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| Much like the way rearview mirrors bend space-time so that the objects you’ve sped away from still remain “closer than they appear,” there was a time not too long ago — although it doesn’t always seem like it — when Donald Trump seemed like harmless fun to most of us. For me, that was about 15 years ago, when “The Apprentice” debuted in prime time on NBC. | Much like the way rearview mirrors bend space-time so that the objects you’ve sped away from still remain “closer than they appear,” there was a time not too long ago — although it doesn’t always seem like it — when Donald Trump seemed like harmless fun to most of us. For me, that was about 15 years ago, when “The Apprentice” debuted in prime time on NBC. |
| While my own memory of that preteen era in my life is blurry, I still vividly remember how after the show’s premiere the buzz around it spread virally, in that quaint, primordial pre-Twitter sort of way. Back when the media environment surrounding today’s “blockbuster” impeachment inquiry — driven by ideologies and algorithms that lock us into our various niches — was unimaginable; when all the demographic divisions the internet is surfacing today were less visible, tucked in the intimacy of private conversations. | |
| The local morning radio hosts on the Top 40 station WEZB in New Orleans talked about Mr. Trump’s new show for days. The “Tom Joyner Morning Show,” which has been syndicated on countless black radio stations for years, and which my dad listened to as he dropped me off at school and drove himself to work, chirped about the reality competition program as giddily as Katie Couric, who covered it on “The Today Show,” too. | The local morning radio hosts on the Top 40 station WEZB in New Orleans talked about Mr. Trump’s new show for days. The “Tom Joyner Morning Show,” which has been syndicated on countless black radio stations for years, and which my dad listened to as he dropped me off at school and drove himself to work, chirped about the reality competition program as giddily as Katie Couric, who covered it on “The Today Show,” too. |
| You couldn’t turn on NBC without seeing a promo. At the beginning, middle and end of each spot: a puffed up, perma-squinting Donald Trump. A guy, who — as I understood him then — was basically this rogue billionaire who’d decided it would be more fun to have his industry buddies film people fighting over the chance to work for him than to do whatever austere stuff the billionaires on CNBC did. | You couldn’t turn on NBC without seeing a promo. At the beginning, middle and end of each spot: a puffed up, perma-squinting Donald Trump. A guy, who — as I understood him then — was basically this rogue billionaire who’d decided it would be more fun to have his industry buddies film people fighting over the chance to work for him than to do whatever austere stuff the billionaires on CNBC did. |
| It seemed more droll a premise than any reality show we’d heard of before, so although my parents — “Law & Order” fans — were skeptical, they’d let us watch “The Apprentice” after dinner, out of their own curiosity if nothing else. (Mr. Trump’s horrific response to the Central Park Five case still vaguely lingered in our minds, but the idea, in the year of our Lord 2004, of boycotting a TV show because it had a problematic lead seemed unrealistic, and the bar for famous men’s behavior was admittedly low.) | It seemed more droll a premise than any reality show we’d heard of before, so although my parents — “Law & Order” fans — were skeptical, they’d let us watch “The Apprentice” after dinner, out of their own curiosity if nothing else. (Mr. Trump’s horrific response to the Central Park Five case still vaguely lingered in our minds, but the idea, in the year of our Lord 2004, of boycotting a TV show because it had a problematic lead seemed unrealistic, and the bar for famous men’s behavior was admittedly low.) |
| In a slapdash attempt to bridge Donald Trump as he seemed then — funny mean, not scary mean — with the man as he appears now, I found myself rewatching the first season of the series earlier this year. Even as I eye-rolled at the casual sexism of the men-versus-women teams and at the obviously canned intros, the unmilled, unscripted brashness of the rest of the program was still rib-tickling all these years later, in the undying way eavesdropping on a workplace argument stirs excitement. The commercial break cliffhangers just as heads were about to butt, as well as Mr. Trump’s encouragement of it (much like now in his White House), souped up the “stay tuned” allure. | In a slapdash attempt to bridge Donald Trump as he seemed then — funny mean, not scary mean — with the man as he appears now, I found myself rewatching the first season of the series earlier this year. Even as I eye-rolled at the casual sexism of the men-versus-women teams and at the obviously canned intros, the unmilled, unscripted brashness of the rest of the program was still rib-tickling all these years later, in the undying way eavesdropping on a workplace argument stirs excitement. The commercial break cliffhangers just as heads were about to butt, as well as Mr. Trump’s encouragement of it (much like now in his White House), souped up the “stay tuned” allure. |
