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 The young woman, Omarosa Manigault, had been struck in the head by
a piece of plaster dislodged from the ceiling by a microphone boom.
She immediately blamed the mishap on another contestant. As Trump
watched, every camera in the room shifted to capture the outburst,
one of those moments that are the lifeblood of reality television, a
former crew member recalled.
Fast-forward to 2016: As a presidential candidate, Trump talks often
about turning the cameras. He creates moments of great drama during
his rallies by pointing out television cameramen and accusing them
of refusing to show the size of his crowds.
"Turn the camera!" he chanted at a Michigan rally last year. The
crowd of 9,000 joined him until a roar filled the room and exploded
into cheers as the cameraman finally swung his camera to show the
crowd. Such scenes have become commonplace.
Trump's 2016 White House run is built in part on drama and
controversy, a campaign that former cast and crew members of "The
Apprentice" said appeared to draw lessons from reality TV,
especially one: how to grab the public's attention and keep it.
 Trump denied in an interview that he had learned any tricks from the
show. His success on television, he said, came from a "natural
instinct."
But those involved in "The Apprentice" said Trump the candidate is
not all that different from the contestants on the dog-eat-dog
elimination game show, where 14 people engaged in a series of
business-related challenges to win a job at Trump's real estate
company. At the end of each episode, Trump would appear with the
contestants in an executive boardroom and eliminate one with his
trademark, "You're fired."
A producer on the show's first season, Bill Pruitt, said he believed
Trump had learned, by watching and refereeing fights among the
contestants, how they "defended or went after one another."
Pruitt said he had seen Trump evolve on the show, honing his ability
to get candidates to turn on one another, one of the hallmarks of
the show. "He learned, as time went on, how to do that, how to speak
and create reactions," said Pruitt, who is not supporting Trump's
presidential run.
"The campaign is much different than a show," Trump responded,
rejecting the idea that his campaign bore any resemblance to reality
television. CAMPAIGN OF CONFLICT
Long before the debut of "The Apprentice," the New York businessman
was a regular fixture in the pages of his hometown's daily
newspapers, which covered his fights with other real estate
developers and celebrities like Rosie O'Donnell.
But "The Apprentice" gave him a truly national platform for the
first time, and he saw how his blunt and unfiltered style helped
make the show a major hit. At it's peak, nearly 21 million people
watched the show, which ran for 14 seasons and has still not been
canceled by NBC.
"I haven't changed. 'The Apprentice' didn't change me. I think I
changed 'The Apprentice'," Trump told Reuters, asserting that he had
come up with the idea to say, "You're fired."
 And he dismissed intensifying criticism that his presidential
campaign thrives on conflict. "I'm not looking for conflict. With
the show it's a little bit different."
Yet Trump has dominated media coverage of the election in a way that
has little modern precedent in American politics, and he has done
that mostly by saying or doing something that makes people angry.
His barrage of insults in Twitter battles with opponents, including
fellow Republican candidates, has delighted many supporters, who
regularly tell pollsters they like the billionaire because he says
what he thinks and doesn't hold back.
His claim that Mexico was sending rapists over the U.S. border
enraged the Mexican government; his call for a temporary ban on
Muslims entering the United States prompted widespread international
condemnation, as did his call for killing the families of terrorists
and torturing terrorism suspects.
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Mike DeMatteo, who worked on "The Apprentice" as a sound mixer for
nearly a decade, said it would have been hard for Trump not to have
drawn lessons from the show.
"When you're sitting back and watching it and seeing the reaction in
the press as it evolved, you get a very good gauge of what people
are talking about, who they like, what they don't like," he said.
"You're really starting to understand the people out there."
DeMatteo described himself as a Trump fan but said he disapproved of
some of his recent comments.
BOARDROOM BATTLEGROUND
The place where Apprentice contestants could battle for fame was the
boardroom. Boardroom scenes found Trump seated at the head of a long
polished wood table, criticizing contestants' work. Contestants
worked in teams, so Trump's questions were often about which team
member was to blame for mistakes.
"He would ask a lot of very to-the-point questions, he would put
people on the spot, he would get information about contestants that
would make the other ones mad at them," recalled DeMatteo.
Michael Tarshi, 36, a Boston-based real estate developer and a
contestant on Season 3, has first-hand experience of this.
During one boardroom scene in Season 3, Trump listened as members of
a team described their roles in a failed project. Trump then asked
one of the members, Bren Olswanger, whom he would fire. Olswanger
named team-mate Stephanie Myers, setting off an argument between the
two contestants.
When Tarshi tried to interject, Trump cut him off: "Michael let me
ask you a question. He's telling me how bad Stephanie is and you're
interrupting him with nonsense over nothing. Let me ask you this:
He's killing her. He's going after her. She should be fired
according to him."
Trump then turned the tables on Tarshi. "Michael, you're fired," he
said.
"He definitely learned a lot about how to maneuver, to incite
conflict between each contestant and each political candidate," said
Tarshi, who has attended Trump's rallies and private parties
promoting his presidential bid.
"YOU GOTTA BE QUICK - BOOM BOOM"
The most popular season of "The Apprentice" was its first, in which
Manigault was struck by the plaster.
Even though that scene never aired, Manigault spent several episodes
complaining about being hit on the head. It helped define her as the
show's combative character - a role that made her famous and fueled
the show's popularity.
She has remained a public figure and has endorsed Trump for
president. In praising her combativeness at a rally last month,
Trump could have been describing himself.
"When Omarosa goes after you, you've gotta be quick - boom boom -
and you've gotta be fast," he told the crowd.
(Editing by Paul Thomasch and Ross Colvin)
[© 2016 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2016 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
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