ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an analysis of the mainstream media’s legitimizing and support of Donald Trump, despite – or, more accurately, because of – his obvious sexism, racism, and love of neoliberal capitalism. The chapter examines the media’s reporting on Trump in relation to his reality shows across 2007 and 2008, wherein The Apprentice transformed into The Celebrity Apprentice. The author contrasts the media narratives that celebrate Trump and his appropriation of female sexual capital with the treatment of female celebrities who use their own sexual capital, discussed across the book. The chapter also situates The Apprentice in the broader context of reality television (and the Writer’s Guild Strike which unfolded at that time) and looks at how this particular show both celebrates and reproduces patriarchal, neoliberal capitalist ideology.