| On a second look, however, the underlying engine of the show — which would become the underlying engine of his candidacy, his presidency and now, his impeachment — came from the clashing of candidates from “various backgrounds,” as Mr. Trump put it in the premiere. There was the frenemy dynamic between “Country Boy” Troy McClain, a white Montanan with only a high school degree, and the black Harvard-educated M.B.A., Kwame Jackson. Tammy Lee, a haughty Asian businesswoman, chafing at perceived slights from some of her equally self-satisfied, younger white teammates. And of course, there was the assertive Omarosa Manigault — whose future as a Trump White House adviser surpassed the ability of any crystal ball — tussling with just about everyone, comfortably filling the token role of Angry Black Woman the producers may have had in mind. | On a second look, however, the underlying engine of the show — which would become the underlying engine of his candidacy, his presidency and now, his impeachment — came from the clashing of candidates from “various backgrounds,” as Mr. Trump put it in the premiere. There was the frenemy dynamic between “Country Boy” Troy McClain, a white Montanan with only a high school degree, and the black Harvard-educated M.B.A., Kwame Jackson. Tammy Lee, a haughty Asian businesswoman, chafing at perceived slights from some of her equally self-satisfied, younger white teammates. And of course, there was the assertive Omarosa Manigault — whose future as a Trump White House adviser surpassed the ability of any crystal ball — tussling with just about everyone, comfortably filling the token role of Angry Black Woman the producers may have had in mind. |
| “Omarosa, I don’t know how anyone likes you, honestly,” Mr. Trump chirped in one boardroom scene, as he mulled over firing her with the same mix of insouciance and venom that he performs during press gaggles in the West Wing today. “Do you think Omarosa has class?” he asked her fellow contestants. | “Omarosa, I don’t know how anyone likes you, honestly,” Mr. Trump chirped in one boardroom scene, as he mulled over firing her with the same mix of insouciance and venom that he performs during press gaggles in the West Wing today. “Do you think Omarosa has class?” he asked her fellow contestants. |
| While the troubling gender dynamics of the show were always overt — with Mr. Trump, when he wasn’t nauseatingly inviting women up to his penthouse as a reward, alternately praising and shaming contestants for “using womanly charm” and “relying on your sexuality to win” — the class and racial tensions were more apparent, if indirect. | While the troubling gender dynamics of the show were always overt — with Mr. Trump, when he wasn’t nauseatingly inviting women up to his penthouse as a reward, alternately praising and shaming contestants for “using womanly charm” and “relying on your sexuality to win” — the class and racial tensions were more apparent, if indirect. |
| In one of the season’s final episodes, Mr. Trump pits Mr. McClain against Mr. Jackson, comparing Mr. McClain’s lack of education (despite his great “instincts and guts”) to Mr. Jackson’s Harvard degree. He ends up firing Mr. McClain. And as we would later learn, when Mr. Jackson lost in the finale to Bill Rancic, a cigar entrepreneur with Mad Men looks, Mr. Trump apparently took race directly into consideration. | In one of the season’s final episodes, Mr. Trump pits Mr. McClain against Mr. Jackson, comparing Mr. McClain’s lack of education (despite his great “instincts and guts”) to Mr. Jackson’s Harvard degree. He ends up firing Mr. McClain. And as we would later learn, when Mr. Jackson lost in the finale to Bill Rancic, a cigar entrepreneur with Mad Men looks, Mr. Trump apparently took race directly into consideration. |
| Michael Cohen, Mr. Trump’s now-jailed longtime confidant and fixer, spoke last year to Vanity Fair about Mr. Trump’s “back-and-forth about not picking Jackson.” In the end, according to Mr. Cohen, Mr. Trump said, “There’s no way I can let this black [expletive] win,” employing a homophobic slur. | Michael Cohen, Mr. Trump’s now-jailed longtime confidant and fixer, spoke last year to Vanity Fair about Mr. Trump’s “back-and-forth about not picking Jackson.” In the end, according to Mr. Cohen, Mr. Trump said, “There’s no way I can let this black [expletive] win,” employing a homophobic slur. |
