We all know that Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump hosted The Apprentice. But did you know that Trump wanted to make a drama series about his life?
John Barron = Donald Trump (Again)
Back in the 1980s, Trump used the alias John Barron when talking to the media. According to the Washington Post,
“Barron (also spelled ‘Baron’ in some press accounts) appears to have been Trump’s go-to alias when he was under scrutiny, in need of a tough front man or otherwise wanting to convey a message without attaching his own name to it.”
Well, Trump also wanted John Barron to make an appearance on television … in a series based on himself.
Back in the mid-2000s, after the success of The Apprentice, Trump was high on stardom. Mother Jones writes,
“… During the two years after the reality competition first aired in 2004, the Washington Post discovered, Trump hired a television writer named Gay Walch to write the pilot of The Tower, a drama series based on Trump’s life.
The Tower would have told the story of real estate mogul John Barron, which was also the name of the fake spokesman Trump invented to plant stories about himself in the press. The use of the Barron name for the main character was Trump’s only demand of Walch, according to Washington Post reporters Michael Kranish and Marc Fisher in their new book, Trump Revealed. The show would follow Barron and his Barron Organization (another subtle nod, this time to the Trump Organization) in their quest to build the world’s tallest building. Sadly, as Kranish and Fisher wrote, ‘it just wasn’t great, network executives said.'”
The series never saw the light of day, but the Washington Post happened to get their hands on a copy of the script. Rather than simply post the script (because where’s the fun in that?), they hired actors and made a delicious little short.
Unfortunately, Washington Post has the video encoded so we can’t display it here. If you would like to watch it, you’ll have to enjoy it on their site.
Featured Image via screen capture from Washington Post video
