Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is the 45th and current president of the United States. Before entering politics, he was a businessman and television personality. Trump was born and raised in the New York City borough of Queens, and received a bachelor's degree in economics from the Wharton School. He took charge of his family's real-estate business in 1971, renamed it The Trump Organization, and expanded its operations from Queens and Brooklyn into Manhattan.
The company built or renovated skyscrapers, hotels, casinos, and golf courses. Trump later started various side ventures, mostly by licensing his name. He owned the Miss Universe and Miss USA beauty pageants from 1996 to 2015, and produced and hosted The Apprentice, a reality television show, from 2003 to 2015. Forbes estimates his net worth to be $3.1 billion.
Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent In the run up to the U.S. presidential election, Mipcom Cannes will turn the spotlight on the New York Times bestseller “Apprentice in Wonderland: How Donald Trump and Mark Burnett Took America Through the Looking Glass.” Written by Variety‘s co-editor-in-chief Ramin Setoodeh, the book examines the critical role of the reality TV series The Apprentice in launching the political career of Donald Trump and its impact on popular culture.
Set for Oct. 23, the session will be presented by Setoodeh at the Grand Auditorium inside the Palais des Festivals. Setoodeh, who conducted six lengthy interviews with Trump, will explore how the cult of celebrity and rise of the reality genre in the early 1990’s catapulted Trump the White House, and created one of most influential and commercially successful U.S.
series of all time. Setoodeh will also share the behind-the-scenes of the NBC series, as well insights from his on-the-record sit-downs with the former President.
The New York-based journalist will speak about what he learned from his conversations with more than fifty key players involved in The Apprentice and Celebrity Apprentice series, including network executives Jeff Zucker and Mark Burnett, as well as Trump family members, crew members, advisors and contestants. “This is the most telling example of politics meeting entertainment of our times,” said Lucy Smith, director of Mipcom Cannes and Mip London. “To learn of the circumstances, conversations and, often, the conflicts that cemented a global persona, became a catalyst for one successful US presidential run, and potentially a second, while in so doing creating one of the world’s most popular and enduring formats is both.
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