In 2011, Donald Trump was toying with running for president and NBCUniversal was unhappy about it. By then, The Apprentice had been succeeded by Celebrity Apprentice, and while the show wasn’t doing especially well, neither was NBC.
The network felt it needed to keep the show around with its original star. The task of convincing him to stay ultimately fell to Steve Burke, then CEO of network parent NBCUniversal, who according to sources made a deal that went beyond whatever compensation Trump and producer Mark Burnett had wrung from the company: NBCUni also had to make a contribution to the Trump Foundation.
The company coughed up $500,000, according to multiple sources. It wasn’t the first time Trump had demanded a little extra to do his.
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