For months, rumors swirled that Donald Trump and The Voice and Survivor producer Mark Burnett might collaborate on a new television show after the ex-president left office. Burnett is responsible for developing and recruiting Trump for the popular reality show, The Apprentice. It could be argued that Burnett made Trump’s presidency possible by creating a persona of a smart, competent businessman who took charge and took responsibility.
For those who don’t welcome Trump back on their TVs (or even on their movie theater screens), there is good news. Trump has resigned from the actors union SAG-AFTRA. This came after the union announced last month that it would move to expel him for his role in the attack on the United States Capitol.
So basically YOU CAN’T FIRE ME I QUIT! The letter he sent to the Union is really…something.
Ms. Carteris:
I write to you today regarding the so-called Disciplinary Committee hearing aimed at revoking my union membership. Who cares!
While I’m not familiar with your work, I’m very proud of my work on movies such as Home Alone 2, Zoolander and Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps; and television shows including The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Saturday Night Live, and of course, one of the most successful shows in television history, The Apprentice – to name just a few!
I’ve also greatly helped the cable news television business (said to be a dying platform with not much time left until I got involved in politics), and created thousands of jobs at networks such as MSDNC and Fake News CNN, among many others.
Which brings me to your blatant attempt at free media attention to distract from your dismal record as a union. Your organization has done little for its members, and nothing for me – besides collecting dues and promoting dangerous un-American policies and ideas – as evident by your massive unemployment rates and lawsuits from celebrated actors, who even recorded a video asking, “Why isn’t the union fighting for me?”
These, however, are policy failures. Your disciplinary failures are even more egregious.
I no longer wish to be associated with your union.
As such, this letter is to inform you of my immediate resignation from SAG-AFTRA. You have done nothing for me.
Regards,
President Donald J. Trump
YOU HAVE DONE NOTHING FOR ME, Trump says, while stomping his feet (and waving his tiny, tiny hands).
In response, the union said simply: “Thank you.”
SAG-AFTRA president Gabrielle Carteris initiated charges against Trump through the union’s disciplinary process, arguing that he had promoted misinformation that led to the Jan. 6 attack. She also noted that the assault on the Capitol had endangered journalists, some of whom are SAG-AFTRA members.
“Donald Trump attacked the values that this union holds most sacred — democracy, truth, respect for our fellow Americans of all races and faiths, and the sanctity of the free press,” Carteris said in a statement last month. “There’s a straight line from his wanton disregard for the truth to the attacks on journalists perpetrated by his followers.”
The next step would have been to send charges to a disciplinary committee hearing, which could have ordered an expulsion.
