One of the more unusual side stories in this presidential campaign cycle is a renewed look at Donald Trump's pre-presidential years as a Reality TV star. It offers some new insights into how he has transformed our politics into a spectacle we couldn't have imagined just a decade ago. The publication of the new book “Apprentice in Wonderland: How Donald Trump and Mark Burnett Took America Through the Looking Glass” by co-editor-in-chief of the Hollywood Reporter, Ramin Setoodeh, offers a unique perspective on Trump's post-White House years. Additionally, a recent article in Slate by a former "Apprentice" producer named Bill Pruitt gives an inside look at the phoniness of reality television and how it perfectly fit Trump's already well-developed phony persona.
It's amazing that we are still trying to figure out what really makes this strange man tick — but I think that era of his life illuminates one of the most mystifying aspects of his appeal. How is Donald Trump able to convince tens of millions of people to believe him when all the evidence and facts prove otherwise? How does he successfully create an alternate reality for these people and, in the process, change ours as well?
