‘The View’ Hosts React to Reports of ‘The Apprentice’ Reboot With Donald Trump Jr.

The cohosts of The View had a lot to say about recent reports that Amazon is considering hosting a reboot of Donald Trump‘s former reality competition series The Apprentice, with his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., as the star of the show.

Joy Behar, stepping in as moderator during Whoopi Goldberg‘s usual Friday off, introduced the topic on Friday’s (May 1) show by noting, “Now, in the past, Trump has said he wanted his daughter, Ivanka, to take over as host. So my question is: Would Ivanka be a better host? Pick your train wreck.”

Sunny Hostin was the first to weigh in and offered, “Maybe they can all just go on reality TV and get out of the White House. I would be very supportive of that.”

On a more serious note, though, Hostin then argued against “normalizing” Trump’s kids by giving any of them a show. “I just think one of the reasons why we have Donald Trump in office is because people saw him on The Apprentice and actually believed that he was a good business person, when we know — Joy mentions this all the time — he bankrupted casinos.” She went on to add, “And that’s my fear in terms of normalizing and sanitizing this family, if they are chosen to be the host. And let’s not forget that the Donald Trump Foundation, the family foundation, was found, I think — following a 2018 lawsuit by New York Attorney General Letitia James, Trump was forced to pay more than $2 million in court-ordered damages to eight different charities for misusing charitable funds at the Trump Foundation for charitable purposes, and they harmed children. And then, as part of the settlement, Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka and Eric had to undergo training on the responsibilities of officers and directors of charitable organizations. Is that someone that should be the standard of business?”

Sara Haines had a different criticism of the idea to offer, saying, “Even looking at the Trump family, as what we know now, just as a TV brand, I think it’s funny they think they can just swap these out. It took a unique character that could be mean and belittle people like, ‘Whoa’… we just didn’t become the president. You can’t… Just because Don Jr., or whichever one it is, does not mean you just swap out Trumps like their cards. It doesn’t work.”

However, Ana Navarro had news for Haines. “You’re assuming the reason they’re doing this is because they wanted to make money. I don’t know that they gave Melania $40 million for that documentary because they thought it was going to win an Oscar, or because they thought it was going to be a hit, but rather, because it’s a way of getting close to Trump. And look, I chose not to watch that documentary on Melania. They chose to give her money. We can choose what we watch, what we will not watch, what will we buy from, who we don’t buy from. So I think we have a lot of power in our pocket, but there is no doubt that the tech titans, from day one, since the campaign, made a choice that being close to Trump was good for their businesses, was good for their pocketbooks, and it has been.”

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Alyssa Farah Griffin then argued that while she “will not be tuning in,” it could be a good business decision … for now. “Seventy-seven million people voted for Donald Trump. Only probably, let’s say, 20% of them are diehard fans. They buy the merch, they wear the things… They go and see the Melania doc, which actually had a huge opening. Everyone was kind of surprised by that. If you get a fraction of those people for a year or two to watch this reboot of The Apprentice, great. My point would be, come 2028, I think that Trump fatigue is going to be very real. I’m not signing a 10-year deal for this show. I maybe do a like one year. Let’s give it a trial run.”

Navarro then reiterated her point to say, “[Jeff] Bezos gave money to the inaugural. He gave money to the ballroom. He was at the state dinner with the king and queen this week. This is not about making money or whether it’s a hit or not. It’s about, ‘How close can I get to Donald Trump?'”

“I haven’t seen the Trumps do anything that doesn’t involve money, though. So, I would say there’s probably some component that they’re looking for money,” Haines countered.

“Do you think we should send them on the Survivor island and see how that goes?” Navarro offered.

Behar then concluded the segment by agreeing with Haines that it’s Donald Trump who has “got the ribs, and that’s what keeps people tied to him… His children do not. They would be better off doing How to Be a Nepo Baby.”

The View, weekdays, 11a/10c, ABC