working closely with him over so many years. The Apprentice was actually Burnett’s second attempt to make Trump a TV star: In 2001 he was attached to executive-produce a show called Billionaire, a Trump-hosted Brewster’s Millions–style concept in which contestants would try to spend $1 million in 30 minutes.

MGM, which has owned The Apprentice since acquiring a controlling interest in Burnett’s production company in 2014, simultaneously released the following information-free statement from external counsel Marvin S. Putnam. (Full disclosure: I worked for MGM from 2008–2014 but left before Burnett’s company was acquired.)

MGM, not Mark Burnett, owns The Apprentice.  MGM has agreements with artists across a wide spectrum of creative properties, including The Apprentice. These agreements typically contain provisions related to confidentiality and artist’s rights. MGM has every intention of complying with its agreements with artists and honoring their rights, including with respect to The Apprentice.

Do the confidentiality and artist’s rights provisions for Donald Trump’s work on The Apprentice actually contain these provisions? Does MGM know what’s on the unreleased footage? Does Burnett? Did Burnett ever observe the sort of behavior Apprentice crew members reported to Slate or the Associated Press? Does a man who profited so greatly building up the mythos of a white supremacist strongman and alleged sexual predator have any special responsibility to prevent the monster he helped create from becoming the most powerful person on the planet? These are all interesting questions; maybe the next statement from Mark Burnett and MGM will address them.