With all the news that revolves around Donald Trump nowadays, it’s easy to forget what he used to be. The general public used to favor Trump in many ways. He was the strange man who would cameo in Home Alone 2 or The Little Rascals.
When The Apprentice dropped in 2004, Trump’s popularity reached an all-time high. He became known for his signature catchphrase, “You’re fired,” as well as Trumponomics. In a strange instance of the butterfly effect, it was this popularity that would snowball into a future presidential campaign.
It’s interesting to imagine how the present might differ if just one thing had changed. Like, for example, if Bethenny Frankel had been on The Apprentice before her time on Real Housewives of New York. Bethenny recently said that was almost the case in an Instagram reel.
Bethenny Frankel, you’re fired
“I was on the normal person’s Apprentice, meaning not The Celebrity Apprentice. I was selling these Bethenny Bakes cookies at a trade show at a booth. And I asked my partner … to record me selling cookies … and that was the video we sent in.” Bethenny got a callback, explaining her excitement with the show being at its peak after the first Trump season.
“I made it to the finals where you go to the Doubletree Hotel in Santa Monica for a week. I was so broke, I needed the job … It got down to where I could only count 20 people and I thought, ‘I think I got this.’ They came to my room on the last day and they said, ‘You didn’t make it.’” Bethenny was made the first alternate, but no one backed out.
It wasn’t a total loss, however. A year later, Bethenny would be cast on The Apprentice: Martha Stewart, where she would take second place. And if it weren’t for her time on that show in 2005, she probably never would’ve become a Real Housewife in 2008. That’s the butterfly effect.
TELL US – HOW DO YOU THINK THINGS MIGHT’VE BEEN DIFFERENT FOR BETHENNY IF SHE’D BEEN ON THE APPRENTICE?