| I talked to Mr. Jackson, who now leads inclusion and diversity work in the business world, to see whether he believed Mr. Cohen’s claim. “I don’t spend any time thinking about the veracity of Michael Cohen as a moral compass in my life,” Mr. Jackson said. But when asked whether he sensed some of those tribal dynamics at play when he was in the thick of the show, he responded: “Of course, that was the whole point. It was identity politics.” | I talked to Mr. Jackson, who now leads inclusion and diversity work in the business world, to see whether he believed Mr. Cohen’s claim. “I don’t spend any time thinking about the veracity of Michael Cohen as a moral compass in my life,” Mr. Jackson said. But when asked whether he sensed some of those tribal dynamics at play when he was in the thick of the show, he responded: “Of course, that was the whole point. It was identity politics.” |
| In his mind, producers cast him in the first place so that, “O.K., now we have an Ivy League black guy vs. a high-school-educated white guy. We’ll have a country girl vs. a city girl. A pretty woman vs. a plain looking guy — whatever.” | In his mind, producers cast him in the first place so that, “O.K., now we have an Ivy League black guy vs. a high-school-educated white guy. We’ll have a country girl vs. a city girl. A pretty woman vs. a plain looking guy — whatever.” |
| Mr. Trump once built on his “men vs. women” theme by testing the idea of a “black team vs. white team” season of the show. That reportedly failed with NBC executives, but in making the first reality business competition, it’s clear Mr. Trump and his producer Mark Burnett cleverly understood how office undercurrents — of who seems smart, like a leader and the right fit — were loaded questions with impassioned, deeply personal answers. | Mr. Trump once built on his “men vs. women” theme by testing the idea of a “black team vs. white team” season of the show. That reportedly failed with NBC executives, but in making the first reality business competition, it’s clear Mr. Trump and his producer Mark Burnett cleverly understood how office undercurrents — of who seems smart, like a leader and the right fit — were loaded questions with impassioned, deeply personal answers. |
| Tribalism is definitely unhealthy. It is also effective, and entertaining. | Tribalism is definitely unhealthy. It is also effective, and entertaining. |
| People forget that crowds gathered for “Apprentice” watch parties in bars. The show’s first season was a smash, averaging over 20 million viewers. (By comparison, the season eight premiere of “Game of Thrones,” this era’s cultural juggernaut, had 17.4 million viewers across all platforms.) There have long been two ways of absorbing Donald Trump’s presence: seriously but not literally, as has often been said. Or with holier-than-thou irony — the way his fans eagerly watch his exploits and the way A-listers, like the magazine editor Tina Brown, invited him over to play a sort of court jester at their parties. (He’s a “con man, but fun to listen to,” Ms. Brown explained.) | People forget that crowds gathered for “Apprentice” watch parties in bars. The show’s first season was a smash, averaging over 20 million viewers. (By comparison, the season eight premiere of “Game of Thrones,” this era’s cultural juggernaut, had 17.4 million viewers across all platforms.) There have long been two ways of absorbing Donald Trump’s presence: seriously but not literally, as has often been said. Or with holier-than-thou irony — the way his fans eagerly watch his exploits and the way A-listers, like the magazine editor Tina Brown, invited him over to play a sort of court jester at their parties. (He’s a “con man, but fun to listen to,” Ms. Brown explained.) |
| My family thought it was in on the joke. But after watching a few episodes, I’m not so sure we didn’t end up invested. I could see how my father identified with Mr. Jackson’s unspoken but visible feeling that he had to play down his insight in order to not come off as an uppity minority. I could sense how my mother, who sniffed at reality TV as a rule, found herself annoyed by Ms. Manigault yet also had a begrudging soft spot for her — something I can’t decouple from her own effort to overcome workplace bias against women of color. | My family thought it was in on the joke. But after watching a few episodes, I’m not so sure we didn’t end up invested. I could see how my father identified with Mr. Jackson’s unspoken but visible feeling that he had to play down his insight in order to not come off as an uppity minority. I could sense how my mother, who sniffed at reality TV as a rule, found herself annoyed by Ms. Manigault yet also had a begrudging soft spot for her — something I can’t decouple from her own effort to overcome workplace bias against women of color. |
