‘He Said It With a Straight Face’: Trump Biographer Says Ex-President Told Him Ratings Are ‘My Whole Life’

Former President Donald Trump told the author of a new biography about him that ratings “are his whole life” – more so than actually governing.

Variety Co-Editor Ramin Setoodeh appeared on Tuesday’s All In on MSNBC, where he shared what he learned from the expansive access Trump gave him after leaving the presidency in 2021.

Setoodeh told host Chris Hayes that people would be surprised at “how little [Trump] actually cares about governing” and that “he’s only interested in show business.”

Hayes then read from the book, Apprentice in Wonderland :

Trump is looking at a page from the Nielsen ratings published in a 2004 issue of Variety … from the week after the airing of The Apprentice’s first-season finale. It’s framed and bolted to the wall… something that seems to carry as much value to him as the U.S. Constitution, if not more… This sheet of paper comes from an America where The Apprentice was, if only for a single week, the No. 1 show… “This is my whole life,” Trump says.

Setoodeh responded with some additional context:

And he said it with a straight face, and he meant it. And this is a former president of the United States looking back on Nielsen ratings from 20 years ago that he has framed not only in his office in Trump Tower, but when I visited him in Mar-a-Lago, there’s also a copy of the Nielsen ratings framed there. Ratings are what drives him. Audience is what is important to him.

Hayes asked Setoodeh why The Apprentice succeeded in building a mythology around Trump.

“It worked because he was funny on TV and he would say crazy things and be rewarded because on reality TV, the more outrageous you are, the better you do,” the author replied.

This week, Mediaite’s Diana Falzone interviewed Setoodeh, who said Trump “would be a much happier person” if he had never gotten into politics.

Watch above via MSNBC.