Amazon introduced on Monday that it’ll start streaming previous episodes of “The Apprentice,” the fact competitors present that helped President Donald Trump promote himself as a nationwide determine earlier than turning into a politician.
This transfer is the most recent in a sequence of pro-Trump choices by Amazon proprietor Jeff Bezos, who has not too long ago pivoted his firms and private wealth to learn Trump and the Republican Celebration.
“I look forward to watching this show myself—such great memories, and so much fun, but most importantly, it was a learning experience for all of us!” Trump stated in a press launch.
After years of Trump enterprise failures—together with a shuttered on line casino, airline, and steak firm—“The Apprentice” created a mythological picture of Trump as a profitable businessman whereas additionally making him tens of millions, permitting him an escape from his monetary quagmire.
The choice to stream the present now, and certain present a monetary pipeline to the president, highlights the rising relationship between Bezos and Trump.
Because the announcement broke, longtime Washington Publish columnist Ruth Marcus introduced that she is leaving the paper in response to Bezos’ current resolution to pivot the opinion part to the suitable.
“Jeff’s announcement that the opinion section will henceforth not publish views that deviate from the pillars of individual liberties and free markets threatens to break the trust of readers that columnists are writing what they believe, not what the owner has deemed acceptable,” she wrote in her resignation letter.
Marcus had been with the paper for greater than 4 a long time.
Equally, in accordance with NPR, greater than 75,000 of the Publish’s digital subscribers canceled their subscriptions after Bezos introduced in February that it could now not publish items from throughout the ideological spectrum.
Marcus advised NPR that Will Lewis, opinion editor of the Publish, had spiked a column of hers as a result of it dissented from “Jeff’s edict.”
And at Bezos’ behest, the Publish additionally spiked an endorsement of former Vice President Kamala Harris forward of the 2024 election.
Different monetary ties to Trump embrace Amazon’s $40 million deal to provide a Melania Trump documentary and Bezos’ private contribution to Trump’s inauguration, which he attended in January.
Bezos—together with DOGE bro Elon Musk and Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg—is among the many most distinguished of the rich media and tech oligarchs providing up their providers to Trump in the previous few months … at the same time as Trump claims to battle for the center class.