| And despite my innocence, I was civically sentient enough to understand that Mr. Trump and his producers must have known there was an entire cross-section of other households across America that probably had a soft spot for the contestant Jessie Conners, an earnest young white woman from Wisconsin who’d carved out a managerial position for herself. Or others that perhaps cheered for Mr. McClain. (Mr. Trump himself would later state, “Guys like Troy are what make America great.”) | And despite my innocence, I was civically sentient enough to understand that Mr. Trump and his producers must have known there was an entire cross-section of other households across America that probably had a soft spot for the contestant Jessie Conners, an earnest young white woman from Wisconsin who’d carved out a managerial position for herself. Or others that perhaps cheered for Mr. McClain. (Mr. Trump himself would later state, “Guys like Troy are what make America great.”) |
| Donald Trump is someone who “got that everybody plays identity politics, not just people of color,” said Mr. Jackson. While he told me production editing had “a lot to do with it,” he argued people who now find it comforting to think of Mr. Trump as a puppet deny his “diabolical genius” for starting fights. “I think that’s how he got elected, by doing the same thing,” he said, with the timbre of a shrug. | Donald Trump is someone who “got that everybody plays identity politics, not just people of color,” said Mr. Jackson. While he told me production editing had “a lot to do with it,” he argued people who now find it comforting to think of Mr. Trump as a puppet deny his “diabolical genius” for starting fights. “I think that’s how he got elected, by doing the same thing,” he said, with the timbre of a shrug. |
| As we spoke, I couldn’t help but think that many voters seemed at the end of the 2016 campaign to have chosen Mr. Trump for few of the technical reasons I find myself poring over as a journalist but more in the way my family and many others rooted for “Apprentice” contestants. In the way, at least partly, we’ve elected presidents for ages. | As we spoke, I couldn’t help but think that many voters seemed at the end of the 2016 campaign to have chosen Mr. Trump for few of the technical reasons I find myself poring over as a journalist but more in the way my family and many others rooted for “Apprentice” contestants. In the way, at least partly, we’ve elected presidents for ages. |
| As a broad, “Apprentice”-sized field of Democrats fight for their party’s presidential nomination, it looks as though the major candidates have bought into a gentler version of Mr. Trump’s identitarian worldview — that when push comes to shove you’re more likely to root for “your kind,” whatever that is. | As a broad, “Apprentice”-sized field of Democrats fight for their party’s presidential nomination, it looks as though the major candidates have bought into a gentler version of Mr. Trump’s identitarian worldview — that when push comes to shove you’re more likely to root for “your kind,” whatever that is. |
| While they are all clear foils to Mr. Trump’s nativism and policy apathy, they all seem to have hyper-strategized their brands to either subtly or explicitly make identity appeals to sections within their party coalition, which has more mini factions than a college friends group text. | While they are all clear foils to Mr. Trump’s nativism and policy apathy, they all seem to have hyper-strategized their brands to either subtly or explicitly make identity appeals to sections within their party coalition, which has more mini factions than a college friends group text. |
| Senator Elizabeth Warren, for instance, surely has a deep, if quiet, hope that her humble Oklahoman roots can help her earn the trust of whites in the heartland just as much as Senator Kamala Harris more openly plans to rely on the party’s base of women of color to regenerate her candidacy. | Senator Elizabeth Warren, for instance, surely has a deep, if quiet, hope that her humble Oklahoman roots can help her earn the trust of whites in the heartland just as much as Senator Kamala Harris more openly plans to rely on the party’s base of women of color to regenerate her candidacy. |
