How Much Money Donald Trump Made From The Apprentice

Ali Abbasi’s stylish biopic The Apprentice tells the story of US entrepreneur and president Donald Trump’s formative years, as he’s selected by a ruthless attorney named Roy Cohn as his new protégé. The Apprentice features several recognizable faces as it navigates Trump’s turbulent life, offering an insight into his business that many audiences may not have seen before. The film’s title draws inspiration from Trump’s own reality business show The Apprentice, which saw a group of contestants competes in a series of tailored challenges to win the top prize of promoting one of Trump’s properties for a year.

The Apprentice was a cutthroat game of business and negotiations which helped Trump develop the passionate persona he’s known for today - and unsurprisingly, it also made him a huge amount of money. The tycoon was the star of the show for 14 seasons, before he was ultimately replaced by Arnold Schwarzenegger for the final series. It was an extremely lucrative show that Trump was heavily involved with, allowing him to profit from both the program’s success and the success of those that he selected as his apprentice.

Donald Trump Claimed He Made Over $500 Million From The Apprentice

The Business Mogul Says He Earned Half A Billion Dollars

During his time on The Apprentice, Donald Trump quietly became one of the richest men on American television. Speaking to Variety’s Ramin Setoodeh via People Magazine, the businessman revealed that he made “over $500 million” on the show, which would easily rank among the largest profits that any individual has made from a television series. Much of Trump’s earnings came as a result of his negotiations with the studio to earn more than he’d been initially offered - he was never afraid to ask for the salary that he considered fair relative to the show’s success.

Related What Donald Trump Has Said About New Biopic Movie The Apprentice The Apprentice features Sebastian Stan as former president Donald Trump in a biographical drama. Here's what the real Trump has said in response.

$500 million is a huge amount of money to claim to have earned from The Apprentice; it would easily rank among the biggest commercial successes for a single show in television’s history. The reason that The Apprentice made so much money, and why Donald Trump was given such a sizable cut, is that money simply ran in the project’s blood. There were always huge deals on the table, enormous budgets for commercial tasks, and huge enthusiasm from other businesses to be featured on the show.

Donald Trump Actually Made Roughly $214 Million From The Apprentice

In Reality, The Figure Was Significantly Smaller

However, despite Trump’s claims that he made $500 million from The Apprentice, Setoodeh has actually confirmed that the total sum was closer to $214 million. This number was revealed by the Federal Election Commission filings and accounts for Trump’s entire time on the show, which ran from 2004-2015. Despite the disparity between Trump’s figure and the FEC’s figure, this is still a huge amount of money for one individual to earn over 14 seasons of a show.

Regardless of how much money Trump made on the show, The Apprentice has become an enormous part of the politician’s legacy, cementing him as one of the most important figures in American business history. The series pushed him to a level of fame that he’d never had before: Trump became a loud voice on social media, which is where he gathered much of the support that’s helped his political career. Whatever the number, The Apprentice gave Trump much more than just money.

How Much Donald Trump Made Per Episode Of The Apprentice

The Figure Changed Drastically After The First Season

The amount of money that Trump earned per episode of The Apprentice is just as staggering as the final figure, and it changed quite dramatically as the seasons progressed. At the show’s beginning, Trump was earning $25,000 for each episode of the show, but the entrepreneur wasn’t happy with this amount. Once the show was renewed for a second season, Trump took it into his own hands to negotiate a new salary with the show’s producers - using the popular sitcom Friends as his benchmark.

The producers allegedly called Trump to tell him “it’s over” as his needs were too high - but Trump claims they called him back the next day and were more accommodating of his request.

“They’re getting $1 million an episode each, That’s $6 million [..] and I have higher ratings than they do.” This was Trump’s initial pitch to the studio when discussing his salary, although their response wasn’t immediately cooperative. The producers allegedly called Trump to tell him “it’s over” as his needs were too high - but Trump claims they called him back the next day and were more accommodating of his request. These are the kind of cutthroat negotiation tactics that Sebastian Stan reflects in his cutthroat role in the controversial biopic The Apprentice.

Source: People Magazine