Donald Trump maintained that he won't let his television show conflict with his presidency.
Highlights
- US President-Elect Donald Trump said CNN reports about his show untrue
- Mr Trump remains an executive producer on the show, 'The Apprentice'
- Trump's spokeswoman, said on CNN Trump's ties to his show being reviewed
Donald Trump is tweeting about television again - this time accusing CNN of reporting "ridiculous" fake news and asserting that he won't let his television show conflict with his presidency.
Trump's Saturday morning tweets follow an announcement by Mark Burnett, the creator of "The Apprentice," that the president-elect remains an executive producer on the show.
Trump's spokeswoman, Kellyanne Conway, said on CNN Friday that Trump's ties to his reality show are being reviewed for potential conflicts of interest. She compared Trump's continued interest in the entertainment industry to President Barack Obama's off-hours golfing.
At 6:28 am, the president-elect tweeted that he has
Ten minutes later, he tweeted again, saying that
On Thursday, a spokeswoman for "Apprentice" creator Mark Burnett confirmed that Trump remains an executive producer on the latest edition of the long-running "Apprentice" franchise. The eight episodes ordered by NBC from MGM, where Burnett is president of its TV and digital group, were taped last February.
Trump's continued profit from a TV series is yet another unprecedented aspect of the election of a businessman and reality star to the presidency, with questions raised about how his holdings may intersect with his presidential decisions. The extent of his involvement with "Apprentice" is unclear, including how much he earns from it. The show last aired in 2015, and with Trump starring.
"Presidents have a right to do things in their spare time, in their leisure time, and nobody objects to that," she said.
Tyra Banks, an adviser on the series, said Friday she had just learned of Trump's producer status "so I'm still processing."
TV personality Carrie Keagan, one of the contestants, said the show belongs to a different boss now.
"It's a brand-new show," she said. "It's an Arnold Schwarzenegger show now. It's his brand. There was no talk of anything else when we started the show. And hopefully there will be no more talk of anything else after."