| They’ll both silently hope that the nagging reputation of “Bernie Bros” hurts Senator Bernie Sanders when the primaries get snippier. And there are the untold number of voters who, like my father, say they are leaning toward Joe Biden not because he’s their favorite but because they’ve calculated older white men will feel less threatened by the former vice president than a woman, a person of color or a gay man. | They’ll both silently hope that the nagging reputation of “Bernie Bros” hurts Senator Bernie Sanders when the primaries get snippier. And there are the untold number of voters who, like my father, say they are leaning toward Joe Biden not because he’s their favorite but because they’ve calculated older white men will feel less threatened by the former vice president than a woman, a person of color or a gay man. |
| That the same Pavlovian tool kit of something so harmlessly tacky as “The Apprentice” would 15 years later be the lifeblood of its host’s dark, racist movement — as well as the organizing principle of those hoping to dethrone him — is a chilling distillation of the recursive trap America seems to be in. | That the same Pavlovian tool kit of something so harmlessly tacky as “The Apprentice” would 15 years later be the lifeblood of its host’s dark, racist movement — as well as the organizing principle of those hoping to dethrone him — is a chilling distillation of the recursive trap America seems to be in. |
| Mr. Jackson said the difference between Mr. Trump now and when he was on the show is that back then, “there was smoke” — housing discrimination, his public hatred of the Central Park Five — “but there was no raging fire.” Now, despite the raging fires of “Lock her up,” “Send her back,” the Muslim ban, the impeachment inquiry and much more, recent polls find the president in a relatively enviable position in battleground states, where he may have a greater demographic advantage in 2020 than in 2016. | Mr. Jackson said the difference between Mr. Trump now and when he was on the show is that back then, “there was smoke” — housing discrimination, his public hatred of the Central Park Five — “but there was no raging fire.” Now, despite the raging fires of “Lock her up,” “Send her back,” the Muslim ban, the impeachment inquiry and much more, recent polls find the president in a relatively enviable position in battleground states, where he may have a greater demographic advantage in 2020 than in 2016. |
| 55 percent of Republicans for whom Fox News is their primary news source told pollsters there is nothing Mr. Trump could do to lose their approval. And another poll found, “The overwhelming majority of Americans across both parties say nothing they hear in the impeachment inquiry will change their minds.” The president has long grasped that little of this fight is about principles or the republic; that there are Republicans who can’t stand that he tweets and acts so odiously but who can’t stand Speaker Nancy Pelosi or Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and “The Squad” even more. Republicans who’d rather back Mr. Trump than let that other team, those other people, win. | 55 percent of Republicans for whom Fox News is their primary news source told pollsters there is nothing Mr. Trump could do to lose their approval. And another poll found, “The overwhelming majority of Americans across both parties say nothing they hear in the impeachment inquiry will change their minds.” The president has long grasped that little of this fight is about principles or the republic; that there are Republicans who can’t stand that he tweets and acts so odiously but who can’t stand Speaker Nancy Pelosi or Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and “The Squad” even more. Republicans who’d rather back Mr. Trump than let that other team, those other people, win. |
| So it makes some sense that the president seems unbothered that half of the eyeballs now fixed on him are filled with repulsion instead of fascination. Booing or cheering, we’re all stuck with him for now, reacting to the latest episode: Televised impeachment hearings that he has promptly folded right back into the culture war, starring him. | So it makes some sense that the president seems unbothered that half of the eyeballs now fixed on him are filled with repulsion instead of fascination. Booing or cheering, we’re all stuck with him for now, reacting to the latest episode: Televised impeachment hearings that he has promptly folded right back into the culture war, starring him. |
| Talmon Joseph Smith (@talmonsmith) is on the editorial staff of the Opinion section. | Talmon Joseph Smith (@talmonsmith) is on the editorial staff of the Opinion section. |
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